Last night was not only a clear one, the moon was out of the way, and atmospheric conditions were good too. I decided to head out with my 10x50s at half past midnight with a bottle of Magners, and see what I should see.
It was probably one of the most rewarding observing sessions I've ever had.
First up, Coma Berenices, looking wonderful in binoulars as always, but sadly not revealing the globular cluster Messier 53 as I'd hoped. The Leo triplet is forever out of reach, and I'm not goping to see any of the Virgo cluster galaxies anytime from my garden, although the starfields in the Virgo bowl are attractive enough in their own right. The globular Messier 3 in Canes Venatici was an easy spot. Later on I picked up Messier 13 and Messier 5, and it is definitely slightly inferior to those two globulars.
I stayed in the vicinity of the Hunting Dogs, and realised that La Superba seemed to be naked eye visible, only, research today reveals I'm looking in the wrong place. Back to the drawing board!
However, first BIG TICK of the night. I found Messier 51, the famous Whirlpool galaxy, for the first time. It seems to form an isoceles triangle with a pair of 6th magnitude stars at 3 o'clock from a line joining Mizar to Alkaid - obviously little detail can be seen, but the fact that I was able to pick it up at all was a thrill.
Struck with my success, I scanned over to Merak and Dubhe, the north star "pointers" of legend, and I think I picked up another faint haze, marking Bode's galaxy, Messier 81, which is apparently absoloutely the furthest object visible with the naked eye. I will confirm this tonight if conditions are good. THRILL number 2.
The final big new spot was Messier 92 over in Hercules, another one to confirm tonight. All these objects are right on the limit from my site, but it's such a reward to be able to find them.
And it's beautiful to be out looking at stars anyway.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Saturday, 27 April 2013
Wheatear Hunting at Cotham Flash
Slightly belated post, as I have had a ton of writing to ctch up on.
Two tea times ago, 25/04/13, intrigued by all the reports of interesting sightings in the horse paddocks at Cotham Flash, I headed off on my bicycle to re-acquaint myself with the yellow wagtails I had seen out running a few days before, and hopefully to see a Wheatear.
(Picture courtesty of Aviceda, wikimedia)
As you can see, the wheatear is an palely beautiful member of the flycatcher family, a summer migrant to UK shores from sub saharan Africa. It likes open country, and the only time I;ve ever seen them before I was about 8 years old, my mother pregnant with my sister and thus on an entirely logical camping trip to Derbyshire. I loved the visit, we walked miles around the hills near Monyash with a birdwatching family friend, and I remember being shown wheatears in binoculars, and marvelling at these pretty birds hopping about on the uplands in the middle of nowhere.
I've never seen a Wheatear since, and I've never been on a camping'n'walking holiday either. So I figured it would be fun to see them on the Flash paddocks as I'd seen reported, but, sadly, I missed them.
I did see 4-5 yellow wagtails once again, occasionally being rather agressively chased by the pied wagtails, and a rather long way off. occasionally popping into view beyond the fence, lapwings were making a heck of a racket towards the wetland, and sand martins were busy feeding in numbers over the pond on the other side of the road.
I decided to move further down to the wetlands to listen to the quacking in the distance, and to watch what I think must have been a tawny owl quartering the scrubby wasteground on the other side of the tip road, large, patterned brown wings, and a pale underside.
Of course, I got hime to find reports of twenty yellow wagtails and several wheatears being in that paddock. But I'm not disappointed. I will just be patient, and hopefully one sunny day, there they will be.
Two tea times ago, 25/04/13, intrigued by all the reports of interesting sightings in the horse paddocks at Cotham Flash, I headed off on my bicycle to re-acquaint myself with the yellow wagtails I had seen out running a few days before, and hopefully to see a Wheatear.
As you can see, the wheatear is an palely beautiful member of the flycatcher family, a summer migrant to UK shores from sub saharan Africa. It likes open country, and the only time I;ve ever seen them before I was about 8 years old, my mother pregnant with my sister and thus on an entirely logical camping trip to Derbyshire. I loved the visit, we walked miles around the hills near Monyash with a birdwatching family friend, and I remember being shown wheatears in binoculars, and marvelling at these pretty birds hopping about on the uplands in the middle of nowhere.
