Venus Jupiter Conjunction - Dance of the Planets in 2012

Over the next few weeks there is going to be some spectacular naked eye events in the western sky. Venus and Jupiter will make close approach on or around 12-13th March and by the end of the month the Moon and the Pleiades will be in the same area as the two planets. Follow the two planets diagonally downwards towards the horizon and you can see Mercury. Times are for 19:00 (UT). Location is from London, UK.
On the other side of the sky rising in the East is Mars. On the 4th April the Moon will be passing by the Red palnet.
Check out the skymaps of these events below. Screenshots courtesy of Carte du Ciel software.

Sky Tonight March 10th- See if you can spot Mercury low in the west after sunset

Venus-Jupiter Closest conjunction March 12th

March 14th - after closest conjunction

Crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter March 24th

Pleiades (M45) Moon, Venus and Jupiter March 26th

Moon and Pleiades March 27th

Moon Mars April 4th

Aurora from Iceland

Checkout these great images of the northern lights taken from Iceland by Ken Harrison of Loughton Astronomical Society.

Raspberry PI - why I want one!

The huge hype of the latest tech gadget - the Raspberry PI hit the market today. Running on linux this little beasty aims to be used by schools and pc enthusiasts alike.
The little computer could be adapted to enhance telescope control, perhaps even a CCD camera. In any case its worth getting hold of one to try it out....assuming stocks are replenished sometime soon.
Available from RE Electronics and Designspark.

Venus Moon Conjunction

Got a great image of the crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter(top left).
This was taken with a Panasonic Lumix GF3 Compact System Camera @ 42mm, F6.3 Exposure 6secs at 800ISO.

New Meade Telescope Series LX80 and LX800

Meade have produced a new series of telescopes LX80 and LX800. First impressions of the LX800 at Astrofest this year, it looks as though Meade went back to the drawing board and had a complete rethink in what a telescope mount should look like.
The LX800 is a heavy duty mount that does not come cheap, it is almost $6000 (£6000). It comes with a built-in CCD camera which assists with the aligning and high precision tracking called StarLock(TM).
For more details see the Meade website. http://www.meade.com/lx800.

The LXD80 on the other hand is designed for the intermediate astronomer. Prices start from $799 (£799). The design is based upon what I can only describe as a 'square block'. The iOptron is similar in design.
The mount can be elevated at an angle to turn it from an altaz mount to an equatorial. The Meade AudioStar(TM) is included.

These telescopes are certainly a far cry from the LXD series which have been going for ten years. It will be interesting to see how many telescope owners will swap their old LXD/ETX models for this one. I am certainly considering getting the mount alone which is available. For more details see http://www.meade.com/lx80

Check out a preview of the LX80 on YouTube.