PHUTURESPACE

Equinox SkyCamp 2011

2012-02-03T23:57:00.000Z

Bit of a belated report...anyway...
The equinox skycamp took place in the latter half of September 2011.With the weather forecast not looking too good I decided to spend most of the time observing rather than taking images like last year.This year my family and I could only stay during main weekend rather than spend a whole ten days like last year.

Friday night was unfortunately not clear so I could not set up the telescope for polar alignment...having said that as a veteran of these skycamps I can set the mount up in the right direction with just a compass. In fact The mount wasn't far off Polaris when I started to observe on the Saturday evening when was clear enough to allow me to precisely align the mount.

Saturday during the day was sunny and bright. There were fewer trade stands in the yellow field than previous years. However, there were quite a few people in the fields privately selling their equipment, including what I think was an eight inch refractor! I would love to know if someone purchased it, how on earth they got that home. It looked more than three metres long!Talks were going on during the day, including bob mizon ....The prize raffle took place in the early evening. The raffle seems to be getting more popular than ever and the tickets were all sold out by the time the raffle took place. First prize this year was a Nagler kindly donated by David Nagler of TeleVue worth £400.
Saturday late evening was a mixed bag of stars indispersed with patchy cloud. It apparently cleared in the early hours, but by then I was back in the lodge tucked up in bed!

Sunday was the traditional trip to Cromer. It was a sunny day and we did our usual walk by the beach. By the time it was getting dark it looked like it was clouding over again. However, I thought I would stay up a bit longer than the previous night and wait it out. By about 12:30-1am most people retired to their tents. However, in the south-east high in the sky I saw a small clear patch just where Jupiter was poking through. Over a period of an hour or so the clear patch grew until the whole sky was clear. I manage to satisfy my observing craving from the past few days and indulged myself with the delights of the Autumn sky. By three am I decided to call it a night as I had a long drive back to London the next day.

Despite the skies not meeting up to expectations it was a relaxing and enjoyable skycamp. Can't wait for this year's skycamp where I will hope to be doing some imaging by trying out my new Panasonic GF3 compact system camera.

Life!

2012-02-03T23:49:00.001Z

Sometimes events in life takes over and things get left to one side for a while. I stopped posting until now. I am hoping to keep this blog active along with the sister site the Build scout. So enough of the cryptic stuff. Onwards and upwards!

Milky Way Movie

2011-04-21T13:53:00.001+01:00

Checkout this amazing movie of the Milky Way taken on top of Spain's highest mountain El Teide.

1971

2011-04-05T23:18:00.006+01:00

Tomorrow will be my fortieth birthday (6th April). A lot of has happened in Astronomy and spaceflight over the past forty years, so on the eve of my birthday lets time travel back to the year 1971 and see what was going on in the world of spaceflight and astronomy...

General:
Stephen Hawking demonstrates mathematically that the Big Bang must have come from a single point and postulated the existence of mini black holes.
It was the 400th anniversary of Johannes Kepler's death

Notable Dates:
January 31, 1971: Men were still flying to the Moon. Apollo 14 mission, with Alan Shepard Jr., Stuart A. Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell, was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

June 30, 1971: Tragedy! Three Russian cosmonauts Lieutenant-Colonel Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev were found dead in their Soyuz 11 space capsule after it made a perfect landing in Kazakhstan.

April 19, 1971: The first ever space station of its kind Salyut 1 was launched by the USSR.

July 26, 1971: Apollo 15 launched with David R Scott, Alfred M Worden and James B Irwin aboard. It was the first time the Lunar Rover was used.

October 1971: Astrophysics - Joseph C. Hafele and Richard E. Keating took four atomic clocks aboard commercial airliners and flew twice around the world to test the theory of relativity.

28 October 1971: The last of the british built Black Arrow rocket with the satellite Prospero on board was launched from Woomera, Australia.

November 13, 1971: Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.

Let's see what the next forty years has in store...

First Images of Mercury from Messenger

2011-03-30T23:21:00.000+01:00

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This image is one of the first images of Mercury taken from the Messenger spacecraft in orbit around the planet. The image was taken at 5:20 am EDT on Mar. 29, 2011.

It looks very much like the Earth's Moon's surface close up. Like our Moon, Mercury is heavily cratered and shows similar features such as rays and rilles.

More images can be seen on the Nasa website.

Wonders of the Universe - Messengers

2011-03-30T00:50:00.003+01:00

Episode aired: 27/03/2011

In the last of the series, Brian takes us on a journey across the Universe using light as our personal guide.

It is the light which has travelled for thousand, millions and billions of years to enables us to see beautiful objects like the Lagoon nebula and Eta Carinae (one of the most massive stars in our galaxy), distant suns and galaxies.

Once again Brian takes himself to the limit by flying in a plane that breaks the speed of sound, highlighting the fact that even light has a limit, but unlike sound it cannot be broken.

Olaf Romer over 400 years ago determined the finite speed of light from the timings of Jupiter's Moons. This has profound implications of the nature of the Universe. When we peer into the distant Universe we see it as it was in the past.

Brian even did some astronomy showing a picture he imaged of the Andromeda galaxy, one of the Milky Way's closest neighbour some 2.5 million light years away. When light left that galaxy the Earth was populated with early hominids.

Brian goes to Victoria falls to explain that light is split up into a spectrum and that visible light is only part of the broader electromagnetic spectrum which includes X-ray, Infra-red, Microwave and Radio waves. Astronomers uses Microwave radiation to map the early Universe just after the Big Bang.

Brian finally talks about life and how it evolved here on Earth to become sensitive light in order for it (us) to view the sky with awe and ponder the nature of the Universe.

Locations include Zambia, Egypt, Tanzania and the Rocky Mountains.

Another thoroughly enjoyable episode.

Overall it's been a great series, personally my favourite of the two. Perhaps there may be another follow up such as 'Wonders of the Earth' or 'Wonders of Spaceflight'!

