Lost in Space

"Summer is a coming" The lovely star Vega in the Constellation Lyra

Well, what a strange night, started off well, the sky cleared as it became dark.  Mars was shining bright and steady in the South and the Great Bear was sitting on his tail above our house.  So...... I lug out all my astro gear and set up in our backyard.

Well then everything started to go wrong. I pointed my planetary camera at Mars, ran a test Avi clip and inspected it on screen. All looked a bit blurry, so I refocussed and tried again. Still looked blurry.  After a lot of messing about and quiet cursing I managed to record a couple of blurry clips of the red planet and then my planetary camera software started to play up.  As Saturn rose in the south east I decided to await a better night for trying to image it.  Instead I tried to find the comet passing through Ursa Major. Because the area of sky I needed to view was straight above my head, I had lots of fun kneeling on the ground looking through various eyepieces trying to find said comet. After an hour or so, which involved knocking my spectacles from my head twice and tripping over my stool once, I gave up on the comet.

As the evening had turned into early morning, I decided to take some aimless snaps of the night sky. Then the battery powering  my telescope mount started to fail.  Made mental note to purchase a new battery as likely to be less expensive than an anger management course.

On a positive note I managed to capture the above image of the beautiful star Vega. When I see Vega in spring rising in the east, I know either Summer or dawn  are close at hand.

I also picked up the trail of a satellite or some space junk as it sped in front of the stars in the Great Bear.

After drinking a mug of hot 'Marmite' I climbed the stairs to bed. 

Satellite trail

My blurry image of Mars