Some would take the mickey out of her, fortunately only the odd one that I know of, but isn't this/she fabulous/inspirational
Anyone out seeing how many planets you can see? I have got Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars from my back garden tonight. Stunning really.
Will have a look in a bit. Too late for Saturn, setting pretty much as it gets dark and haven't got a clear view of the horizon. Never forget the first time looking at Saturn through a telescope, it was a bit of a "wow" moment for me.
Venus is crescent shaped. Managed to see bands on Jupiter and three moons close in. I also saw the Orion nebula tonight. Like a gassy smudge. I’ll try and catch Saturn and Uranus later in the week.
Are you using a telescope? I had a look tonight, but just with binoculars so not too stable. Was looking at orion nebula, amazing to think what's going on there. Might have to get the telescope out tomorrow, more stable than hand held binoculars.
I have a 5" reflector. I stupidly bought a "goto" telescope 15 years ago which turns out to be so fiddly to use that I started using brute force to adjust it. Not ideal. I'm on the edge of the NYorks moors and the skies are amazing when it's clear.
That's what I've got, a 5" reflector. I bought a skywatcher 130pm about 14 years ago on an equatorial mount, decent set up, but a pain in the arse to store/move etc. It ended up not being used much as it was a bloody chew on just to get the thing outside. Then about 5 years ago I bought a skywatcher 130 heritage: same mirror, but in an extendable scope, on a dobsonian mount. Much more portable, and dead easy to set up, so gets used much more. This one.... I fitted a black shroud to cut out unwanted light, and it works brilliant. This is what it looks like unextended.
Me and Mrs Smug enjoy walking and wild camping in strange places particularly those it's impossible to drive to, so no tourists or day trippers. On Corsica we walked for about three hours on old shepherd trails and came to something like the photo below. (Not that one but I can't find any photos online.) The site went on and on, with caves, tombs and all kinds of monuments but was really overgrown, we didn't see anyone else for two days. We set up the tents, had a meal and had a little fire to keep wild boars away then went to bed. In the middle of the night I got up for the toilet, looked up at the sky and nearly fell backwards. The sky was absolutely overwhelming but, of course, we knew what we were looking at. What the people who built these stones, 3/4000 years ago must have thought is anyone's guess ... ... WTF is my guess please log in to view this image
When we had the caravan near Kirkcudbright, we used to drive up to Kirroughtree near Newton Stewart to go on the bike trails (the Mrs was fit and well then), and it was also a designated dark sky site. Up there was the clearest skies I've ever seen. The Mrs thought I was mad but I could have lay down and stared at the night sky for hours. Seeing the Milky Way so clearly was just awesome really, yet with so much light pollution now some will never see it.
United's new ground looks quite good/futuristic, doesn't it, though it does look like a massive marquee (looking at these artist impressions) . . . . being paid for by us (taxpayers), so it seems please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