My Goto Experiences

2011-03-27T15:27:00.000+01:00

Since I was a young lad I have owned a variety of telescopes. I learned how to find my way around the heavens with sky maps from astronomy books. I even started an astronomy society at secondary school. Over the years my knowledge of the night sky grew but I found it was not as extensive as other amateur astronomers and whenever I used my trusty eight inch reflector it would take me a great deal of time and effort to find deep sky objects in the light polluted London skies by just star-hopping. Sometimes, I was viewing only a dozen or so objects in a single observing session. This left me feeling short-changed on nights that were crystal clear. My enthusiasm for observing was ebbing away and I was using the telescope less and less.

In 2002 I decided to purchase my first Go-To telescope. I opted for the Meade LXD55 6 inch refracting telescope with Autostar™ Go-To computerised control handset. Unlike Go-To mounts of alt-azimuth design such as the Meade ETX, LX200 or Celestron’s NexStar, the LXD55 models were equatorially mounted. I was one of the first in the UK to own this particular model and was excited at the prospect of finding thousands of objects; although perhaps not in a single evening!

I realised, however that despite owning an equatorially mounted telescope for many years, it still felt that a lot of effort was required to set up the instrument to perform Go-To alignments accurately. In the early days when I was learning how to use a Go-To telescope, finding an object was sometimes a bit of a hit-and-miss affair. The software on-board the Autostar handset was not as accurate as it is nowadays. When the telescope was finally ready for use, it would leave me very little time to do any actual observing. I felt I was back to square one!

Thankfully, I realised I was not alone with my experiences. LXD owners via internet user-groups and at sky camps described similar experiences.

It took a little while to master the Go-To setup procedure, but as I did I gained a new enthusiasm for observing as I was able to observe many more objects in a single observing session than with a just a traditional telescope.

A few years later I acquired the next model which was an LXD75 8 inch SCT on a much superior re-engineered mount. I sold the LXD55 mount but kept the 6 inch refractor OTA which I have to this day.

The Meade comes with a two inch R&P focus mount so to maximise your observing ability I would recommend that two inch accessories are used. Recently, I acquired a two inch ED Barlow lens to complete my ‘two inch solution’: two inch focuser, Williams optics two inch diagonal and two inch eyepiece. Most telescopes come with a two inch eyepiece focusers and I would definitely recommend considering two inch accessories

I wanted to share my experiences with the astronomical community so I decided to write a book about the Meade LXD series. It took about two years from concept to publication and a lot of work was involved but it gives me great satisfaction to know that my book is helping Meade LXD users worldwide understand their telescope.

I don’t think I would part with my Meade anytime sometime soon unless it is to get an apochromatic model of similar aperture). Perseverance and patience brings its rewards and it was worth sticking with the telescope in the end.

Nowadays with add-ons such as GPS and magnetic compasses built into the telescope mount setting up a Go-To telescope is far easier.

With today’s skies seriously affected by light pollution, Go-To has become the observing

solution to assist astronomers in searching for those faint fuzzy objects.

Wonders of the Universe - Falling

2011-03-21T23:51:00.000Z

Episode Aired: 20th March 21:00

In the third episode of this series Brian talks about Gravity, the force that works on the largest scales influencing Stars, Planets, Galaxies and the fate of the Universe.

Brian Cox explains why one side of our Moon is always facing the Earth, what will happen when the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way collide, and how a neutron star is formed when a massive star explodes as a supernova.

In order to experience what gravity is like on other planets larger than the Earth, Brian takes a spin in a centrifuge and expeiences a max G-force of 5G, which you could see that he found it quite unpleasent. He also takes a trip on the famous 'Vomit Comet', an airplane which simulates weightlessness... it was quite funny watching him attempt to explain the concepts of gravity whilst being jostled about inside the plane!

The nature of gravity known as the Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was explained. Spacetime is the fabric of Space and the Universe. Matter bends space and the greater the mass of an object the greater the curve of the spacetime surrounding the object. Spacetime is full of peaks and valleys... in fact everything in the Universe is falling through spacetime.

Finally we are taken to the centre of our galaxy where a massive black hole is thought to reside. The ultimate curvature of spacetime is a black hole. The analogy of a fast river flow was used to explain what it could be like very close to and inside a black hole.

Various Locations includes a canyon in New Mexico, a river delta and Brian standing alone on top of a mountain.

Once again a fascinating insight into the workings of the Universe.

By the light of the Supermoon!

2011-03-20T13:33:00.002Z

Very recently there has been a lot of talk in the news about a special Lunar event that is taking place this weekend. It's called a Supermoon and was first coined by Astrologer Richard Nolle over thirty years ago.

So what is a Supermoon? The Moon's orbit around the Earth is not perfectly circular and so at certain times in its orbit it is at it's closest to the Earth (perigee - 354,000 km [220,000 mi]) and at other times furthest away (called apogee - 410,000 km [254,000 mi]). So a Supermoon is when the Moon is within 90% of it closest ever approach in its orbit and coincides with a full Moon, this is called perigee-syzygy. However due to the nature of the orbit we dont get a Supermoon every month but it does happen quite often.

The notion of a Supermoon is steeped in superstition and conspiracy; all sorts of natural disasters, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes etc... have been attributed to this natural occurence. Apart from unusually high and low tides there has been no empirical evidence to prove that any natural disaster has been caused by a Supermoon, past or present. In fact the tragic Japan Earthquake occured a week before the Moon's closest approach.I find that people believe what they want to believe so it sometimes doesn't matter what the scientists say to alleviate concerns only that the media makes it good reading! In any case it fires the public imagination and an increased number of people observed the full Moon last night more than normal.

The next occurence will be November 14, 2016.

Messenger Mercury Space Probe Enters Orbit

2011-03-18T12:06:00.001Z

NASA's Messenger Probe finally entered stable orbit last night on its final journey to the Sun's closest planet.

It has taken almost seven years to reach its final destination performing flybys of Earth and Venus before carrying out three flybys of Mercury before final orbit insertion which occured 00:45 GMT early Friday morning of the 18th March.

Mariner 10 back in the 1970's was the only space probe to fly by the Planet but it was never designed to make orbit. Only about 60% of the planet was imaged at that time and so it fell to Messenger to complete the portrait.

