Put the DMK camera through its paces. Tried the galaxies in the Leo Triplet M66 and M65.

M65 & Supernova 2013am.

M66.

Towards the end of the night Saturn was in clear skies, well away from the neighbours interfering turbulence from their house, so it just had to be done.

Finally packed up at half 1.

Dave

The camera gave up the ghost. I put on a friends CCD camera and started taking images.
Then that decided to stop downloading images as well. So I only got a five images in the bag.

But here’s the result. At least I got something.

Looks like Saturday night will be clear, so I will sort the camera out and have another go tomorrow…

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.

What’s up in The Night Sky for the month ahead.

Any questions, comments or have I made a mistake? E Mail me: (Dave@eagleseye.co.uk)

For the latest news and events, more details, keep (BIG) Bang up to date on my Blog: 
Eagleseye Astronomy Blog.

COMET PANSTARRS C/2011 L4 – Now continuing its journey northwards and now circumpolar. Passing the tip of Cepheus mid-month then passes close to Polaris by the end of the month.

Map showing the path of the comet throughout May.

Comet LEMMON C/2012 F6 - Moving steadily northwards to the east of The Square of Pegasus. It was showing a bright green in the southern hemisphere, but is fading as it travels northwards.

Map showing the path of the comet throughout May.

Sky condition prediction for Higham Ferrers.

ALL TIMES Universal Time (UT) Unless stated.

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

The January Sky.

At this time of year the Milky Way straddles the horizon from west to east, passing through north. It is therefore low down and hard to see, especially in the bright twilight. This means that we are looking straight out of the galaxy into deep inter-galactic space. High overhead is Ursa Major. Lower in the southern sky is Coma Berenices, marked by the open cluster Mellotte 111. Scan in this area of sky to find the many faint galaxies that abound in this area. Lower in the south extends the body of Hydra, its body slithering across the sky. Riding on its back are Crater, the Cup and Corvus, the Crow. In the western sky Gemini and Auriga are close to setting. Over in the east Serpens, Ophiuchus and Cygnus are now starting to rise. Jupiter is now low down in the north west, but to make up for its imminent disappearance, Saturn is just rising in the south eastern sky.

The Moon and its phases this month.

Last Qtr. – 2nd & 31st.
New – 10th.
First Qtr. – 18th.
Full – 25th.

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

Mercury on the 9th.
Venus on the 11th.
Jupiter on the 12th.
Spica & Saturn on the 22nd.

The Planets.

Mercury

Reaches superior conjunction on the 11th, but quickly moves away from the Sun and into the evening sky. It will be visible in the western evening sky towards the end of the month making a nice trio with Venus & Jupiter low in the evening twilight.

Venus

Now starting to appear in the evening sky after sunset in the west. But it remains fairly close to the Sun, so will be difficult to see in the bright twilight. Close to Mercury on the 25th.

Mars

Still very close to the Sun, but is now starting to slowly appear in the morning sky. Very difficult to spot in the morning twilight.

Jupiter

Now well past its best and getting lower in the western evening twilight. Being quite bright at magnitude -1.47, it should be easy to find, but it is rapidly sliding into the Sun’s glow and will soon be lost from view.

Saturn

Just past opposition, but will be a wonderful sight for a few months yet. Rising earlier each night and is a fabulous sight in a scope. See if you can see the appearance of the shadow of the planet start to appear on the rings.
How many moons can you see?

Uranus & Neptune
Both remote planets are now too close to the Sun to be seen.

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 seen as far south as Kent, so keep a look out.

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 Hydrogen Alpha solar scope, take a look.

Click here for latest news from Space Weather.

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

All times UT (BST) Unless otherwise stated.

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

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

Dave Eagle

Eagles Eye On The Sky.

Keep Looking Up!

But I finally got a clear day at the weekend to capture the Sun.

Full disk.

Close up of Active Region 1726.

I’m pleased with that one.

The full frame image.

