Run around the lake and up beacon hill

A hot run, with much of interest to see

By the London Road Lake, this plant is suddenly in abundance

Thistle

Family of Swans

Ringlet

Hard to photograph meadow brown

A dream home

A welcome sprinkling

Blue skies over Willow Holt

Today's run was extremely hot and difficult, and all the wonderful meadow browns, banded demoiselles and first brown hawkers of summer sadly far too difficult to photograph! But I still bring you these...

Willow Holt meadow, full of meadow browns

Peace tree

Thistle

Entrance to Willow Holt proper

Meadow cranesbill

Scarlet poppies

Red tailed bumblebee

An enviable barge

Shadow of the runner

Vega, neither Vincent or Vic

At this time of year, if you head outside when the sky finally gets properly dark at about 11pm, and look straight up above your head, you will see one of the most attractive sights in the night sky. A brilliant star, brighter than any other in the vicinity, and most notably of all, a star of a beautiful icy blue colour.

This is the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra, the Lyre. It is called Vega - sadly, pronounced Vee-ga Tarantino fans! - and is the third most brilliant star in the night sky visible from the UK. On the cosmic scale it is one of our nearer neighbours at 25 light years away - say a mere 350,000 years travel at Voyager 1 speeds, and is about 40 times more luminous than our sun.

Its strong blue colour - the only naked eye star in the entire sky to be so hued - is down to the fact that it has a surface temperature of up to 10,000 degrees Celcius, compared with just under 6,000 for our sun. To put it simply, the hotter the star, the whiter or bluer it is, and the cooler it is the redder it gets.

Vega in comparison to the sun, from RJ Hall on wikimedia

Vega is also famous for being one of the first stars suspected of having a genuinely extrasolar planet. In 1983 the IRAS infra-red satellite telescope discovered a huge disc of cool material around the star that was believed to be similar to the primordial dust disc around the sun that the earth and other planets fromed from. However, the existence of a planet orbiting Vega has not yet been definitely confirmed, and around a hot, energetic and shorter lived star like Vega the "Goldilocks Zone" may be thin to non-existent.

Not far away from Vega, but sadly entirely invisible to the naked eye, is one of the mst famous objects in the night sky, the 57th object in Charles Messier's catalogue, The Ring Nebula. In small telescopes, it looks like a tiny celestial polo mint, but NASA photos reveal the true wonder of the object, which perhaps to some of you is best known for adorning one of the scanners on the bridge of the original Starship Enterprise!

The Ring Nebula, NASA image

On the impossibility of photographing swifts with a mobile phone

 

As well as in the eaves of the Chinese takeaway near me, a couple of days ago I noticed that there were swifts nesting in the corner of the roof gable of one the large number of Victorian semi detached houses that are found at the ends of  the terraced streets in my vicinity.

Having tried and failed to film them and record their excitable screeching at the takeaway, I figured I'd be able to get a few shots of them entering the nest, or perhaps catch a group of them as they flew in tight circles no more than ten feet above my head. With my handy mobile phone of course, on which virtually all of my own photos on this blog are taken...

They are not called swifts for nothing. A large series of shots of the sky revealed endless blue vistas dotted with the odd chimney stack, and eventually, one solitary black dot. Blown up as much as my phone could do it, the end result is what you see above, a photograph of what could just as easily be a picture of a top secret Russian spy jet taken at a range of 40 miles, as it is a swift.

Well I shan't waste my time trying that again! I shall instead merely enjoy the sight of them commanding the air, slicing the air to ribbons with their wings as they shriek past my ear as I cycle home. I suggest you do the same, they shan't be around for that much longer.

A visit to the island

Today went on a walk to millgate island, on a quest for dragonflies. Sadly, no hawkers or chasers to be seen on this hot day, but there were plenty of lovely, and unphotographable, beautiful demoiselles. Metallic blue males and pale green females flitted across the water's surface and sat upon the wetland plants. A great sight.