Armed with a whole host of instruments NASA scientists are hoping to unlock Mercury's secrets and make new discoveries in what is considered one of the most challenging environments given the close vicinity of the planet to the Sun.

More details can be found on NASA's website.

Wonders of the Solar System - Book Review

2011-03-17T23:19:00.000Z

Review Date: 16/03/2011

Companion to the highly popular television series which was first aired by the BBC back in 2010, Brian Cox takes us on a personal guided tour from the birth of the Solar System to the far reaches of the Sun's influence and what lies beyond.

The book is split into five main chapters which follows the episodes of the TV series; The Wonder (intro), Empire of the Sun, Order Out of Chaos, The Thin Blue Line, Dead or Alive and the final chapter Aliens. Topics include; Historical account of the motion of the planets, The life and death of the Sun, Saturn and its moons, craters on Mercury, the atmospshere of Venus, Jupiter and it's moons, Martian volcanoes and the search for life in the Solar System.

This is not your usual run-of-the-mill astronomy book but then again it was not your usual run-of-the-mill TV series. The planets were discussed from a very different angle and not in the usual order of distance from the Sun, which in my opinion makes it unique amongst books about the Solar System and a refreshing change.

What I also like about this book is that concepts are uniquely explained using real analogies here on Earth so it made them easier to understand. There are many images of Brian in various poses, doing things (like wearing solar glasses!) and with various pondering stares across landscapes. The TV series was shot in many exotic locations around the world so you could be forgiven to think that the book is Brian's personal travel photo album!

The few critiques I have about the book is that the style of graphics gives the book a retro 1980's feel... I wasn't too keen on the grey background for some of the images, black would have been much better. One or two of the images could have been more up to date (such as on page 49 where a false color image of the Solar Corona looks like it was taken by the USA Skylab space station from the early 1970's). However, for newbies to astronomy they would probably find the images satisfactory. There are also some technical errors which unfortunately reduces the quality of the publication.

A great addition to any library and an excellent companion to the TV series. Highly recommended. ****

Wonders of the Universe - Stardust

2011-03-15T00:43:00.000Z

Episode aired: Sunday 13th March
In the second episode of the series Brian cox explained how we were made from the deep interior of stars. A list of star-stuff known commonly as the periodic table of elements consists of 92 elements that we, the earth, solar system, galaxies and what we can see in the universe is made up of.

Brian used analogies such as when bubbles stick together and even the demolition of a building to explain how the basic elements hydrogen and helium were created at the very beginning of the Universe.
Elements up to iron are created inside stars as they near the end of their lives. The heavier elements such as Gold, Platinum and Zinc are created by stars that undergo cataclysmic explosions called supernova, forming the Earth and ultimately life.

Locations included India, Chile and America. Brian was even playing an old piano in a derelict western-style bar on the outskirts of a disused gold mine in California as he explained how much gold there is on Earth and why it is so rare.
Another really good episode.

Wonders of the Universe - Book Review

2011-03-12T12:47:00.005Z

Sequel to the Wonders of the Solar System and companion to BBC TV series of the same name, Brian Cox takes us on a personal guided tour from the birth of the Universe to the end of time and beyond. Split into four main chapters Messengers, Stardust, Falling and Destiny, topics include; What is Light?, Time Travel, The Big Bang, Life and Death of Stars, Gravity and Relativity and the ultimate fate of the Universe.

The one thing for which this book stands out from other books of this subject is the way concepts are explained using real analogies here on Earth. This gives a sense of reality and something tangeable to relate to. For example, Brian Cox's explanation of entropy using a simple example with sandcastles,a concept not easily understood for the lay-person and even the budding astrophycisist was especially clear.

My one and only critique is that the style of graphics gives the book a retro 1980's feel... and in fact I felt that I have seen many of the images before in books from that period, although perhaps I am missing the point!

My personal favorite of the two books in the series. Highly recommended.
*****

Wonders of the Universe: First Episode - Destiny

2011-03-06T23:57:00.001Z

Saw the first episode of the Wonders of the Universe tonight.
Brian cox provided some great explanations including the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics defining the arrow of time.
Really well explained concepts of time and space and the fate of stars and the universe.
I like the fact that all these concepts were explained with Brian Cox visiting in some of the most exotic locations on Earth. The special effects were stunning and the music very dramatic which added to the effect.
Looking forward to the next episode.

3D Video of Last Discovery mission docked with the ISS

2011-03-04T11:22:00.003Z

Check out these amazing videos taken by french amateur astronomer Thierry Legault, using modest equipment.
http://astrosurf.com/legault/STS-133.html

Wonders of the Universe - Sunday 6th March 9pm

2011-03-02T23:21:00.001Z

Following on from last year's popular series wonders of the solar system Professor Brian cox will be taking us on a guided tour of the wonders of the universe with the first episode of four being screened this coming Sunday on BBC 2 and BBC HD at 9pm.
If the last series is anything to go by it should be just as interesting if not more.

For more details see the BBC website.

Amazon @ Phuturespace

2011-03-02T22:46:00.001Z

The Phuturespace website has a new look. From now on it will bring you the latest in astronomy and space products that US Amazon.com and UK Amazon.co.uk has to offer.

There will be regular featured products as well as reviews. All links will take you directly to the appropriate Amazon websites. Also look out for Phuturespace astore coming soon!
If you wish to see a particular product and want it reviewed contact me and I will put it on the website.

Happy browsing!

Farewell and Godspeed Discovery!

2011-02-24T10:03:00.002Z

After much delay the space shuttle Discovery is due for launch today at 16:50 EST (21:50GMT). This will be the last voyage of Discovery before being retired off as part of the current US administration's plan to mothball the Shuttle fleet.
The shuttle will also bring the first humanoid robot to the ISS. The Robonaut 2, or R2, which is a joint project of General Motors and NASA. R2 will stay behind when Discovery departs the space station and will become a permanent 'resident' of the space station.

There may be another Shuttle launch in a few months with Endeavour marking the end of an era for manned shuttle spaceflight.

You can watch the launch live from the NASA website.

