Rain and Cloud today

No astronomy possible tonight. I earlier checked the operation of the roof of the observatory during a dry spell - it works fine. Also I needed an appropriate sized adaptor to connect my ETX90  OTA to my Canon 40D. I bought this adaptor last week and connected it to the ETX today.

Baader Planetarium 7 mm Ultra Short T-Adaptor 

Together with my Meade f/6.3 focal reducer this will allow the full moon to fit into the field of view. 

Product Description

SCT adaptor Ultras nursery, T2 (Male)/2SC (female). Only 10 mm Optical length. Specifications: Weight (kg): 0.038. Optical tube length: 7. Inner Diameter / Clear Aperture (mm): 39. Outer Diameter: 56. Inner Connection (lens sided): Thread, 2". Outer Connection (eyepiece/-camera-sided): Thread, T-2 (M42 x 0,75). Compatible Brands: Astro T-2, UNC, Baader Planetarium, Celestron, Other. Type of Adapter: Reducing piece

I also ordered an adaptor for the Guidecope mount that I use to hold the Canon 40D/ETX. At present I have a stack of washers but need a more solid way of attaching the mount to the Primaluce bar. This is the same adaptor that supports the guidescope mount for my SkyWatcher 80mm guidescope.

FLO Adapter for Sky-Watcher Guidescope Mount

"A convenient adapter plate that enables you to easily fit the Sky-Watcher Guidescope Mount to any Sky-Watcher or ADM dovetail.

CNC machined black-anodised aluminium. 

Supplied with 2x 1/4" UNC screws (to fit dovetail) and 4x M5 screws (to fit Guidescope mount). "

Back in Spain

I left Manchester Airport at 1230 local time yesterday in bright sunshine to arrive just less than 3 hours later to the very wet runway at Alicante airport in the pouring rain. I rang the parking company to let them know I had arrived and by the time I worked out which level was ground level at the airport (Level2) and exited the terminal they had parked my truck immediately in front of the exit. It was difficult to get to it because the parking area was submerged in 3 inches of water and it was still raining!  However within minutes I was heading south on the A7 motorway with 200 km to drive south to my location in Almeria Province, arriving a couple of hours later still in daylight. The house and surrounds were very wet. 

At 5:20 a.m. this morning (4:20 UK Time and 3:20 Universal Time) I went out of the front door to a part cloudy sky. The front of the house faces almost directly due south and the sky was very dark with no Moon in the sky and a brilliant Jupiter at magnitude -2.29 dominated the otherwise brilliant stars in the sky. Chart courtesy of Software Bisque

Jupiter was at an atitude of 25 degrees and the constellation of Scorpius was well above the horizon with Antares its usual brilliant red. However by 06:20 local time the clouds had returned. Back in the UK at Norwich at the Univeral Time of 03:20 when I observed Jupiter its altitude was only around 12 degrees.Chart courtesy of Software Bisque

The Amateur Night Sky Weekly is available 25th March

Web Links about Astronomy

The history of astronomy weekly is available.

Internet links to items relating to the History of Astronomy

The Amateur Night Sky weekly is available

Optical Transient in Messier 51 using a Remote 24-inch telescope.

Following up from my previous image of m51 identifying the optical transieent in M51 I used the iTelescope remote telescope T24 in California to get this image containing the Optical Transient on 18th March 2019.

Optical Transient in Messier 51 using a Remote 10 inch telescope

I was notified by Guy Hurst of the Astronomer magazine about the presence of an optical transient in Messier 51. It was discovered on 22nd January 2019. It is a 'supernova imposter' - a variable star that has brightened considerably so, unlike a supernova, it will not be destroyed.  I took an image of this on 2nd March 2019 using a remote 10" reflecting telescope in New Mexico. This is shown below.  I have added some nearby stellar magnitudes to the image to compare with the transient magnitude. By ‘solving the plate’ of the image in the SkyX software I measure the coordinates of AT 2019abn as RA: 13h 29m 41.8s Dec: +47° 11' 12" (Epoch 2000).
Full details of the transient can be found here.

Eta Carina Nebula

Luminance: 3 x 180s, Red: 3 X 60s, Green: 3 X 60s, Blue: 3 x 60s. Stacked and Aligned in Nebulosity, processed in Photoshop CC.

Messier 51

Single 5 minute exposure

IC2169 in Monoceros