Star Hopper.

Horrah for circular reasoning.... Failed self satire asides, I have as I keep on stating, been rather pre-occupied with my course, and my promotional course after that.... which I.. failed....

For reasons I can't and/or shan't go into, but anyway, new, plans, what the heck is happening with starhopper now hmm?

Well here I am about to tell you, I have a weekend planned away with Mrs Star Hopper, so I can;t see much happening then work wise, but I should be relatively unencumbered after new year, well, I will be back on ship, so I will be trying to find things to do with my spare time, hopefully this will be plentiful time for me to indulge in my desire to work on astronomy related information for you all, and possibly some of my long ago abandoned drawing... Yes I am a budding artist... but that is a completely different story for a completely different day.

Glad to be back.. I think I am anyway

Neil Nelson.

Hello uhm. . .Starhoppers

Thanks for all being so patient and nor hurling many shades of abuse in my direction for running away. Fortunately, I have a few months left of my course, and the subjects require significantly less (if any) revision now. So I'm beginning to plan new content and erticles for the site to produce and add in the near future.

What hava I been upto though? Well, as I previously stared I have been on my promotional course for the Royal Navy at HMS Collingwood. Over the last 4 ish months, I have been covering subjects including electronics, engineering science and mathematics at degree level. As well as spending as much of my precious spare time with a wonderful young woman, who I hope to write more about in a later post.

I have a couple of weeks free in August too, so hopefully there will be ample oportunity to add to the site then aswell.

Until then, clear skies and still nights folks.

Finally managed to get my Skywatcher out for a night, and what a night it was, all I managed to find was Saturn, as it had been such a long time since I was last alone with the night sky that I didn't have a clue where I was pointing my scope.

Managed to find Leo and trace a line down the back "leg(s)" to find the ringed prince of the planets, Saturn, and 5 moons no less.

The reason I'm here to post though is to apologise for abandoning the site so suddenly. Well maybe abandon is to harsh a word.

In reality, my course has been dragging me down with revision and homework, projects and such like, I haven't even had enough time to continue the archery I had only recently taken back up at the start of the course.

All this and a fledgling love life with a fantastic woman (who I hope to share some of the night sky with this coming Saurday) has eaten up what little spare time I do still have.

However, all is not lost. The "really really, nose bleed inducingly hard" part of my course is almost over.

So here is to starting a new chapter, in my course, life, and on this site ^^

Thanks to the near endless snow over the last two days, and a brief bout of drzzle to disperse it all, I had quite a nice clear patch tonight which I tried to make the most of.

Set up the Newt in what passes as a dark site on the base and started at the moon. I am always completely blown away by it, such a beautiful sight, so much to take in each time. After a good half an hour taking in the sights of our natural satellite at various magnifications I moved onto Auriga and tried to find the three Messier open clusters, then onto Cassiopeia, and failed both times. Not entirely sure what I'm looking for, and I am sure that the glare from the moon an light pollution wasn't helping either, but all it has done is eresolve my dfetermination to find them next time.

Looked at Venus which seems to be becoming more full, that or my focusing is abysmal, I'll let you know if I'm talking from my derrier next time I get it out (the scope, not my derrier)

Been playing with computers in class the last 2 days, about as stimulating as wathcing slugs mate, but at least I'm good at it.

Not got much done for the website the last couple of days, but more is coming.

Clear skies to you all.

The weather has been relentless this week unfortunately. But I did manage to get out tonight for about 10 minutes and get some viewing of Venus done before the cloud had settled in, got a beautiful bright half disc in my refractor, I was using the plossle EPs that came with the Skyywatcher sso I didn't even have to put up with CA.

The week has been interesting course wise, we have been doing technical drawing, some of which I believe I will be able to apply to diagrams for the site in the future, but all fo which I found enjoyable to do.

Just putting the finishing touches to diagrams for Auriga and Orion as I type this, hopefully they will be up with information on their DSOs and interesting tid bits before Monday.

