Sheridan Williams FRAS spoke about Eclipses and his travelogue to India for an eclipse convention and to observe a Lunar Eclipse last year.

A very interesting and entertaining evening.
Lunar Eclipse image montage taken by Dave Eagle.

I also tried taking a CCD image of the Whale Galaxy that night as well, but it turned out to be awful, so unfortunately I won’t be publishing that!

Dave

Here’s a close up of the active region:
Success!!! Yes!!!

Dave

The MIRI “first light” instrument built by Astrium in Stevenage, Hertfordshire is all ready to ship to the US.

This instrument plays a crucial role in detecting what could be the first starlight in the universe for the Jame Webb Telescope due for launch in 2018.

Congratulations to all the team for an excellent job.

More Details here on the BBC New Pages

Dave

It looks like this weekend MIGHT be clear though!

With the Moon now well out of the way, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.

So which side of the fence do you stand?
Apple Mac or a PC user?

But which is better?

I think it’s all a case of snobbery on both sides.
As someone who stands in both camps, having to learn Apple Mac to support work colleagues, I can see the benefits and drawbacks of both types of machines. Pay the same as a Mac for a top spec PC and you will definitely have a like-for-like performance.

Yes, they both do more or less the same thing, but in different ways.

You do pay more for a Mac, and repair costs are also correspondingly higher. But they are very nice machines.
A PC might cost a bit less, and repairs are much easier and cheaper, and there are more of them about, which makes them more of a target for virus attacks etc (although Mac’s aren’t entirely immune these days).

Switching over to a Mac can be expensive as much of the software you use routinely, may not be compatible, so you might have to buy replacement software suitable to run on the Mac.

The operating systems are very different and you will need to learn a whole new way of working, so it can be hard work for a while until you get used to that way of working.

Whatever your allegiance, as long as your Laptop, or desktop does what you need and doesn’t let you down too often, then whatever you use, I hope you have long and trouble-free computing.

If not give me a call: www.eagleseye.co.uk

Dave

All graphics for all the events below are included in the enlarged Sky Diary PDF file downloaded from here.

For a small printable Sky Diary, click here.

For up to date news and events, keep Bang up to date on my Blog:

Eagleseye Astronomy Blog.

Any questions, comments or have I made a mistake?

E Mail me: (Dave@eagleseye.co.uk).

I always try and keep this page as up to date as I can, so keep visiting regularly for the latest information.

Sky condition prediction for Higham Ferrers.

ALL TIMES Universal Time BST Unless stated.

The Stars (22:00h on the 1st, 21:00h on the 15th and 20:00h on the 31st of the month).

The tail of Ursa Major and the bright double star Mizar and Alcor lies at the zenith. Below Ursa Major lies Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices which contain a multitude of galaxies, both bright and faint. This area of sky has rich pickings for the patient observer who takes time to find their way around. Low in the southern sky, the small constellations of Corvus and Crater ride on the back of Hydra. Low in the northern sky Andromeda is just poking above the horizon and Perseus is extremely low. In the western sky Gemini, Canis Minor and Auriga are all close to setting. Rising in the eastern sky is the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair, in the constellations of Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila respectively. This heralds the onset of summer along with the lack of dark observing night skies.

Moon phase calendar above generated using Graphdark By Richard Fleet.

Click here to download.

Full – 6th.
Last Qtr. – 12th.
New – 20th.
First Qtr. – 28th.

As an aid to identifying the planets and stars, the Moon will be close to:

Saturn on the 4th & 31st.
Venus on the 22nd.
Mars on the 28th & 29th.

The Planets.

Mercury

Reaches superior Conjunction on the 27th, so is not likely to be seen this month.

Venus

Still visible in the western sky after sunset shining like a beacon at magnitude -4.3 between the horns of Taurus. The planet is getting distinctly bigger in a scope and the phase is a thick crescent.

Mars

Mars 27th March 2012 – Dave Eagle.

Still located below the body of Leo and visible all evening. The Red Planets disk is now getting much smaller as the distance from Earth increases, making it quite difficult to see surface features.

Jupiter

Reaches conjunction with the Sun on the 13th, so will not be seen this month..

Saturn

Just past opposition the beautiful ringed planet is visible all evening in Virgo. The rings are tilted towards Earth by 10 degrees, so makes a fabulous sight even through a small telescope..

Uranus & Neptune
Now starting to appear in the morning eastern sky, but still too low in the sky to be seen properly.

Meteor Showers
The Eta Aquarids and Alpha Scorpiids are active this month, but rates are low and observing unfavourable from these latitudes.

Comet Garradd (2009/P1)
Currently moving southwards from Lynx to Cancer. Has now faded to about 8th magnitude.

Click on Map for detailed view.

Juno
Reaches opposition on the 20th of the month in the constellation of Serpens Caput. At magnitude 10.2 it will be visible in a small telescope as a small star-like object..

The Sun
A new solar cycle is now well under way, and the Sun has had a recent flurry of sunspot activity with some nice large spots groups now appearing regularly.

There have also been some auroral activity so keep a look out towards the northern sky for colours.

There have also been some large prominences visible from time to time and some quite active flare regions. So if you have access to a Ha solar scope, take a look.

Click here for latest news.

All graphics for all the events below are in the enlarged PDF file here.

All times UT (GMT) Unless otherwise stated.

Thank you for visiting my site, I hope you have found it of interest.

If you have please Like me.

If you have, or even if you have not liked me, please let me know so I can improve: dave@eagleseye.co.uk

Dave Eagle

Eagles Eye On The Sky.

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Northampton natural History Society
A free-for all, where some of us showed off their pictures taken over the past few months, or activities they have taken part in, astronomical, of course.

Once again a great meeting. Good to see some people doing a bit more imaging.
Nice one guys.

Here’s to another meeting on the 14th of May when Sheridan Williams will be telling us about his trip to observe the Eclipse from India in 2011.

As well as building cameras for the James Web telescope, Astrium, based in Stevenage has been named as lead developer of the Solar Orbiter (SolO).
This is a spacecraft that will travel closer to the Sun than any satellite to date and study our nearest star in unprecedented detail.

It will approach the Sun as close as 42 million km.

More details on the BBC Web site: HERE

Dave

How many times has an E Mail landed in your inbox reportedly from your bank, Paypal, eBay or some other provider telling you to click on a link?

Hopefully, I don’t need to tell you that clicking on these links won’t take you to the Web pages you are expecting, but will usually take you to site that are written to resemble the bank or other site and lull you into entering your user name and password.

Once you have done this, the person or people who run that site will have access to your accounts.

If you receive any E Mails you really aren’t sure about, best you don’t open them.
If you do open one, what do you look for to try and work out if it is a Phishing E Mail?

As per usual, Common sense really does rule here.
Are there silly spelling mistakes?
Was the E Mail addressed solely to you, using your correct E Mail address?

Keep an eye out beacause it is so easy to be caught out and lulled into a false sense of security.

www.eagleseye.co.uk