Here's an appalling picture taken tonight handheld with my mobile through my 5" reflector. Satellites left to right, Europa, Ganymede (the bulge in the top left of the disc of Jupiter), Callisto (very faint and fuzzy) and Io. Andd here's how it should look (inverted from mine with Ganymede against the rim of Jupiter) The first picture's quite clearly awful but seen directly it's so clear. The moons of Jupiter are the jewels in the crown in the night sky. You see a dot in the sky and it's just Jupiter. Look through even a small telescope and you see the two main dark bands on the disc and four diamonds near it that move position almost by the hour. Those four diamonds led Galileo to turn the Earth-centric view of the universe on its head and transformed our understanding of our place in the universe. Sends chills down my spine whenever I see it. Vin PS. Memo: must get an SLR mount for the telescope.
Nice post. I've done pretty similar stuff as yourself over the years. About 30 years ago I was messing around trying to get pictures of the planets with my Pentax ME Super SLR loosely attached to a 2" refractor scope, and getting nowhere. Then I took the lens off the Pentax and just held it close to the lens of the scope, after pointing that at Jupiter. What I got was a slightly smeary but pretty good version of the first illustration that Galileo gives of Jupiter and its visible moons. And it was a hair-standing-on-end moment that I was seeing exactly what Galileo had drawn in his Starry Messenger. I vowed then to buy an SLR adaptor for the telescope, but the scope wasn't mine, but borrowed, and I was into loads of other things too. Since then I got my own refractor and reflector, which I occasionally get out at certain times of the year. I don't take photos now, but just set up the scopes and watch whatever I'm aiming at surge past the view. And by goodness don't they move.! I set one of them up to view Saturn, for my brother to look at, and by the time he'd got his eye into position it had come and gone. We got it and him sorted out in the end though. Funnily enough, it was star gazers like Galileo, I suppose, who ended any lingering thoughts I had with religion. You'll have to appreciate that I was still under my catholic family's influence in my teens, but I read about how Galileo's findings and statements, while on trial by the Church, effectively got Copernicus restored to scientific history, when he had been banned a hundred years or so earlier. From that came things like everyday truth for the people and revealed truth for scientists and church, and it all became too much of a conspiracy for me. So Galileo took away any remaining faith I might have had. Fortunately for me.
It may be a harmless ball of fluff to you, but I'd have heart failure if I found one in my bathroom .....
Vin You must. It makes a huge difference. A SLR mount in my 10" Dob: please log in to view this image Afocal with the iPhone: please log in to view this image Interestingly you can see two of the Galilean moons on the iPhone image, but not on the SLR. I did have a filter on though.
It appears that you can see one of the moons in the scope picture. There should be a manual option exposure meter setting on the smartphone, by the way. No, I've never used mine either, in that way. Last time I pointed my smartphone at the night sky it was to capture a total lunar eclipse of the totality that won't happen again until 2033 [IIRC] That took some doing as the Moon appeared as a very dark smudge in a very dark sky. And that was before I took the pic.
My first thought was of being back in the Kent Weald around when the rapeseed goes ripe. Jeez, the rubbery pong.! But the sea of yellow looks quite nice.
THE tune of the summer of 1996 for me - Children (well except for that stupid Football's Coming home). RIP
There's thousands of acres of it in the Mendips as well, unfortunately. I hate that smell and it's the only thing that gives me hay fever. Not sure I like the colour either, plus it absolutely knackers the soil.
Nice picture. Oddly enough, on the way to work a few weeks back, at 04.00, I saw a deer crossing Lordshill Way, near Sainsbury's. I was more than surprised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39868229 I have to say that I agree completely with this. It's bad enough having to go into a care home (I would imagine) without being split up from your partner. I am assuming they want to stay together. Hopefully this is very rare and councils aren't generally that thoughtless.
So many around. I drove up the A34 the other day and was amazed by the number of deer road kill on the side of the road. Very sad - they ought to think of putting fences up I reckon.
Hayfever - when I was a kid I suffered terribly, eyes full of grit, problems breathing, spent most of the summer inside when everyone else was outside. Took pills, injections, nothing worked - but as I got older it slowly subsided. Now at 57 I really don't get hayfever at all unless I do something stupid like walk through a field of tall flowering grass on a windy day. So if you suffer from hayfever it can get better!