Roll on clear skies \o/

Already I have got a two week module of my course finished, go me. Sadly the weaher has not been very suitable for stargazing, although I did manage to get my refractor out once this week to look at the Gibbous Moon, and as always, I was completely blown away, no amouth if imaging can prepare you for seeing our closest natural celestial neighbour first hand. Sadly not long after I had managed to get a good looka t some of the more interesting abrts at medium magnification, the clouds had rolled in from sunset.

On a lighter note, I have began negotiations with the base XO and various other members of the comand to establish an RN astronomy association based in Collingwood, and should it take of and gain popularity, funding towards equipement.

So here is hoping for more clear skies soon, and a bright future for astronomy in the RN.

With a new year come resolutions, reminiscing and in my case responsibility. I have just started astronomy scant days before Christmas, and only spent marginally longer on this site. And starting Monday I begin my promotional course at HMS Collingwood, learning my trade to a higher level, as a Leading Weapons Engineering Technician (LET WE). I am really looking forward to yet an other new beginning and hope that I excel as I have been told I will, that I still get a lot of time to peer through my telescopes, and enhance my knowledge of the night sky along with my job.

I have been with the Royal Navy for over 5 years, served on 3 ships, and been half way around the world, as well as both the Arctic and Antarctic circles, more than most people will do in a lifetime, and I have only just begun. Despite this, I still can not help but look on in awe every time I see something new through my eye piece. And I pray the feeling never fades.

With this year also being the official year of astronomy, celebrating 400 years of the telescope, I hope to generate a lot of interest in the subject as well as arranging or taking part in related events to promote this fantastic hobby, and for most, obsession.

All in all, I think that I am going to have a productive and exciting 2009, on many levels, and look forward to letting you know about it, and maybe even getting to know about yours.

All the best for the new year,

Neil Andrew Nelson

Set up the Skywatcher about half an hour before sunset, Twilight was dark enough to clearly see Venus at 1630, at 240x I could easily focus the half disc, little detail was made out due to its brightness, thought I would be daring and went to 600x at 1645 to try and spread the light out over a larger area, bearing in mind this is double the reccomended magnification of the scope, after lots of wobbling, I got a beautiful milky half disc, with a very slight hint of CA.

Got an unknown sighting, something with a high magnitude, it was visible at 1653 before any stars, it was moving, appeader to have CA at any magnification aswell, don't know how to write EQ grid coordinates, but i noted where my dials where, the siderial axis was at 3 degrees, and the other was at 12 seconds (probably completely wrong/useless, but you never know) it was roughly east south east, at between 20 to 30 degrees elevation...

After failing to rensolve any detail on my enigma, I moved onto the Pleiades, resloving those beautiful lights across the FOV, and had a good sweep right through at 48x in the Skywatcher before scanning around with the binoculars, looking at a few binary stars, and getting a better knowledge of the constellations, I now know Pegasus, Taurus, and Cygnus, sone of Cetus, very hard to resolve its lower stars due to light pollution and it being so low in the sky, and Andromeda.

I found the square of Pegasus.... Yes I know, how can you miss an asterism like THAT! well, these things are all self taught, I just was not looking for something that big. Having found this, I could work out where Andromeda was, and within minutes, at 1806, I was looking at M31 through my binoculars, I was seeing an other Galaxy, after a bit of fumbling with the telescope (EQ mounts are a huge pain to point up I have found, which is a shame as I really want to have a look in Cassiopeia) I had got it centred and resolved at 48x, making out a feint grey haze, with a lighter centre. I tracked it for at least a quarter of an hour, hoping that more detail would become apparent, but to mo avail, but still, I have seen it, and I know where to look again.

Also I saw a circumpolar Sattelite pass almost directly overhead at around 1750, passing east of Cassiopeia, don't know if it was an Iridium Flare, but it is something else I saw before I was visited by unforcasted cloud, dashing my plans to go back out at 0230 to see Saturn, Orions' Nebula, te multiple star system in Orion, and some of the highlights of the later rising constellations like the beehive in Cancer, or the galaxies in Leo, Cassiopeia would have moved around, and Ursa Major would be much higher too. All that sky to see, and nothing but the weather holding me back.

