see a comet this week!

Comet Garradd has been creeping through the inner solar system over the last few months, and its orbit has brought it close enough to the Earth to see with binoculars. You won't see much more than a pale smudge of light, but it is so easy to find over the next few nights that you really ought to give it a go.



For the next few days, the comet is very near the star beta Ursa minoris (Kochab), which is itself not far from the pole star. Use the star map on this blogsite to find your way to it.

Other interesting pictures from last night

I thought you might find this picture interesting - it was taken at about 1920 GMT from the old Penn House carpark, with the trees along the railwayline in the foreground. If you look carefully you will see that the crescent Moon clearly shows the "dark part" in a pale grey light. This is called ashen light, and it is caused by light reflecting from the Earth, in this case the afternoon sunshine bouncing up off the Atlantic ocean. Ashen light is visible fairly often, and sometimes seems to have different colours. Some observers suggest that the place where the light is bouncing up from has an effect - orange ashen light when the Sahara is the light cource, and green light when forested areas are involved. Someone living on the Moon would experience ashen light the same way that we appreciate a moonlit landscape here on Earth.

In this long-exposure shot, you can see a pale trail disappearing into the side of Constantine House. This is the International Space Station, which made a wonderful display as it passed between Venus and Jupiter just before 1930 GMT. You get the trail as the object moves while the camera shutter is open. You can get predictions for ISS flyovers from the Heavens Above website - there are usually a few every day, so have a look out for the best (brightest) ones.

Finally, trying out Bootham's excellent Nikon D700  teamed up with a 300mm zoom lens, I was able to snap this neat little shot of the Pleiades. I am so excited by the possibilities of this camera that I will be ordering some DSLR astrophotography guides for the obervatory this week. I hope that we will be able to get members of the school observatory experimenting with their own pictures soon.

The stars are elongated into short lines because the Earth had time to rotate slightly during the exposure, dragging the stars westwards across the sky.

I'm sure we can get better than this!

I'll be the first to admit that I am a very poorly informed photographer, so I hope that a follower of this site will send me something better. However, this shot of the Moon and Venus sailing over the JB library at Bootham was fun and easy to take, despite the cold! I'll have another go tomorrow, if the clear skies hold out.

Watch out for a big show this weekend!

If the sky is clear on Saturday this weekend, look into the western sky as the twlight gathers. Jupiter, Venus and the Moon will be close togther in a magnificent display that's actually quite rare. The closeness of all three objects will bring them into focus at the centre of your eye, where you are at your most sensitive, and the view should be really good. I would love to receive any pictures you manage to take - they can go on this blogsite! Notice Mercury down at the bottom of the view too - that'll be hard to spot! Sunday will be good too, so don't worry if you don't manage to see anything on the Saturday.

New books you may find of interest

I have bought some books for the observatory library, and you are welcome to borrow these if you are planning to do some observing on your own during the holidays. They are

"The Practical Astronomer", by W. Gater and A. Vamplew.
"Stargazing Basics", by P. Kinzer.
"Astronomy Manual", by J. Green
"Observing the Night Sky with Binoculars" by S O'Meara
"Exploring the solar System with Binoculars" by S O'Meara.

all of them are aimed at getting a complete beginner into confident, practical astronomy as smoothly as possible. Happy reading!