Astrofest 2011 Day 2: Afternoon and end of the day

2011-02-05T18:24:00.004Z

A very busy afternoon indeed. Was near front of queue so didn't wait too long to see Brian Cox, then went into the next room to see Brian May and Patrick Moore.
Rushed out of there to get a seat for the session 4 afternoon lectures which in my opinion was the best session of the whole two days.
So that's it! Another Astrofest finished. Thoroughly enjoyable, especially today (Saturday).

Astrofest 2011 Day 2: In the queue for the book sigining

2011-02-05T12:09:00.003Z

People are already queuing up for the book signing so have jumped in the queue!
The queue has apparently gone all the way down the stairs to the basement!

Astrofest 2011: Day 2

2011-02-05T09:47:00.002Z

In contrast to the Friday I have always found Saturday at Astrofest to be quite manic. It all started when astronomy now start deciding to host signing sessions around lunchtime. It all really kicked off in 2007 when Brian May, Chris Lintott and Patrick Moore were invited along to promote their book 'Bang!'. The queues went from three flights of stairs from the top floor where the book signing took place all the way down to the basement. Ever since then a special guest would be invited along to sign books. This year is no exception, not only Brian Cox and Patrick Moore will be there but now Brian May will also be there. He will be promoting a unique conference where there will be a whole host of famous guests relating to astronomy, spaceflight, Human endeavour, art and music.
It's called the Starmus Festival and will be hosted on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Anyway, it's going to be a busy day and will have to queue up early in order to not wait too long to get my book signed.

Astrofest 2011 Day 1: End of the day

2011-02-04T22:28:00.002Z

Overall it's been a very good day. Attended the lectures in the morning and walked about the trade stands in the afternoon.
The trade stands have been very busy between lectures and should be even busier tomorrow. A bit disappointed that one or two trade stands that regularly exhibit were not in attendance this year.
Looking forward to tomorrow when Brian Cox, Patrick Moore and another special guest will be signing books.

Astrofest 2011 Day 1: am lecture

2011-02-04T10:02:00.002Z

Am Lecture about to start.

Astrofest 2011: Day One

2011-02-04T09:19:00.002Z

Looking forward to the day. I am attending the first morning session. There a change of layout with one or two of the trade stands this year. Widescreen are on the ground floor replacing Telescope House who cant make it this year.
I don't have a shopping list this year but you never know at these events as there is always one or two bargains around if you can spot them.

Countdown to Astrofest 2011

2011-01-30T23:49:00.000Z

This coming Friday and Saturday 4th and 5th February sees the ever popular European Astrofest at Kensington town centre, High Street Kensington. This year promises to be another action packed event.
The lecture topics include biographies (Fred Hoyle, Arthur Stanley Eddington), archeoastronmy, cosmology, lunar geology, spaceflight (Apollo), Mars, Near Earth Asteroids and even a comedienne!
This year also promises to be interesting as Brian Cox particle physicist and astronomer will be giving a talk saturday afternoon entitled "Recreating the early Universe", no doubt talking about the Large Hadron Collider. He will also be signing copies of his book "Wonders of the Solar System" during lunchtime on the Saturday. Going by past signing sessions from notable guest speakers like Patrick Moore, Chris Lintott and Brian May it probably is a good idea to queue up early to avoid the long queue to get your book signed. I believe Patrick Moore will also be there signing his latest book "Data Book of Astronomy".
There will be the usual plethora of trade stands strewn across three floors displaying plenty of equipment and gadgets, so there is always the opportunity to grab a bargain or two.

Three Springer Authors

2011-01-23T14:27:00.004Z

I have been a member of Loughton Astronomical Society (LAS) for almost twenty years. The level of expertise at the society range from the beginner to the serious observer. The society is unique as it happens to have not one, not two but three authors all who have published with Springer.

Jack Martin is author of "A Spectroscopic Atlas of Bright Stars: A Pocket Field Guide (Astronomer's Pocket Field Guide)", a unique reference to some of the brightest stars in the sky. It is suitable for astronomers and students at all levels interested in the facinating subject of Spectroscopy. More details can be found here.

Steve Ringwood is author of "Astronomers Anonymous" which in my opinion is probably the most funniest (and very true!) account of the antics and misadventures of amateur astronomers today and throughout the ages. More details can be found here.

Jack and myself also contributed to another Springer publication, "Practical Amateur Spectroscopy" which describes some of the latest methods in spectroscopy available for amateur astronomers. More details can be found here.

All three of us will be at Astrofest UK this year (Kensington Town Hall, Fri 4th and Sat 5th February) where we will be promoting and signing our books somewhere in the vicinity of the Springer stand on the third floor. Hope to see you there!

The Three LAS Springer Authors!
Myself (left), Jack (centre) and Steve (right)
Taken at Astrofest 2010

New Meade AudioStar

2011-01-12T23:20:00.002Z

Meade have launched a new handset that is set to replace the trusty Autostar #497 handset. Its called the AudioStar™.
Hoping to get hold of one of these at Astrofest so that I can field-test it.

Here's the advertising blurb...
Originally developed for the ground-breaking series of Meade LS™ LightSwitch® telescopes, Astronomer Inside is built into the new AudioStar™ controller (with speaker) now included with Meade's LX90™, LT™ and LXD75™ lines of telescopes. The intelligence integrated into these Meade telescopes delivers all the astronomical knowledge and experience of a professional astronomer.

The incredible Astronomer Inside does all this:

·   Knows the sky so you don't have to
    Controls the telescope to find and track any
    of over 30,000 celestial objects automatically

·   Takes you on a guided tour
    Shows you the best objects in your sky from
    your location and time and then plays audio
    descriptions of those objects so you learn the
    details of what you are seeing

·   Has over 4 hours of audio descriptions
    that bring astronomy to life
    Includes planets, stars, constellations,
    clusters, nebulae, galaxies and more

It's like having a personal astronomer standing next to you.

To find out more about Astronomer Inside and the entire line of Meade Instruments products, or to buy online, visit meade.com.