I have been cursed since my last entry with cloudy skies, although I have had brief respites where I charged into the gardne to peer through my binoculars. Not gotten as much as I like on the website, and still have a few things to smooth out. Still no graphics, conceptual or otherwise, and with the run up to christmas I the work done might shrink further. Managed to get a few bits and pieces added here and there though since the last entry and am happy with what I have accomplished. I have so many things that I want to do with this site, and think I have bitten off quite a lot, but look forward to raising to the challenge, and to making a contribution to the astronomy community through it.

On the up side I have been forecasted predominately clear skies for most of this week starting Monday, and look aofrward to becoming familiar with more of the night sky. I hope to get a look at some galaxies this week, and can't wait to compare my impression of other clusters with the Pleiades. Also, I am looking forward to seeing Saturn for the first time, as well as looking at the Moon through my telescope, especially the Tycho region, which seems to dominate so many images that I have seen.

Thanks to everyone who has came to look at the site so far, and all those who keep on offering advice and support. Until tomorrw night hopefully, clear skies and happy star hopping.

Now I have de-frosted, I thought I would type up my observations for tonight (would have more but the clouds arrived right on cue)

I started setting up about a quarter of an hour before sunset, at 1545, ensuring that the two tripods were as accurately aligned as possible to north, and that they were levelled, before mounting the OTAs in their respective mounts. Next time, I'll wait until I have properly aligned the Skywatcher to the CNP before mounting it, as I did not acieve a proper alignment this night due to cold fingers and frustration, need to get more practice at polar aligning.

I started off using the Bresser Skylux, as the Skywatcher had a chicken coop in the way, to look as Venus then Jupiter. Starting with the finder scope, I quickly centered the very bright disk, and at low power the wobble was barely noticeable, and the angling of the alt az mount (like a wedge) makes tracking much easier. After getting Venus centered at low power I went straight to a 4mm ep and was delighted to see a full creamy disc, with no CA that I could see, the only distortion I believe was due to atmospherics as Venus was close to the horizon, and this was less than an hour after sunset (not even any bright stars were visible) already at 175x magnification I put in a 2x barlow, and got a larger disc, with what I saw to be a small darker spot on the top right quarter of Venus.

After going back to a low power ep I re-centered on Jupiter with the finder, then the telescope itself. I swapped to the 10mm ep and made out the globe of Jupiter and 3 of its moons and could make out two tones of banding on the globe of Jupiter at various latitudes.

The only other object I looked at with the Bresser were the Pleiades, I was so impresed with them that I dragged my father and little brother to take a look, I preffered the view through the Bresser to the Skywatcher as I could fit the cluster in the FOV, I can only describe it as diamonds scattered over velvet, absolutely beautiful.

With the Skywatcher I only got to look at the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula.

The Pleiades were much better resolved, but due to a lack of any eps less than 25mm I could not get the entire cluster in my FOV (or I'm just not doing it right) although it was much more clear and more starts were visible, once again taking my breath away (starting to think that ET has big black eyes to take in the night sky, but thats just me) it took some getting used to moving the open end to follow everything as it is upside down and backwards, especially when using the finderscope, as it is not optically corrected as it is on the Bresser, although the Bresser's finder has terrible CA.

After getting frustrated at finding nothing with the Skywatcher (as I am new at this, and really don't know what I'm looking at still, already planned some good, easy to find DSOs for next time though) I noticed that Orion had risen, and centered the finder on his sword. With the 20mm ep I could make out some faint green nebulosity, but lost this at higher magnification, plausibly due to poor centering, siderial motion, oh, and the light pollution around my area.

After looking at Orion's shiney bits the clouds came thick and fast, and even now are blotting out the sky, so I packed up for the night.

All in all a fantastic nights viewing, really enjoyed the experience, look forward to getting more experienced with the Skywatcher and getting a look at things like the Helix nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, and many more DSOs (no I havent forgotten about binary stars) And I'm thrilled with my Lidlscope.