IC 4628 - The Prawn Nebula (Gum 56) in Scorpius

I took the remote image on Saturday March 31st 2018 at 05h 44m 12s Australian Time from Siding Spring in New South Wales. It is a 300 second exposure using Telescope T13 which is a Takahashi Sky 90. The image has been rotated to put North towards the top. The position angle of the image taken was 177 degrees 44 minutes from North, i.e. the image below is 180 degrees  - 177 degrees 44 minutes = 2 degrees  16 minutes from North. If it is rotated clockwise by that amount it will be north at the top.

IC 4628 lies at a distance of 6000 Light Years. 

 The negative image below identifies some of the objects in the field. 

Three stars that appear orange in the colour image are identified on the negative image.

The angular size of the nebula can be determined. 

Location of my new Observatory Site in Spain

I am in the process of setting up an observatory in Spain near the town of Albox in Almeria. It has a clear view to the east, south and west although the town of Albox is to the wet with some light pollution. From the proposed observatory location at (exactly) 500m altitude the sky will be very dark in most directions.

A closer view - showing that the 500m contour passes directly through the property

 View to the southwest from the roof terrace

Venus in the West at my new Observatory Site in Spain

The west and south west have most light pollution. The low level lights from the property next door (bottom left) are not a problem. There are  few isolated bright lights coming from the direction of Albox which is a little further to the south (left) than in the image. There are no lights to the south or east visible at all! 

The SHA Bulletin Spring 2018 - Total Solar eclipse of 1927 by Kevin Kilburn

The Bulletin of the Society for the History of Astronomy will be sent to members on April 1st 2018 and incudes an article about the eclipse. here is a brief snippet from the article:

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, 29 June 1927.

"The moon's shadow came onto land at Criccieth, Carnarvonshire and passed directly across the Snowdonia mountains to leave the North Wales coast at Pensar. Having crossed Liverpool Bay, landfall was again made between Ainsdale and Formby"

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN THE SHA AND RECEIVE THE BULLETIN

Courtesy of Fred Espenak NASA 

JANUARY 15TH 2018 - THE AMATEUR NIGHT SKY WEEKLY

The Amateur Night Sky Weekly is now available. Click on the image to read it.

JOIN THE SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

If you are at all interested in the history of astronomy why not join the Society (SHA). There is a fantastic programme of events. This year included a visit to Paris at the invitation of the French Astronomical Society with special access to astronomical resources for our members - they will be coming here on a return visit on 2019 and probably staying in an Oxford College along with our members who attend. The Spring conference this year was held at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy. The recent publication - Bulletin 28 - illustrated the events on the front cover. Although the membership includes Oxford and Cambridge and other University professors, most of the membership are amateurs with an interest in the history of astronomy. Join now!

Click on the image to find out about joining.

The Time Travelling Stargazer

Available at Amazon.

Thursday 2nd November 2017- Read my latest History of Astronomy Weekly Online Newspaper

Scrapyard Scope

A friend of mine here in Spain (Andy Devey - he produces superb videos of solar flares) took me to a local scrapyard to show me the remains of a very large and heavy telescope that he had come across. I thought this might possibly be of interest. I am going to ask Andy for more information on its history that I know he has looked into. I attach some images - the first one includes Andy. Note that it is designed for the local latitude of about 37 degrees.

My latest image of C/2017 O1 (ASASSN)

C/2017 O1 (ASASSN) continues its upward progress through Camelopardalis. A number of faint galaxies were captured in the image. Note that Local Spanish Time is given.The insets show the comparisons of the comet's position and image fields of view. 

PGC 2707769 has a magnitude of 18.76

PGC 2706432 has a magnitude of 17.62

PGC 2700133 has a magnitude of 16.69

PGC 213302 has a magnitude of 16.41

PGC 16349 has a magnitude of 16.27

Charts Courtesy of Software Bisque.  

Telescope Optics

OTA: Planewave 17" CDK 

Optical Design: Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph 

Aperture: 431mm

Focal Length: 1940mm (0.66 Focal Reducer)

F/Ratio: f/4.5 

Guiding: Active Guiding Disabled 

Mount: Planewave Ascension 200HR