UPDATE: You can now buy the handset alone on Ebay

Stargazing Live! Post Episode Review

2011-01-08T23:49:00.001Z

On the whole I thought the episodes were very good and aimed at the right audience. Brian Cox was especially enthusiastic and I was very impressed with Dara O Briain who added sensible humour so it made the discussions credible and interesting. I would have liked to have seen a few more 'how to' guides from BBC The One Show's resident astronomer Mark Thompson but he did a good job of explaining some of the basics on observing and what equipment to use. It was fun watching Jonathan Ross being given a brief tour of the night sky by Mark.

Shame the weather wasn't great down here in London so unfortunately I missed the Partial eclipse at sunrise on Tuesday 4th. However the due to cloud the effect was such that it was noticeably darker than normal driving to work. If it was clear the darkening effect might have gone unnoticed.

As well as screening the episodes the BBC encouraged astronomical societies all over the uk to host public observing events and lectures to fire the public imagination and get them involved in the subject.

I would love to see another set of these Stargazing Live episodes again, perhaps later on the year. Perhaps it could coincide with a Star Party like the one in September at Kelling Heath.

Stargazing Live!

2011-01-02T14:54:00.001Z

The BBC are showing three episodes over three days dedicated to amateur astronomy. This coincides with a partial solar eclipse which can be seen from the UK and occurs on the morning of Tuesday 4th January.
Astronomer and host of the series 'Wonders of the Solar System' Brian Cox teams up with celebrity guests Dara O Briain and Jonathan Ross to talk about how to get started in astronomy and stargazing.
Events are are taking place all over the country and some observatories around the world are also taking part. To find your nearest event see the Events page on the Beeb website.
Happy observing!

Moon Venus Conjunction Tenerife July 2010

2010-11-28T11:58:00.000Z

These were take whilst on holiday in Tenerife 14th July 2010

Noctilucent Clouds

2010-11-28T11:28:00.000Z

Took these images on 31st July 2010:

North-West

West

South-West

South

Equinox Skycamp 2010

2010-11-20T13:05:00.024Z

For another year my family and I attended the September Equinox Skycamp up in Kelling Heath, Norfolk. This year however, rather than stay elsewhere the week running up to the main skycamp weekend we decided to stay a whole ten days at Kelling. Sheer bliss! This gave us ample time to travel around the local area and see what North Norfolk coast and its surroundings had to offer. During the week we visited Norwich, Cromer, Sheringham and Wells-next-the-sea.

One of the highlights of the week was travelling on the North Norfolk Steam railway. There was a steam gala day on Sunday 4th September where only steam trains ran along the railway instead of both steam and diesel trains. We picked up the train from Kelling Halt on the way towards Sheringham. Travel time was about 20mins or so. After our stay in Sheringham we travelled to Holt then back to Kelling.

Wireless Communication
I always use skycamp as a test-bed for new equipment and technology and this year again was no exception. This time I decided to change the wireless technology and move from Bluetooth to a Wi-Fi setup.
I invested in a Belkin Network USB Hub (http://www.belkin.com/uk/networkusbhub/) . This device requires an additional wireless router for it to be effective so I dug out an old D-Link Adsl WiFi router from the loft and hooked them up. The hub has five USB connections but you can attach up to fifteen USB devices if you use additional USB hubs.

I managed to wireless the Autostar and my new focuser (see later)... but unfortunately I couldn't wireless the LPI or ToUcam webcams as the hub seems to be incompatible with the webcams.

I was slightly concerned with the amount of power all the gadgets might draw but fortunately it turned out to be much less than the maximum power the electrical hook up provided.
The system worked very well and only the power and webcam leads went between the telescope and my laptop in the tent. It was a pleasure controlling the Autostar and focuser from the laptop especially when I had the webcam hooked up for imaging Jupiter as there was no need to keep getting up to make any adjustments.

Touring the Norfolk Night Skies
With the wireless system up and running it was time to test it out. I decided to take my LXD55 AR-6 6 inch refractor on the LXD75 mount to the camp this year as I want to get the best images of Jupiter and to be honest I actually prefer it to my 8 inch SCT.

Unfortunately I didn't think the weather wasn't as great as previous years although there were long periods of clear skies over the weekend, enough for everyone at the camp to get some good observing and imaging done. I didn't really do much deep sky observing this year as I wanted to concentrate in obtaining decent images of Jupiter.

Jupiter Imaging
Like last year the aim of the weekend for me was to get digital images of Jupiter through the refractor. Observationally I didn't think the seeing was particular great in revealing much detail on the planet - personally I thought that there had been betting conditions the previous year, but nevertheless I still managed to see some of the belts during brief periods of good seeing.

Once again I thought I'd try the LPI but I really cannot seem to get on with the LPI software, it’s just not very intuitive so I used my trusty ToUcam Pro II instead.
Focusing was no longer a problem as I had invested in an Orion Accufocuser and a Shoestring Autofocus PC interface and with that wirelessly linked to my laptop it was a breeze using the focuspal software to tweak the focuser without getting up from my seat.
I took about five movies of Jupiter and processed them with the latest version of Registax v5. In order to try and get a good focus viewing the image from the laptop screen I decided to reduce the saturation to black and white levels - this helped except I forgot to raise then again so all my movies came out black and white rather than colour, doh!

SkyCamp 2010

The Main Weekend
Saturday 11th was the main event day. Trade stands were again in the yellow field and lectures took place in the Kelling Heath ‘The Forge’ bar. Speakers included Jack Martin and Bob Mizon who kindly gave a last minute talk as one of the lecturers unfortunately could not do it due to illness.
Loughton member Alan Marriott directed the telescope tour, demonstrating the different instruments strewn across the red and yellow fields.
Raffle tickets were available from the Loughton Society's stand located on the bandstand in the square. The draw took place in the early evening where prizes, kindly donated from vendors were won.

The day was pleasant and quite warm, and as the Sun went down I saw some amazing cloud formations during the prize raffle.

Sunday was a another bright sunny day and by traditional we visit Cromer for the afternoon and by the time we got back in the early evening it was looking likely that it going to be a clear. I spent most of my time before midnight observing Jupiter and after midnight I decided to have a walk around and view through other people's telescopes. By about 01:30 the seeing conditions were getting poor so I called it a night.

