Hyperion

One of these images is a moon of Saturn, one is a fossil coral?

Hyperion is one of Saturn's moons, highly irregular in shape and rather intriguing.  I was looking through the NASA Cassini images and realised how much one of my many fossils resembled Hyperion.  I thought I would place images of of both side by side for all to see!  Guess which is which.

Hyperion is the largest known irregular body in the solar system. Its average diameter is 270 kilometres but being potato shaped its best described by dimensions along three axes (410x260x220 km).

Many of the crater walls are bright which suggests an abundance of water the crater floors are dark with a red colouration.

Hyperion is the rock on the right.

Hyperion Discovery
Discovered by	William Bond George Bond William Lassell
Discovery date	16 September 1848
Designations
Alternative names	Saturn VII
Adjective	Hyperionian
Orbital characteristics
Semi-major axis	1,481,009 km[a]
Eccentricity	0.1230061[1]
Orbital period	21.276 d
Inclination	0.43° (to Saturn's equator)[2][3]
Satellite of	Saturn
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	360.2×266×205.4 km[4])
Mean radius	135.00±4.00 km[4]
Mass	0.56199±0.005×1019 kg[4]
Mean density	0.544±0.050 g/cm3[4]
Equatorial surface gravity	0.017–0.021 m/s2 depending on location[4]
Escape velocity	45–99 m/s depending on location.[5]
Rotation period	chaotic
Axial tilt	variable
Albedo	0.3[6]
Temperature	93 K (−180 C)[7]
Apparent magnitude	14.1[8]

Credits to NASA JPL and Wikipedia

Jupiter and Mars - Little and Large Worlds Apart

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot on the western limb
with moons Europa an Io

Probably my best image of Jupiter to date.  I've also improved my use of Registax Software which has enabled me to create a sharper final image.  I've applied a similar sharpening approach to my old image of Mars.

Mars

Mars is a small planet whilst Jupiter is the largest in the Solar System.

Mars is a terrestrial planet that has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which in reality are captured asteroids.  Mars has a mass of 6.4 x 10^23 Kg about 11% of the Earth's mass.

Jupiter is a gas giant planet that has a mass 318 times that of Earth!

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a long lasting atmospheric storm that can be seen to circle the planet in the southern equatorial belt. The GRS is 10 deg C cooler than the surrounding zone and extends some 8 km above the surrounding clouds. It rotates counter-clockwise like a vortex.

Jupiter and Mars are Solar System neighbours separated only by the asteroid belt, but all in all they are worlds apart!

Another day in Paradise

All good things come to an end

Mais où est le perroquet vert ?

Palm Trees

Palm Trees mixed media
January 2013

As Toot says, when I'm on holiday I always paint palm trees.

So here they are!

Funchal Harbour at Dusk

Funchal Harbour at dusk

I spent a very happy day preparing this mixed media painting of a sunset over the harbour at Funchal, Madeira.  I sketched the view from our hotel balcony using water-colours and then photographed the sketch.  I worked up the painting on my laptop using Photoshop software.  At some stage I might transfer this to canvas using oil paint to achieve the desired intensity of colour.

New Moon over the Atlantic

The new Moon over the Atlantic is a beautiful sight!

Earth-shine, that is, sunlight reflected from our planet to illuminate what would otherwise be the dark surface of the Moon, can be seen clearly in this photograph taken by Toot from our hotel balcony.

Apparently, it's snowing in England but here in Madeira it's a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit!

Sunset over the Atlantic

Breath-taking sunsets seem to be a regular occurrence in Madeira!

Let there be light

Messier 42 &43 the Orion Nebula

The Pleiades

Jupiter + Europa

At long last I managed two hours in the backyard with my telescope with only a little haze, no clouds and absolutely no rain!  Managed to get some quick images of; the Great Molecular Cloud-The Orion Nebula, in  Orion's Sword, part of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters open star cluster M45 and my best shot to date of Jupiter and its inner most moon Io.

