The North American Nebula

Photograph taken from our Backyard using
 a Canon 400D DSLR camera with a  telephoto lens 
at 90 mm. mounted on a NEQ6 mount.
Twelve 30sec light frames, 3 flat frames and
three dark frames were stacked using DeepSkyStacker
 and then enhanced using Photoshop.

After Midnight, Suffolk County Council turns off the majority of street lights in our town and the night sky comes to life!

The Milky Way is clearly visible from our backyard and is very bright as it runs through the constellation Cygnus the swan. (As my old Dad was often heard to say......... "Swans, nice birds but dangerous"!)

The night before last was very clear with transparent skies and I decided to try and capture an image of NGC 7000, The North American Nebula. The Moon was up and just after full, so I was grateful that it was reasonably low in the sky and partially hidden by shrubbery. Strong moonlight presents considerable problems when imaging dim nebulosity.

The North American Nebula is quite large, more than four times the size of the full Moon, but its surface brightness is low.  Seeing it without binoculars or specialist filters can be extremely difficult if not impossible from most locations.

The Nebula is part of an ionised cloud of interstellar Hydrogen. The shape of the nebula ie.as the North American Continent, is sculpted by interstellar dust which absorbs starlight and lies between us and the ionised Hydrogen.  The Hydrogen is being ionised by the stellar wind from a large star (possibly Deneb, alpha Cygni).

The orange supergiant star Xi Cygni, seen more or less at the centre of my photograph is an interesting star now in the latter stages of its existence.  Having depleted its hydrogen fuel it is now fusing  helium to create carbon and oxygen. Someday it will either puff up and create a large planetary nebula and a white dwarf star or conversely explode as a core collapse supernova.  Either way we will be unaffected at our safe distance of approximately 12000 light years.

The open cluster M39 can be seen upper left, for my image of this cluster follow the link:
http://george-artcabinedujardin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/m39-in-constellation-cygnus.html

For more information regarding Xi Cygni follow the link:
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/xicyg.html

Credits: Jim Kaler, Flickr and Astrometry solver.

The Image field contains:

NGC 7071, NGC 7024, NGC 7058, NGC 7093, NGC 6996, NGC 7011, NGC 6991, NGC 6989. NGC 7054, 
NGC 7044, IC 5067, IC 1363. ξ Cyg, ν Cyg', ρ Cyg ,σ Cyg, 63Cyg, 59Cyg, 57Cyg, 55Cyg, 56Cyg, 68Cyg
61Cyg, 71Cyg, 51Cyg, 60Cyg, NGC 7067, NGC 7000, NGC 7027, NGC 7026, NGC 7031, NGC 7082, NGC 7092
NGC 6997, NGC 7086, NGC 7062, NGC 7048, NGC 7039, IC 5076, IC 1369, IC 5068, IC 5070, IC 5117, 

Gravity and Gravitas in Norfolk

A Descendant of Sir Isaac Newton's Apple Tree
in the gardens at Houghton Hall

Toot and I visited Houghton Hall in Norfolk.  Houghton Hall was the home of Sir Robert Walpole, the first De Facto Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Sir Robert was a great collector of Fine Art and his collection of paintings was for a 'commoner' astounding in its size and quality.

Unfortunately Sir Robert, later Lord Orford, had a profligate grandson who laid waste to the family fortune.  As a result the art collection, 204 pieces in all, was sold to Catherine the Great of Russia for the princely sum of £40,555.

The majority of these works are held by the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburgh and Toot and I were able seen some of them when we visited the Hermitage in  2011.

Thanks to a wonderful collaboration between the Hermitage Museum and Houghton Hall, the house is currently showing some 70 paintings hung in their original locations amongst the furnishings and decor that date back to Sir Robert's occupation of the Hall.  Toot and I were lucky enough to obtain tickets for this exhibition and for two hours were able to time travel back to the eighteenth century to enjoy the the works of Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens,Velasquez and Poussin.  The experience was sublime!

Toot and I would recommend a trip to Houghton Hall its a wonderful place to visit.  Toot was particularly impressed by the current Lord's collection of army memorabilia and model soldiers.  For more information follow the link:

http://www.houghtonhall.com/

The Bengal Lancers- a skirmish on the North-West Frontier
 (one of my ancestors was in this regiment)

Outside the Hall there are: extensive landscape works, lovely gardens and more modern art installations. Bearing in mind my interest in 'Astronomy and Mathematics', I was very much intrigued to find an apple tree sapling alleged to descend from 'Sir Isaac Newton's Apple Tree'.