On the whole the skycamp was another great success. It is known as the largest established skycamp in Europe with hundreds of people in attendence on the main day. Looking forward to next year where we have booked again a lodge and pitch for yet another 10 nights!

Skycamp 2010

2010-09-07T15:18:00.001+01:00

Getting ready for skcamp!
I am blogging using my iPhone.
This year we decided to spend a week at Kelling Heath before the start of skcamp this Friday.
Currently visiting wells-next-sea.
My tent is set up but no scope yet as the weather was windy with rain last night. Hopefully it will improve to allow me to set up in the next day or so.
Can only blog when there is a decent 3g signal which unfortunately is not in kelling Heath itself.
A full summary of the weekend will be posted soon.
Sent from my iPhone

Astrofest 2010

2010-02-17T22:52:00.000Z

The 2010 Astrofest was held at Kensington Town Hall on 5th and 6th February last weekend. This time I decided to attend three out of the four lecture sessions over the two days (both Friday sessions and the Saturday morning session).

This year's speakers included Monica Grady, Allan Chapman, Jill Tarter and as a special treat Brian May and Patrick Moore.

There were also lectures on cosmology from researchers at the forefront of the subject. This topic is a personal favorite of mine since I studied it as part of my degreee over ten years ago. Much has changed since then. The results from cosmological surveys infers that the Universe is much bigger than originally thought (45 billion Light Years across) and that there is circumstantial evidence that Dark Energy is expanding the Universe at an accelerating rate.

Both days were very well attended, in fact I think Friday was better attended than Friday last year. Saturday was very busy especially because Brian May and Patrick Moore were doing a Q&A session in the late morning and in the afternoon the two of them plus Chris Lintott were signing copies of Bang!. Queues were very long to see them and it took over an hour until I finally got into the signing room. It was nice to see all three again and I took the opportunity to thank Brian for publicising my book on the Bang website in 2008. I also got a picture taken with him.

This year I set out to purchase a few items including my friend's (Jack Martin) book "A Spectroscopic Atlas of Bright Stars - Pocket Field Guide" by Springer. I was also after a motor focuser for my lxd55 refractor.
The motor focuser I purchased is an Orion Accufocuser. The focuser is not dedicated for the lxd55 rack and pinion mount but with a little DIY it will suitably retro fit to the focus mount, saving over £90 if I was to purchase a dedicated motor focuser.

It was great two days and as usual the time seem to go very quick... one of the better Astrofests I have attended!

My Profile on Amazon.com AuthorZone

2009-11-30T23:15:00.002Z

I now have a profile on Amazon.com's AuthorZone. This will hopefully elevate my profile and help promote the book.
For those who are viewing this from my AuthorZone blog pages, hello and welcome! You can access my blog and post comments directly on http://www.phuturespace.com

Cheers
Martin

Equinox Skycamp 2009

2009-11-10T23:10:00.014Z

Once again my family and I attended the Equinox Skycamp up in Kelling Heath. We also stayed the previous week in Great Yarmouth like we did the previous year and true-to-form caught the customary heavy colds that we attempted to avoid this time of year! Fortunately the colds were out of our system by the time the Skycamp weekend was upon us.

Every year I use the Skycamp as a testing ground for new equipment and gadgets since it is the best location and skies to test them. This year I had a couple of things I wanted to do. Firstly, to test out a wireless communication system for my telescope and secondly to obtain decent digital images of Jupiter.

Tent fun!

One thing I hadn't considered setting up before travelling up to Skycamp was the tent. Well, basically I forgot how to set up the simplest of toilet tents used to house the laptop and accessory equipment (see last year's pictures) and subsequently shattered two the carbon-fibre rods that provides the general shape and rigidity of the tent. Unfortunately the tent as it 'stood' was not very strong and the shape was such that it looked a little art decor! but thanks to a heavy dose of masking tape kindly donated by a friend (thanks Ken!), the tent held together for the weekend and was still functional. Luckily the weekend was wind-free! The worse case scenario would have been working from out of the back of the car. The tent provides me with a cosy enclave sheltering all equipment and myself from the elements. With a small electric heating fan running at low power I was kept relatively warm in comparison to being exposed in the open most of the night. As a result I lasted much longer than I did last year because I felt the cold less.

Bluetooth Wireless Communication

For quite a while I have been considering to set up a Bluetooth (BT) wireless connection between the telescope and the laptop. The Autostar uses a bog-standard Serial RS232C connection for communication so it wasn't too difficult to find on the internet a gadget that converted any Serial device to a Bluetooth wireless device.

In fact I decided to opt for a cheaper alternative than the so-called 'dedicated' Serial to Bluetooth telescope adaptors that are produced by astronomical product retailers such as Software Bisque, these cost in upwards of $110 dollars.

My cost effective solution is a MaxValue BT to Serial adaptor. It comes with its own USB and +5v power transformer. The price? only £22.

Now since USB power uses +5v DC to power it, I decided to go one better and use a USB travel power battery kit instead of using the power transformer supplied with the adaptor (which would have required yet another AC power socket under the telescope). These travel batteries are designed to charge or power mobile phones and mp3 players etc... Maplins supply such a kit and is supplied with various leads, one which connects the battery to the BT adaptor. The battery is rated at 2200mAh so it provides power to the BT adaptor for many hours. In fact it powered the adaptor for the entire weekend and only used up a small amount of juice. See picture.

The system worked perfectly throughout the weekend. The adaptor and battery was placed inside a small plastic box which also contained two transformers that powered the Dew Heater and LXD mount. The electronics were kept dry and relatively warm.

Touring the Norfolk Night Skies

With the wireless system up and running it was time to test it out. I decided to take my LXD55 AR-6 6 inch refractor on the LXD75 mount to the camp this year as I want to get the best images of Jupiter and to be honest I prefer it to my 8 inch SCT.

Friday night was exceptionally clear with some of the best transparent skies I have ever seen up at the site. Setup was not without event as my GPS failed so I had to resort to entering site and time details manually into the Autostar handset. Luckily I already stored the lat-long details in the Carte Du Ciel astronomy software. I also synchronised the time on my laptop with the help of a radio controlled clock. With perfect polar alignment achieved the GOTO system worked flawlessly throughout the whole weekend. The GOTO system was running accurately and I managed to observe large a number of objects including those that I don't normally see. I managed to stay up until about 3am, making the most of the clear sies.