Jupiter, 3 Moons and a Star

Image captured from our Backyard
at 6.30pm on 4th January 2013

January the 4th started very well. My Birthday present arrived by post, a new 60mm right-angle finder and guide scope for use with my 127mm refractor.  A finely engineered piece of kit assembled and supplied by Altair Astro based in Aylsham Norfolk.  Top customer service guys!

About 18.00 UTC the sky was clear and Jupiter was shining brightly in a transparent  sky.

Having been seduced by good weather before only to be let down by clouds rolling in to obscure the stars,  I carefully searched the sky from horizon to horizon.  Not a cloud in sight, not even a hint of mist.  So I decided to go for it, I unpacked my scope, laptop, camera, wires and astro accessories.

I get my scope on its mount in my back yard, connect all the bits together, fire up all the various bits of electronics and align my telescope and point it towards Jupiter.  For some unknown reason Windows Vista on my laptop refuses to recognise my 'planetary camera' and so I waste 20 minutes whilst my camera and laptop get aquainted.

Finally after some oath swearing and mumbled profanities I manage to get a focussed image of Jupiter on my laptop screen.

I adjust the 'gain' and set the AVI clip length to 150 seconds, any more and the fast rotation of the clouds in the Jovian atmosphere will blur my image. I press the clip capture button. Geronimo!

I look up and cannot believe it.  There are clouds everywhere. Where did they come from?  Is someone somewhere 'havin a laugh'? All I needed was 150 seconds of cloud free night sky, is this too much to ask?

Anyway I managed to catch enough photons to create a reasonable photograph of Jupiter including its Great Red Spot and three of its Galilean moons.  I also captured the double or multiple star system designated BU87.

Details of star BU87

Visual magnitude: 5.91
Spectral type: M0III       o
Distance: 1754 +/- 663 light years
Luminosity: 1013 +/- 911 x Sun's luminosity

Position information for 04 Jan 2013 18:20:25
(Julian day number 2456297.26418)

Apparent RA (epoch of date): 04h 23m 11.03s
Apparent Dec (epoch of date): +20° 51' 03.3"
Constellation: Taurus

Altitude: +40° 48' 47"
Azimuth: 112° 0' 9"

Hour angle: 20h 45m 15s

Rise: 13h 27m 32s
Transit: 21h 34m 38s
Set: 5h 45m 41s

Names and Catalog Numbers

Tycho catalog number: TYC 1276-1625-1
Hipparcos number: HIP 20417
Henry Draper number: HD 27639
DM number: BD +20 0744
WDS designation: BU 87

First go at processing the video Clip (a bit too technicolour)

Two Genies, One Villain and a Transvestite

We finished the Christmas Holidays with a visit, with friends, children and family, to the traditional pantomime at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft.

Toot and I had a great time and all the children laughed cheered, hissed and booed in accordance with tradition.

Widow Twanky, the pantomime dame, was played by a man in drag, but contrary to usual tradition the principal boy was actually a man rather than a girl in male attire.  The overly buxom Widow together with her gormless son Wishy-Washy run the Emperor of China's Laundry in old Peking.  Her other son Aladdin, the story's protagonist battles the wicked wizard Abanazar for possession of the Magical Lamp and the hand of the Emperor's daughter fair Princess Jasmine.

As is tradition in the British Theatre, the story-line plays second fiddle to showcasing actors and actresses better known for more mainstream roles on television and stage, pop songs, slapstick comedy and children from local drama schools.  British Pantomime is not known for its subtlety or its political correctness but it can be a right proper laugh.  Audience participation is encouraged:

"Oh no it isn't..............Oh yes it is"!

The Pantomime this year at the Marina Theatre is undoubtedly the most professional we have seen to date and if you live near by Toot and I would recommend that you purchase a ticket before the show closes toward the end of January.

My grand daughter Jasmine saw Mother Goose at a Theatre in Watford and as she said to us
 "A dancing and singing  duck is not something you see every day"!