I've never seen a Wheatear since, and I've never been on a camping'n'walking holiday either. So I figured it would be fun to see them on the Flash paddocks as I'd seen reported, but, sadly, I missed them.
I did see 4-5 yellow wagtails once again, occasionally being rather agressively chased by the pied wagtails, and a rather long way off. occasionally popping into view beyond the fence, lapwings were making a heck of a racket towards the wetland, and sand martins were busy feeding in numbers over the pond on the other side of the road.
I decided to move further down to the wetlands to listen to the quacking in the distance, and to watch what I think must have been a tawny owl quartering the scrubby wasteground on the other side of the tip road, large, patterned brown wings, and a pale underside.
Of course, I got hime to find reports of twenty yellow wagtails and several wheatears being in that paddock. But I'm not disappointed. I will just be patient, and hopefully one sunny day, there they will be.
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
A 15 mile run to see Warblers and Wagtails
Today, I set off on a run determined to erase the guilt of holiday time from work spent partaking of extra pints of beer from time to time and eating vegetarian stir fries of far too large a size.
I hit the road, Radio 4 in my ear, and determined to do a big run.
I ran past the cricket ground, and up along the cyle path towards Cotham, about 4-5 miles. Near Flowserve, my attention was taken by a pair of small and very plain brown birds flitting about in the hedgerow. Brown backs, paler brown underparts and a pale eye stripe. Definitely warblers, and judging by the size - no bigger than a coal tit - and colouration I'd say they were chiffchaffs rather than willow warblers although they didn't give me a bit of a sing song that would have clinched the deal.
In the very next tree, a pair of goldfinches were showing beautifully in the sun, and every so often my delicate footsteps would flush a peacock butterfly - disappointed not to see any orange tips on such a warm 20 degree day.
The rubbish tip was alive with gulls and crows, and as I turned on the road through Cotham village, there were plenty of kestrels around, and also a rather odd looking buzzard - it's tail seemed rather short, giving it a vulture-like apppearance. It shot up on a thermal like it was in a lift.
Eventually, I came to Cotham Flash, and decided to stop briefly to look over the gate into the horses' paddock. Within there were several stunning yellow wagtails, so bright they were almost fluorescent. I haven't seen one of these for many years, in town we only tend to get grey wagtails. They are incresingly scarce in the UK, so I'm pleased I saw them, so many interesting sights round Cotham Flash. I didn't notice any wheatears as I'd seen reported, and resolved to bring my binoculars to this spot as soon as possible.
On the Hawton Farndon Road, there were a few swallows about, but didn't see anything of note in Willow Holt. The Black Swan was on the river today, and on the power station weir a cormorant was standing like a jurassic relic drying its wings.
The next interesting bird I saw flapping into a bush along the windmill stretch. Saw a bird with a noticeably chestnutty back, and managed to get a good look before it flew off across the river into the reeds - black face and white collar, it was a reed bunting, which I've never seen along the river here before.
Fabulous run, fabulous day, lots to see and proud I did it!
I hit the road, Radio 4 in my ear, and determined to do a big run.
I ran past the cricket ground, and up along the cyle path towards Cotham, about 4-5 miles. Near Flowserve, my attention was taken by a pair of small and very plain brown birds flitting about in the hedgerow. Brown backs, paler brown underparts and a pale eye stripe. Definitely warblers, and judging by the size - no bigger than a coal tit - and colouration I'd say they were chiffchaffs rather than willow warblers although they didn't give me a bit of a sing song that would have clinched the deal.
In the very next tree, a pair of goldfinches were showing beautifully in the sun, and every so often my delicate footsteps would flush a peacock butterfly - disappointed not to see any orange tips on such a warm 20 degree day.
The rubbish tip was alive with gulls and crows, and as I turned on the road through Cotham village, there were plenty of kestrels around, and also a rather odd looking buzzard - it's tail seemed rather short, giving it a vulture-like apppearance. It shot up on a thermal like it was in a lift.
