Thursday 8th May 2014 - Looking back to SN 2012B and SN 2012E

Two supernovae from 2012 discovered by Jack Newton and Tim Puckett. Follow @lenadamastro

Wednesday 7th May 2014 - NGC 891 from the Robotic Telescope Tenerife using the "Galaxy" camera

In January 2012 I acquired an image of NGC 891  - a 30 second exposure using the BRT Galaxy camera

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Looking back to Comet S1 ISON Movement in Gemini 21st Jan 2013

Monday 5th May - Minor Planet Interamnia Animation using the MicroObservatory Telescope.

Three images of Interamnia taken an hour apart using the MicroObservatory Telescope in November 2012.

  

Sunday 4th May 2014 Variable Stars in NGC 2516

In February 2013 I used the T9 Siding Spring Telescope I imaged the cluster NGC 2516 in Carina. I used VPhot to solve my image (below) and display any variable stars in the cluster. Taken with a V filter.

Saturday 3rd May 2014 Observatory Webcams and the Story of Jodrell Bank by Bernard Lovell

I have been looking at webcams at observatory sites. First of all Jodrell Bank. Click on the still image below to get a live image in a separate window. You will need to click the reload button on the new window to update the image. Note that the time given is Universal Time (G.M.T.) Images are updated every 30 seconds or so.

This is the first paragraph in Bernard Lovell's book "The Story of Jodrell Bank" that I bought for 50p when books were being sold from the RAF Cosford Officer's Mess Library when I was temporarily living in the Mess. A good bargain!

 This is the observatory of the Bradford Robotic Telescope on Tenerife. Click on the still image below to get a live image in a separate window. You will need to click the reload button on the new window to update the image. Note that the time given is UK Local Time.  Images are updated every few minutes.

Friday 2nd May 2014 - My visit to The Royal Observatory and Prime Meridian at Greenwich

 If you are ever in London you must visit the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Prime Meridian of the world - although I discovered on my visit on 7th February 2013 that there are in fact three Prime Meridia at Greenwich (I think that is probably the plural) as I will explain later. Armed with my trusty Sony Alpha 350 camera I travelled from Euston Mainline Station on the Northern Line (City Branch) to Bank underground station and there transferred to the Docklands Light Railway (overground) via Canary Wharf to Cutty Sark Station.  I could see Cutty Sark from the station so a slight diversion was in order.

I must admit that I was not too keen with the fact that Cutty Sark  looked as though it had crash landed on top of a greenhouse and squashed it  but what do I know about art and architecture?

There were clear signposts to show the way to the Royal Observatory so I followed them past the National Maritime Museum.

The National Maritime Museum

I turned right and into Greenwich Park to get my first view of the Observatory.

 

 The Royal Greenwich Observatory from Greenwich Park

 Flamsteed House through the trees - still a way to climb!

 

 Flamsteed House and the Time Ball

The observatory to the left contains the 28" refractor installed in 1893 in the "Onion Dome" which was originally built of iron struts covered with papier mache. In October 1940 a German air raid damaged the dome and in July 1944 a V1 flying bomb removed the papier mache covering. It was restored to the original design in 1971 - with fibreglass this time!

The above section of telescope was the first thing that I saw on entering the Greenwich Observatory.  The photograph (below) of the accompanying plaque reveals all.

 Details of my visit to Herschel's house in Bath are here.

 

 To be continued...............................................................

Thursday 1st May 2014 - Some interesting star clusters H59-8, NGC 1582, NGC 1798, NGC 1857, NGC 1883, NGC 2099, NGC 1912.

Before a supernova imaging run on January 5th 2012 I randomly imaged some interesting star clusters.

Herschel H59-8

 NGC 1582 

NGC 1798

NGC 1857 

NGC 1883

NGC 2099

NGC 1912

Wednesday 30th April 2014 - The Minor Planet - 7 Iris

Iris is a main belt asteroid that was discovered on the 13th August 1847 by John Russell Hind and was the seventh minor planet to be found. This image is from May 2012 using a Harvard MicroObservatory Telescope.

Tuesday 29th April 2014 - Jupiter near Castor and Pollux

Jupiter is still an excellent object forming a triangle with Castor and Pollux as shown below