" We went into the garden, & drank tea under the shade of some apple trees, only he, & myself. amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. "why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground," thought he to himself  occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood: "why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earth's centre? assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there must be a drawing power in matter. & the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earth's centre, not in any side of the earth. therefore dos this apple fall perpendicularly, or toward the centre. if matter thus draws matter; it must be in proportion of its quantity. therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple."

William Stukeley recorded in his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726.

Houghton Hall

Herbaceous Borders

Sky Art Installation

Credits: The Hermitage Museum, Houghton Hall-family seat of Lord Cholmondely and Wikipedia

Jurassic Coast

The Undercliff at Charmouth

Toot and I recently revisited the Jurassic Coast at Lyme Regis and Charmouth.  The cliffs are of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras and the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks are highly fossiliferous.

We met our best friends from New Zealand, Hugh and Julie, who have been touring Europe on an extended holiday.  To see more of their 'Grand Tour':
http://herethere2everywhere.wordpress.com/

Hugh and Julie 'go a paddling'

Toot and I had a great time visiting Corfe Castle and Lulworth Cove, fossiling, wining and dining and generally dipping our toes in the bright blue briny sea.

All in all, it was just real nice to spend some time with our friends from the far off islands of the small flightless bird.  Lets hope we all get together again soon!

On the fossil front we managed to find some ammonites from the 'Lower Lias' at Lyme Regis and a few Jurassic belemnites from the 'Belemnite Marl' at Charmouth.

We were a little shocked at the damage which had been visited upon the large ammonites on the beach at Lyme Regis.  When we last visited Lyme, some forty years ago, there were many large and pristine ammonites exposed on a pavement of huge 'Lias' stones, alas nowadays many have been damage or lost to inept fossil collectors.  It is a shame that some visitors to this 'UNESCO World Heritage Site' choose to wield a hammer and a chisel rather than a camera!

Cliff at Lyme Regis
showing the Lower Lias formation.

A Jurassic Belemnite sticking out from a piece
of the Belemnite Marl at Charmouth

Lower Lias Ammonites Galore at Lyme Regis

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Coast

Archie Art

Dinosaurs and the Number Fourteen.
by Archie

Archie the Artist completing his 'Dustpan' installation

Archie the paleontologist talking with Dinos

Archie likes Dinosaurs a lot and one day he would like to be a palaeontologist.

Perhaps he will discover a hitherto unknown species of dinosaur?

Albireo revisted

'Starry Night ' view taken last night from our backyard
 using a Lumix Compact Camera 60 second exposure

Same photograph annotated to show position and detail of Albireo 

The inserted detail was taken using my Canon 400 DSLR camera attached to my 127mm refractor.

For more information see previous blog entry:

http://george-artcabinedujardin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/albireo.html

Lost your bearings?

Straddling the Prime Meridian
at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Two weeks ago, Toot and I took two of our grandchildren to the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

We had a great day, travelling down the River Thames on a water taxi, walking past the Cutty Sark in dry dock, strolling by Christopher Wren's - Maritime Museum and Inigo Jones' - Queens House and then climbing the hill up to the Royal Observatory.

The Royal Observatory, Flamsteed House, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.  It was commissioned by King Charles II and completed in 1676.  The City of London was founded on trade, the river and the port. London's and England's wealth was dependant on its maritime status.

In 1492, when Columbus crossed the Atlantic, a gifted mariner could, by taking sightings of the Pole Star and-or the Sun, calculate his ship's position in latitude.  Longitude, however was another matter and remained that way for nearly three hundred years.