Jupiter Imaging

My aim of the weekend was to get images of Jupiter through the refractor both observationally and digitally and I was not disappointed! I got some excellent views through the telescope, the best I have had for many years.

My first imaging attempt was to use an LPI but I found it easier to use the ToUcam Pro II instead. I cannot seem to get on with the LPI software - too time consuming to play around with it whilst out in the field.

The hardest part of the imaging task was trying to focus the Jupiter so I enlisted a friend to help me - in the future I will probably invest in a motor focuser (I am currently looking at an Orion Accufocuser and a Shoestring Autofocus PC interface). I took about five movies of Jupiter and processed the best one with the latest version of Registax v5.

Unprocessed

Processed

The Weekend

Saturday was the main event day. Trade stands lined the yellow field for most of the day and lectures took place in the Kelling Heath bar. Speakers included Bob Mizon and Nik Syzmanek.

There was a telescope tour from Loughton member Alan Marriott demonstrating the various types of telescope design of instruments scattered through the fields.

During the day raffle tickets were available from Loughton Society's stand located on the bandstand in the square. In the early evening the raffle prize draw took place where all prizes were kindly donated from vendors.

The day was sunny and warm with clear skies, but as the Sun went down it began to cloud over and despite some clear random patches, very little observing was done that night.

Sunday was a another bright sunny day. There were more lectures in afternoon, but normally I dont attend them because traditionally my family and I visit Cromer for the afternoon.

By the time the Sun was setting it was looking very likely the night was going to be a clear one. Once again I was not dissapointed. I decided to stick to observing rather than imaging and managed to see more objects than I did on the Friday night including M81, M51, NGC7662 (Blue Snowball) as well as four planets; Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Mars.

On the whole Skycamp was a great success, two out of three nights were clear. Over 1300 people attended on the Saturday and it has become the largest Skycamp in Europe. Looking forward to next year where we have booked a lodge and a pitch for 10 nights.

FAS Newsletter Review

2009-05-09T12:19:00.002+01:00

The book has been reviewed in the spring edition of the Newsletter of the Federation of Astronomical Societies. Almost every astronomical society in the UK subscribes to the FAS so this should boost visibility across the whole of the British Isles including Ireland, and the channel islands.
The review was done by Darryl Sergison. I wish to also thank Frank Johns, editor for kindly publishing the review in the magazine.

Astronomy Now Review

2009-03-27T22:54:00.006Z

The book has finally been reviewed in Astronomy Now, April Edition.
Nick Howes was the reviewer, he is a regular contributor to the magazine.

It was a mixed review to say the least. The first and last paragraphs were very positive and quite flattering. However the middle bit was what I can only describe as diametrically opposite to the other paragraphs.
There were a few points that Nick discussed:
1. Unpacking and Handling
From personal experience I did not find setting up the telescope from out-of-the-box, what Nick described as blindingly obvious. On the contrary feedback from other owners of the telescopes suggested that including the 'obvious' tasks would be beneficial for someone who has never owned these type of telescopes before.
2. Focusing methods
I agree that there are numerous methods for enhancing the focusing of a telescope. However, I do not know of have not heard of any owner that has placed wires across the objective of their telescope in order to improve the focus quality. I am not suggesting that it is not a good idea (I may even try it out one day!!), but I cetainly believe that it was not appropriate for the intended target audience of the book.
3. Quality of Images
Nick commented that perhaps the deep sky images could have been of sufficient quality to 'sell' the telescope. However, I think that the images provided was of sufficient quality to show the 'potential' of what an LXD can do given the right equipment and expertise.
4. Autoguiding
At the time of writing the sentiment amongst members of the LXD user groups suggested that autoguiding using the Aux port via a #909 port converter was not easy to get working. In fact the LPI provides sufficient means to autoguide via the RS232 port and the Meade AutoStar Suite. I considered writing several more pages on autoguiding but decided that there are plenty of resources on the internet that goes into much greater detail on autoguiding with Autostar.

There was no mention of the actual content of the book, such as the complete breakdown of every Autostar function, approximate times of various set up tasks and a whole chapter dedicated to Polar alignment.

I dont mind some criticism, but given that most other reviews were very positive (Mike Weasner, Ian Morison, ebay and Amazon), I expected this one to be no different! In fact Nick missed a couple of technical howlers that Mike Weasner picked up.

In conclusion, although I am pleased that the review was on the whole a positive one some of the review content was dissapointing.

The book should be reviewed shortly in the next FAS newsletter so we'll see whether it will be a positive one or not.

Astrofest 6-7th Feb 2009

2009-02-12T23:15:00.002Z

Once again Astrofest has come round again. It took place last Friday and Saturday 6th and 7th Feb.
So far I haven't missed a single year and this time it was no different. I attended the lectures on both morning sessions and in the afternoons I wandered around looking at the trade stands and generally 'networking'. The highlight of Friday's lecture was Govert Schilling a Dutch journalist and Astronomer who spoke about the search for Planet X and the discovery of transneptunian objects in the kuiper belt. His book of the same name was on sale on the Springer stand and I got him to sign it.
The highlight for Saturday's talk was a session with Patrick Moore, Reginald Turnall and Garry Hunt reminiscing the 40th anniversary year since Apollo 11.

It was good to see my book on the Springer stand and to know that it was selling quite well.

The only piece of equipment I ordered was a 2 inch ED barlow, which I am hoping it will be delivered shortly. I also purchased a couple of Springer books.

As usual both days went very quick and I always feel that its never long enough. Here looking forward to Astrofest 2010!!!

Tachyon: PDA and Mobile Astronomical Software

2008-11-28T10:23:00.005Z

Following the advice from Nick Howes of Astronomy Now, I downloaded an Astronomy application called Tachyon on my HP IPAQ PDA and Samsung Omnia Mobile phone. Both devices use Windows Mobile (v5.0 for the PDA and v6.1 for the phone). You need to install .net2.0 framework on the PDA for the application to work.

