Astronomy

[EJG1980]

I've never looked at it before so I have no idea how easy it is to see. I checked where it is and, annoyingly, it's just below the left most star (Alnitak) in the belt of Orion. All the times I've looked at Orion's Nebula and I never realised I just needed to move slightly up and to the left and I'd have seen the Horsehead Nebula too!

You'll have to hurry to see it though, the constellation of Orion it pretty low in the sky now when it gets dark. It's going to be well below the horizon when I'm under the dark skies of Exmoor next month, which is a shame. Oh well, I'm sure there will be one or two other things I can look at instead

[Charlie]

Beautiful shot of the moon.

[yesteryeargames]

Found this at the car boot for ?20 works just fine, a nice grab and go scope for my setup and i have the possibility of adding a cheap tracking motor for some photography.

[yesteryeargames]

Managed to see 3 planets all close together, Left Jupiter top Mercury and bottorm right Venus


also this amazing red / oragne moon has been around
the past 2 nights,

[EJG1980]

Nice pics and a good find with that telescope. Always nice to find a cheap bit of astronomical equipment, why does everything I like the look of always have to be expensive?

Been a poor year for astronomy for me, I've been able to get outside observing far less than the previous two years. Only had one clear night when we went to Exmoor National Park in May too (it looked bloody good when it was clear though).

Hopefully the second half of the year will have an upturn in stargazing fortunes. Clear nights on Fridays and Saturdays would be a big help!

[Darwock]

The orange moon means a lunar eclipse right? i.e if you were standing on the moon the sun would be setting behind the earth. Last one visible from here in Japan was a few days before my daughter was born, we had a few moon related names lined up just in case she arrived when it happened

[Charlie]

The brightest moon of the year or 'super moon' will be on display tomorrow and Sunday. Here's hoping the the weather is favourable.

[EJG1980]

I'm gonna try and get some photos and a bit of video too. Although if the weather is like tonight then it'll just be photos and video of clouds with a very bright glow behind them

[Super Grover]

'Wish you were here'?

Don't think you'll be saying that after visiting planet HD 189733b.

Unless you like 4,500 mile per hour winds .... and glass rain!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/11/4514196/blue-planet-rains-glass-uncovered-nasa-hubble

[EJG1980]

Not just bog standard glass rain either, sideways glass rain!

This isn't my photo (alas) but thought it was cool. It's the international space station transiting the moon:



Nabbed it from here.

[Charlie]

Wicked picture.

The year's most prolific meteor shower, the Perseids, has been on sight for a good couple of weeks now. It can be a spectacular sight, not only because of their numbers , but because many of them are of the fireball variety. Peaks on the 11th and 12th August.

[Charlie]

Stayed up 'til 4am lying in the back garden on my sun lounger looking at the Perseids last night. Was quite a show, I saw one meteor every 3 minutes I reckon. But not a single fireball. Saw a few bats though, and a couple of owls.

[yesteryeargames]

Good stuff

I stayed up and saw some really impressive fireballs over the weekend, on Sunday spotted around 30 normal small meteors , 5 which were mega impressive fireballs that streaked across half of the sky , best I've ever seen

I heard something on the news last night there's a new Nova which has just been spotted , http://www.space.com/22389-nova-star...discovery.html


Going to try and look for it tonight

[MisterBubbles]

Hopefully i'll see some tonight. Going to the astronomical society in Augsburg here in Germany for the first time. Met these guys at the botantic gardens in Augsburg where they do free observing sessions to the public in the summer. Two of the guys had homemade scopes which where amazing, a 18 inch and and 8 inch, so hoping for some great weather and to see maybe a few deep sky objects.

[EJG1980]

It's been cloudy overhead each time I've tried to look, no luck so far! Starting to get darker a bit earlier now, so of course, the clouds start showing up.

Hope the weather is good for you Mr. Bubbles, that 18 inch telescope must be a hefty beast! Would love to have a look through some telescopes that big.