Eventually, I came to Cotham Flash, and decided to stop briefly to look over the gate into the horses' paddock. Within there were several stunning yellow wagtails, so bright they were almost fluorescent. I haven't seen one of these for many years, in town we only tend to get grey wagtails. They are incresingly scarce in the UK, so I'm pleased I saw them, so many interesting sights round Cotham Flash. I didn't notice any wheatears as I'd seen reported, and resolved to bring my binoculars to this spot as soon as possible.
On the Hawton Farndon Road, there were a few swallows about, but didn't see anything of note in Willow Holt. The Black Swan was on the river today, and on the power station weir a cormorant was standing like a jurassic relic drying its wings.
The next interesting bird I saw flapping into a bush along the windmill stretch. Saw a bird with a noticeably chestnutty back, and managed to get a good look before it flew off across the river into the reeds - black face and white collar, it was a reed bunting, which I've never seen along the river here before.
Fabulous run, fabulous day, lots to see and proud I did it!
Monday, 22 April 2013
Observing The Moon with Binoculars
Just summarising a couple of nights of bonocular astronomy for you, where I decided for once that the presence of a day 8 and day 9 moon was not going to put me off getting outside with the 10x50s and seeing what I could see.
The moon was at an easy altitude, so I decided to have a good look at our nearest neighbour for a change. For me, with very unsteady hands, I've always been put off by lunar observing with my binoculars, but these nights I decided to (rather awkwardly) jam my elbows onto my chest and rest my arms in this fashion - this enabled me to have a few half decent views.
The moon's surface is packed with detail, and rewards patience. The most prominent features are located on what is known as the terminator, the cut off point between the luminated and unluminted parts of the moon - essentially when the moon is waxing, the terminator line indicates where the sun is rising on the lunar surface. At these locations, the sun casts the longest shadows so craters and mountains are easiest to see.
The feature that grabbed my attention the most with a crater actually still in the dark, but who's crater wall was illuminated like a sort of glowing eyelid in the night. Research indicates that this was possibly the crater Eratosthenes. The dark floor of the crater Plato was visible in the far north, and in the far south the giant crater Clavius, 140 miles across, was plainly visible too.
By now, my arms were like jelly, so I took in what sights the deep sky could offer me despite the moon. Messier 3 was visible with some difficulty, rather easier being further from the moon were the other globular clusters Messier 13 and my first view of the season for Messier 5 in Serpens Cauda. Identifying La Superba is still beyond me, but Messier 39 in Cygnus was just about distinguishable.
A rewarding couple of short sessions! The night sky is so beautiful, and unlike the love of Jennifer Lopez, it's love doesn't cost a thing.
The moon was at an easy altitude, so I decided to have a good look at our nearest neighbour for a change. For me, with very unsteady hands, I've always been put off by lunar observing with my binoculars, but these nights I decided to (rather awkwardly) jam my elbows onto my chest and rest my arms in this fashion - this enabled me to have a few half decent views.
The moon's surface is packed with detail, and rewards patience. The most prominent features are located on what is known as the terminator, the cut off point between the luminated and unluminted parts of the moon - essentially when the moon is waxing, the terminator line indicates where the sun is rising on the lunar surface. At these locations, the sun casts the longest shadows so craters and mountains are easiest to see.
The feature that grabbed my attention the most with a crater actually still in the dark, but who's crater wall was illuminated like a sort of glowing eyelid in the night. Research indicates that this was possibly the crater Eratosthenes. The dark floor of the crater Plato was visible in the far north, and in the far south the giant crater Clavius, 140 miles across, was plainly visible too.
By now, my arms were like jelly, so I took in what sights the deep sky could offer me despite the moon. Messier 3 was visible with some difficulty, rather easier being further from the moon were the other globular clusters Messier 13 and my first view of the season for Messier 5 in Serpens Cauda. Identifying La Superba is still beyond me, but Messier 39 in Cygnus was just about distinguishable.
A rewarding couple of short sessions! The night sky is so beautiful, and unlike the love of Jennifer Lopez, it's love doesn't cost a thing.
Sunday, 21 April 2013
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