The package only uses up about 25Mb of space, but I would recommend that it is installed on a memory (e.g. SD) Card rather than use the memory on the device.

I am very impressed with it so far! Not only can you view star charts and planet ephemeris that is expected for this type of application, but there are a whole host of other features. I especially like to be able to view the latest weather map for the United Kingdom.

But in my opinion, the best thing about this package is the potential to connect to a computerised telescope and control it... ideal for my LXD75 setup. I have yet to investigate what I need to get this to work, but when I do I will post my findings here.
--------------------

Following on from this post: My letter to Astronomy Now regarding Astro software for PDA and mobiles phones has been published in Astronomy Now - January Edition.

Astroblast - 2nd November 2008

2008-11-12T22:57:00.004Z

The third Astroblast on Sunday 2nd November took place at Bedford school. I was there publicising my book along with Jack Martin who was displaying his spectroscopy images.

Lectures carried out througout the day including Monica Grady and Nik Symanek. Amateur rockets were launched from a field in the school's ground.

Trades stands included Astronomy Now, Green Witch, Campaign for Dark Skies and various local astronomical societies.

Overall I think it was an excellent event, well organised and well attended.

Book reviewed by Society for Popular Astronomy

2008-10-11T23:43:00.003+01:00

My book has finally been officially reviewed by a popular astronomy magazine. The Society for Popular Astronomy quaterly issue October-December 2008 has a review of my book by Ian Morison.
Ian praises the book and even recommends it to those who dont even own the telescopes described in the book. I didn't expect such high praise so I am very grateful to Ian for writing such a positive review.

At some point my book is going to be reviewed in Astronomy Now so it will be interesting to see what the reviewer says.

Equinox Skycamp Report: Kelling Heath Sept 26th-29th 2008

2008-10-05T22:23:00.023+01:00

The 13th Eqinox skycamp took place in late september at the Kelling Heath Touring Park, Sheringham Norfolk. It was hosted by Loughton Astronomical Society (who I am a member) in association with the Society for Popular Astronomy.

My family and I stayed in a lodge for the weekend. I also had a a pitch in the red field which had an electrical hook up for my telescope.

We stayed in Yarmouth the week before for an extended holiday, so it did not take long to travel up to Cromer on the A149.

Like the previous year I used a small tent, which was basically a tent normally used for er.. other purposes - a toilet tent! I decided a few years earlier that I did not need to have a large empty tent on the pitch since we stay in a lodge at these events. The small tent is fit-for-purpose, it has enough space for a small table and my laptop and acts as storage for tools and eyepiece boxes. It also acts as an excellent windbreak and keeps me relatively cosy whilst I am searching for objects with the laptop.

This year I took along my LXD75 Sc-8 and left the LXd55 AR-6 at home. The telescope's Autostar #497 handset was hooked up to the laptop via the usb-serial port. This meant that I did not need to use the handset, only for initial setup.

The Friday night (26th Sept) was clear ...but there was a lot of moisture in the air and the cover to the telescope was soaked when I removed it ready to observe. This was a night for the Dew zapper to run at full blast!!
Polar alignment and GPS setup went smoothly as did the two star alignment. The laptop was hooked up and I was ready to go. Time was about 22:00 BST.
With this setup I could observe countless objects in a single observing session. The Goto aligment was accurate such that the object was always in the centre of a 26mm Meade 4000 eyepiece. I decided to stay observing in the region of the Summer Triangle (Cygnus, Lyra, Aquila) area and adjacent constellations. Once the usual Messier objects were observed (M57, M27, M74) I proceeded to look for NGC and Caldwell objects. Over the course of the evening until about 1am I must have observed over 60 objects. The only failing I had was when the scope did a 'meridian flip' when looking for M31 and Uranus, this caused the Goto to lose its accuracy so I had to re-sync to re-acquire accuracy. By then however, my scope was suffering from Dew so I called it a night.

Saturday (27th Sept) was the main event day. Trade stands were plentiful in the Trade viallge situated in the yellow field. Lectures took place in the afternoon in the Bar. I attended Nik Syzmanek talk which was excellent. I also heard that thother by Les Cowley and Robin Scagell were also well attended.
A telescope tour took place at 5pm by Alan Marriot and at 6:30 the prize raffle took place, where first prize was a basic CCD camera.
The day was sunny and moderately warm with just a brief period when fog rolled in from the sea and the temperature dropped a little. It was a little eerie seeing how quickly it enveloped the campsite...I was expecting the sound of a ghost ship passing by !!!
Saturday night was relatively dew free although I would say not better sky conditions compared to the previous night. Nethertheless over 70 objects was notched up including Uranus until I retired around 2:30am. This time I was concentrating on objects in the east-south-east region of the sky such as Andromeda, Perseus and Casseopeia.

Unfortunately two days of sunshine and good weather was not to last...the Sunday (28th September) started windy with drizzly rain. This continued through to late afternoon. There were two lectures that took place in the Kelling Heath bar. Although I did not attend them I did hear that both talks were very good. I took my family for our usual day trip to Cromer.

The rain luckily held off whilst we were there...but by the time we headed back to the campsite, it seemed that any hopes for observing on the Sunday night were dashed. Funny enough this came to the relief to some astronomers who found three consecutive clear nights since the previous thursday of observing exhausting!!

Monday it was time to head off back home. Overall it was an excellent skycamp, well organsised and a great atmosphere too. The lodge and pitch for Sept 2009 is already booked and I may attend the spring skycamp in 2009.

More pictures of the event below:

2008-10-05T22:20:00.001+01:00

Update: This blog can now be accessed via http://www.phuturespace.com/.

Welcome!

2008-09-10T23:05:00.003+01:00

Hello and welcome to my blog!
This is the new home for all things Astronomy and Space related topics... and anything else that might be interesting!
My old blog was at http://www.frappr.com/martinp but I think blogspot is more accessible than the frappr website...where you have to register in order to reply to a post.
Soon you will be able to access this blog by simply typing in http://www.phuturespace.com in your web browser.

So, sit back and enjoy.

Regards
Martin (aka Phuturespace)