A crop to highlight the galaxy and the Supernova.

Set the Astrotrac up with my Nikon with my 80mm refractor, aiming to get the comet in the same field as the galaxy.

All set up ready and waiting for the sky to darken.

Once the sky darkened enough I tried to get the objects in the field of the 80mm refractor, but it was too small a field of view. Luckily I bought my 120 – 400mm Sigma lens with me.

I set that up instead, and took quite a while setting things up. But once I got it in my sights, there was no stopping me.

I found it in the bright twilight with less than 30 minutes to go before it went behind the neighbours house.

So the heat was on to get a relatively decent image, and here it is.

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.

What’s up in The Night Sky for the month ahead.

For the latest news and events, more details, keep (BIG) Bang up to date on my Blog:
Eagleseye Astronomy Blog.

COMET PANSTARRS C/2011 L4 – This comet reached magnitude 2.5 during March.
It was visible the naked eye, but only just as the encroaching twilight interfered somewhat.
Now disappearing from the western evening sky it will continue to put on a show in the north eastern morning sky before sunrise. It passes very close to The Andromeda Galaxy during the first week of the month.
It moves into Cassiopeia by the 21st and will be hlfway to Cepheus by the end of the month.
But the comet is getting fainter each day. So be quick.

More news here.

Any questions, comments or have I made a mistake?

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

Sky condition prediction for Higham Ferrers.

ALL TIMES Universal Time (UT) Unless stated.

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

The January Sky.

High overhead at this time of night Ursa Major dominates, with the Plough being a great starting point for finding your way around the sky. Low in the South all of Hydra is visible, if you can make out all of its stars so far south. The winter constellations are slowly disappearing in the south western sky. Towards the north western horizon, Andromeda is just showing as it slides beneath the horizon (just), taking the comet with it. In the north east Deneb and Vega are now starting their upward climb once again. In the south eastern sky, Virgo is rising and the bright star Arcturus in Boötes is now fairly high up. To the east of Virgo is Corona Borealis, The Northern Crown and to eastwards of that is Hercules, with its two great globular clusters M13 and M92, glorious in a moderate telescope. Now the clocks have gone forward the nights are staying very light, so observing opportunities become less favourable. Not that the weather hasn’t already made it unfavourable this year already. Grrr!

The Moon and its phases this month.

Last Qtr. – 3rd.
New – 10th.
First Qtr. – 18th.
Full – 28th.

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

Jupiter on the 14th.
Regulus on the 21st.
Spica on the 25th.
Saturn on the 26th.
Antares on the 28th.

The Planets.

Mercury

Stays extremely low in the eastern morning sky before dawn, moves closer to Sun throughout the month, but will be almost impossible to find in the bright dawn.

Venus

Remains on the far side of the Sun during the month so will not be visible until the end of the month when it “just” starts to appear in the western evening sky. It will be better seen from next month.

Mars

Reaches conjunction with the Sun on the 18th, so remains too close to the Sun to be seen.

Jupiter

Now starting to get lower in the south western sky after sunset. It remains big and bright and still impressive even in a small telescope. Keep a look out for the Red Spot and its Galilean moons as they are still a magnificent sight through any telescope.

Saturn

Located between Virgo and Libra during the month.
Now rising before 21:00h, the rings are favourably tilted towards the Earth.

Uranus & Neptune 
Both remote planets are now lost in the Sun’s glare.

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 seen as far south as Kent, so keep a look out.

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 Hydrogen Alpha solar scope, take a look.

Click here for latest news from Space Weather.

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

All times UT (BST) Unless otherwise stated.

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

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

Dave Eagle

Eagles Eye On The Sky.

Keep Looking Up!

It may not have given us quite the show we were expecting, and the weather hasn’t been very good to us either.

It is now fading fast in the brightening evening sky.

I won’t be able to catch it in the darker morning sky as it will be behind my neighbours house in the north east before dawn.

So this will probably be my only offering: