Seeing Grey

Well seeing as it's a cloudy night, I thought I'd do post as I can't watch the stars :(

The worse thing about this hobby is that it is so reliant on the great British weather, which generally isn't up too much and never does as you want.

I was all geared up to watch Meteors on Monday, until I went outside and discovered the clear sky we'd had all day was gone, and a blanket of cloud had descended.

Fortunately we were very lucky last night. The evening sky was clearer than I'd ever seen it before. And all of a sudden new constellations appeared to us before our eyes!

We spotted for the first time Aquila and Delphinus, which I think definitely has to be one of my favourites so far. So true to its name, you really can see a Dolphin jumping about in the sky! 🐬

It was also the first time we were able to properly make out Hercules and Draco, which obviously came in very useful for spotting Meteors.

I think I spotted about 3 or 4. Which was exciting, but I must admit was expecting a few more. So fingers crossed for the Orionids later this month.

Here's hoping for clearer skies in the next few days. 🎇

Meteor Shower

Don't forget tonight is the best night for viewing the Draco Meteor Shower. The Meteors should be visible in the North West of the sky. From what I've read, if you find the North star and the 'W' of Cassiopeia they should coming down from that direction. The Draco constellation is just below this.

More Photos

As promised here are the photos I've taken so far. Ok, they are not like the ones you get in the book, but considering the equipment I'm using (fujifilm finepix S2500, which is I suppose just a little more than a point and click) how far away these subjects are, and how dark it is. I'm pretty pleased :)

The Moon (incase its not obvious ;) )

                                                                       

Jupiter

Venus

The night sky!

Astro Photography

This is one of my best first attempts at Astro photography. Here you can see the moon, with Jupiter on the right. Betelgeuse, the red giant, down at about 5 o'clock from the moon, and Bellatrix another of Orion's Stars  to the right of that.

More photos to come when I finish sorting them.

First Morning Stars

Although I've always been interested in the stars. It's not really been an active hobby I've ever pursued, just something I've never really put the effort into.

That's was until a couple of months ago. There was a meteor shower, and although we missed it, it has managed to spark the interest in both myself and my boyfriend to get into Astronomy properly.

Since then we've been watching the wonderful Brian Cox Wonders collections, downloading stargazing apps, and borrowing telescopes and binoculars.

On a clear night we've been out sky watching, sometimes deep into the night and discovered many 'new' objects.

So far we have:
°Observed the moon in great detail.
°Learned basic constellations like Cassiopeia, Pegasus and Ursa Major.
°Pinpointed seasonal references like the Summer Triangle of Deneb, Altair and Vega.
°Named our first star Padza via staracle (a combination of both our names)
°Spotted our first planets Neptune and Jupiter (something we's always just presumed were bright stars!)
°And more recently spotted our first Galaxy (M31 or Andromeda).

Today was a special session, our first early morning viewing. We got up at 5:30 am to view the stars from a different angle!

It was amazing to see the sky so clear, with so many more stars visible compared to evening viewing. It was a bit confusing at first to see the sky in a completely different pattern to what we're used to. But once we got our bearings we were able to see lots.

We saw Venus for the first time. Also a first sighting of the Orion constellation, and within it our first Nebula, and the red giant Betelgeuse.

I also saw what I think was my first meteor sighting in the Draco constellation. :) Very exciting.

Hopefully I'm going to post some of my photos later.

Now I'm wishing the day away until it gets dark again!

Welcome to my Stargazing Blog

Well I have some other blogs on the go, but I have created this one to follow my latest hobby, Astromony.
Hopefully I will be posting photos and keeping you up to date with what I've been seeing.