Looking North West parallel to river

A quiet backwater

The weir

Weird bridge

Bramble Flower

Deserted Blockhouse

Pony - hope it had water

New Objects Spotted in the Sky

I realise that the post title makes it sound like I was seeing UFOs or Supernovae, well no such joy, although I did see a pair of bright sporadic meteors. The second, fizzing through the sky from North West to South East from the Zenith into Serpens / Bootes, was an especially good object - noticeable yellow in colour, it seemed to fade before brightening again as it left a very prominent smoke trail.

It was the best summer night sky I've seen in a while, with the milky way and even the Cygnus Rift plainly visible. I kicked off with some familiar objects - Messier 5 and Messier 3 still visible, but a bit lost in twilight. Had an easy view of La Superba though - AT LAST - and it looked noticeably like a glowing coal.

Messier 13 and Messier 92 globulars overhead in Hercules were a fine sight, oddly M92 looked the more impressive in my 10x50s last night. Moving further East, Messier 71 in Sagitta was easy, Messier 27 the Dumbell surprisingly easy,  Messier 39 in Cygnus a fine object as ever, and the Lacerta open cluster who's name I can never remember plainly visible. First sightings on Messier 15 in Pegasus, and The Andromeda Galaxy, reminded me with a faint shudder that although the night was wonderfully wild, Autumn is lurking in the distance.

Tonight, with Cassiopiea rising by 1am, I figured that it was worth my while to have another look for Messier 52 - and this time, using the right hand stars of the W as pointers, I found it as a hazy patch, with no individual stars visible.

I also squinted my head off trying to spot Messier 56 in Lyra. I thought I did...then I thought I didn't.

What I did spot was way below Aquila and Scutum. Having enjoyed spotting the Ophicuchus open clusters, I picked up Messier 11 the Wild Duck, and thought, "Hmmm, I wonder on this clear night, will any any interesting objects be on view in Sagittarius?"

Well, from my garden, of course not. But what I did see was a very wide and attractive binocular double low down, way below Altair. Comprising two orange stars of equal magnitude - probably 5th - at greater than Mizarish separation, it was a lovely sight. I have no idea what this star is, I'm researching it now. I'm guessing it was in Eastern Sagittarius or perhaps Capricornus.

Only a plain old orange double star, maybe only an optical one. But somehow, it made my night

The Meadow Browns at Beacon Hill Park

I'm off shift now, the weather is dull and muggy but not wet, and so I was able to go for a Radio 4 run the back way to Coddington.

The oilseed rape is mainly over, but the wheat and barley is developing rapidly, and over the farm corner on the Barnby road, the House Martins were wheeling in the air, plump white rumps flashing even on this greyish morning. A few swifts were around too, in a slightly strange rural setting by the A1. The usual kestrel was not about though.

The growing cherries look very tempting on a tree on the main road in Coddington village, but judging by the stones hanging from their stalks by scraps of flesh, the birds won't wait until they are ripe. Everything that can be eaten, will be. I'm reminded of the roadkill rabbits near work who's bodies provide food for crows, as the beautiful linnet flies nearby. Meanwhile I throw my bread in the bin for the merest shade of staleness or a tiny hint of mould.

The grass at Notts Wildlife Trust Beacon Hill Park has suddenly grown very long, and today, the meadow browns were very much in evidence in the main meadow. I don't normally see many butterflies in main part of the park, the grass usually being kept shorter, but today, after a spell of warm weather and rain the grass has shot up, providing the meadow browns with a foodsource. There was a solitary specimen in Willow Holt the other day, but this is a real mass emergence. They were flapping about my face as I flushed them from low down, as ever their variety of colouration, from almost ash grey, to a warm golden brown, seems more marked than any other butterfly.

No ringlets yet, and now, I'm confident I won't misidentify chimney sweeper moths as newly emerged ringlets when they are finally flying!