Above the Cloud - the blog!

Friday 24th April: observations were of M82, kindly located by Dave.Epsilon Lyrae, Eta Cassiopeiae, Iota Cass, Alpha Cannes Venatici (Cor Caroli), Albireo, Xi Bootes, M13, M92, Saturn, Melotte 111 by Sandra - first for me!

Monday 20th April: a good clear night and I decided that another shot a Saturn was required. I got to the Observatory at 9:30pm but Brian had three groups of students to show the night sky to. So I made best use of my time by brushing up on my Constellation/Star awareness. During this time, I saw two bright fireballs estimated at visual magnitude -6 and -4 and both moving from east to west through the Constellation of Ursa Major. At 11:30pm BST the sky was very good and I got some cracking webcam footage of the planet. After gathering several videos, Brian said we should process one there and then. This we did and he educated me in some finer points of using Registax. To finish the session we looked at one of the showpiece Binary Stars in the sky; Porrima, otherwise known as Gamma Virginis. With a 2x barlow in the 14 inch Meade, we racked up the magnification with a 12.5 mm lens giving a total magnification of x572. Using the electric focuser, I managed to get the Double as pin-sharp...