Stargazey Pie

So, we've had some clear skies recently, and so Mr Si has been out there with his 10x50 binoculars, taking in the sky.

In many ways, it is the best time of the year for it. The skies can be magnificently clear, unlike summer they are properly dark, and there are many interesting sights as the milky way crosses the constellations of Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, Monoceros and Gemini.

Orion too has some stunning starfields, and of course the great nebula, you can sweep about and just love the stars there.

If I were to wait until dawn I'd see Venus and jJpiter blazing down. But I can't, as it is sooooooo coooold! Even a couple of rums wouldn't keep me out there for more than hour.

But I love doing it. It is silent, it is beautiful, it is contemplative.

And it is free.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.11.17

My Heat Ray Eyes are Hungry for the Prize

WEll, I tried out my baselayer today, and it did help with the freezing cycle to work this morning. Sadly I wasn't wearing it last night, when the sight of clear skies possessed me to get out my 10x50s and stand around pointing my binocular-ed head at the sky in order to see things.

I wasn't very good at it because my eyes are still out of practice at observing, and so I wasn't able to pick out my acid test Deep-Sky obect, the galaxy M33 in Triangulum.

Not with any degree of certainty anyway. My eyes wanted faint misty nebulous patches to appear everwhere I was looking. So I decided I couldn't credit myself with the sighting, and decided to practice what I preached in one of my work publications recently, and see if I could spot the Andromeda Galaxy with my naked eye. Which I could.

My eyes weren't completely rubbish then.

It was very late on a school night, so I decided not to hang around, and spent about 15 minutes just taking in the views; star after star and probably every single one with a story to tell that we can't comprehend. Virtually every star I looked at could have had a planet orbiting it; indeed science now seems to lean towards the idea that planets orbiting stars are the rule rather than the exception.

I'm reminding myself of the film "The Beach" where the French girl says to Leonardo di Caprio "This is the sort of thing that men say to French girls to make them sleep with them."

Best get back to the science then; I basically just shot around the sky from star cluster to star cluster around the "Clash of the Titans" constellations; Perseus, Cassiopeia, and, ummm Auriga who isn't in that myth but has three cracking open star clusters in it; Messiers 36,37 and 38. Likewise Gemini, and Orion who had his foot stung by a scorpion.

Later in the winter the Orion starfields will be glorious, a little bit low at the moment. But as it does every winter, the time will come.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.11.16