The key to establishing longitude was the adoption of scientific method in the accurate measurement of;  time, the position of stars, the position of the Moon and the eclipses of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter.  If you were the captain of a ship on the high seas and knew the time at Greenwich and your time at your current location, then you could calculate how many degrees, minutes and seconds of longitude you were east or west of Greenwich .  Every hour difference in time represents 15 degrees of longitude. (360 degrees divided by 24 hours = 15 degrees)

King Charles II realised that more accurate maps and navigation aids made available to British mariners would deliver increased national competitiveness, greater national wealth and increased revenues for the Crown.  He therefore invested in science, namely astronomy, which at that time largely involved accurate measurement of the position of stars and planetary bodies in the sky, and the invention and manufacture of optical equipment and clocks.  The construction of the Greenwich Observatory was therefore all about international competition, trade and supremacy at sea.  In fact even after the international agreement of the Greenwich Meridian as zero degrees longitude in 1884, the French continued to argue for the 'Prime Meridian' to run through Paris.

My grandchildren particularly enjoyed; the exhibition of clocks quadrants and sextants, the tour of the great dome housing the twenty-eight inch refracting telescope and the excellent 'Sky Tonight Live' presentation in the Peter Harrison Planetarium.  It goes without saying that they loved having one foot in the East and one in the West when straddling the line of the 'Prime Meridian'.

I always enjoy visiting the Observatory, it is quite wonderful to stand in rooms where once Sir Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Sir John Flamsteed and Sir Edmund Halley, to name but four, would have walked, talked, wined and dined.  To spend time there is to witness the melding of the present with the past and to walk with the shakers and movers of  'Stuart' scientific society.

If you are in London and have an afternoon free why not visit the Greenwich Royal Observatory?  Even better why not spend longer and visit; Greenwich Market, The Maritime Museum, Queen's House (for my money the most beautiful building in London), The Cutty Sark, The Observatory and the Planetarium?  You can even cross under the Thames using the Victorian foot tunnel which was first opened in 1902.

Greenwich is a great place to visit so why not treat yourself?

http://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory/

Credits Wikipedia

"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long"

The Meteor and Messier 13
'Artist's impression of the view through the eyepiece'

Last night was clear and starry, so I went outside, set up my telescope and looked out through the disc of our galaxy and viewed a number of the globular clusters that buzz around the outskirts of the Milky Way.

Whilst I was looking through a wide angle eyepiece, at the Great Globular Cluster M13, a bright white meteor shot across my field of vision leaving behind a short lived  trail of ionised gas.  This brief but stunningly beautiful image remained in my mind's eye for the rest of the observing session.  After midnight I used my telescope to capture a few images of the sky in the vicinity of M13 and today set about composing an artist's impression of the meteor 'blazing past' the seemingly static and unchanging star cluster.

M13 is a ball of ancient and gravitationally bound stars with a combined mass equivalent to 60 million Suns, it is located in the constellation Hercules and is approximately 25,000 light years from Earth.  The meteor in stark contrast is an ephemeral interloper marking the vaporisation of a bit of space debris , probably no larger than a pebble, as  friction with the upper layers of our atmosphere, caused it first to glow and then to burn up some 85 kms above the surface of the Earth.

On a moonless night, you can view M13 with a pair of 10x50mm binoculars.  It will look like a hazy little ball amongst the stars.  Look first for the very bright star Vega and then the 'Keystone' of four stars in Hercules. The globular star clusters M13 and M92 are not hard to find.

M13  photographed from our backyard
using my Meade 127mm. refractor and a Canon 400d DSLR camera.

Credits; Star map Wikipedia

Dreams and Dark Deeds on the South Bank

Our friends, Toot and I went to London to see Shakespeare's plays; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Macbeth' at the Globe Theatre.  We had a great time, both productions were very good and the Globe is a wonderful venue!

Toot and I consider this production of Macbeth to be the best we have seen to date. Notably, Lady Macbeth and Banquo stood out.

In  A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character of Nick Bottom the weaver was acted with considerable wit and humour. All in all, the 'play within the play', "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe",  was as good as we have ever seen.

"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania some time of the night,

Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in". 

A Midsummer Night's Dream (2.1.249)

We recommend getting tickets for any performance at the Globe, seeing a Shakespeare play in a contemporary setting is a unique experience!
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing".

Macbeth (5.5.16) 

Credits: Shakespeare on line and Shakespeare's Globe

Misplaced Architecture No 18

Barad-dur,  between Mount Doom and Southwark,
Mordor

"..rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dur..." Tolkien

Ten Peng Bowling

How many ways can you stack a penguin?
No 9 "Rack 'em and stack 'em in Pythagorean Tetractys formation"

When
left    with
 just         one     standing
 pick        up        a        penguin