The colourful world of Lizards as imagined by Archie Boon. Oxfordshire artist 'extraordinaire'
A blog about art, astronomy and a garden shed. (Sometimes including references to life, paleontology, gastronomy, tropical fish keeping and the delights of the 5-string banjo)
Friday, 26 August 2016
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Probably the furthest thing you can see with your naked eye!
The M31spiral is larger than our home galaxy the Milky Way and is estimated to be 220 thousand light years across. It is thought to comprise 10,000,000,000,000 or a trillion stars. It is the nearest galaxy to our Earth, at 2.5 million light years, a light year is a measure of distance equivalent to 9,461,000,000,000 km or 5,878,000,000,000 miles, and from a dark site on a moonless night may be seen with the naked eye. It must be said that I have only managed to do this once!
The elliptical galaxy M32 is considered to be a satellite of M31, (although there is some conjecture that it might be three times further away), slightly nearer to us at 2.49 million light years and with a much smaller diameter at some 6.5 thousand light years.
The elliptical galaxy M110 is a satellite of M31 and approximately 2.7 million light years distant. Although this object has a Messier or M number, Charles Messier did not add this to his catalogue. In fact this did not happen until much much later in 1967. Athough this galaxy is described as elliptical it is of a special type designated a dwarf 'Spheroidal Galaxy'.
M31, the Andromeda galaxy, is a very long way away from us but it is heading towards our Milky Way at the heady speed of 68 miles per second. I hope all the alien life forms living on planets revolving around stars in this galaxy are wearing their seat belts!
Credits: Wikipedia
Monday, 22 August 2016
Tycho Country
Craters Tycho, Longomontanus, Heinsius and Wurzelbauer D imaged from our Backyard in June 2016 |
Key to Craters in theMoons Southern Highlands |
Tycho:
Approximate size 86 x 86 km with a 1500 metre high central peak.Named after: Tycho Brahé 16 th century Danish Astronomer.
Tycho information
Longomontanus:
Approximate size 146 x 146 km.Named after: Christen Sorensen (or
Longomontanus) 17 th century Danish Astronomer.
Longomontanus information
Heinsius:
Approximate size 65 x 65 km.Named after: Gottfried Heinsius
18 th century German Mathematician and Astronomer.
Heinsius information
Wurzelbauer D:
Approximate size 38 x 38 km.Named after: Johann Philipp von Wurzelbauer
17 th century German Astronomer
Wurzelbauer information
Credits: Wikipedia and Virtual Moon Atlas 6.0
A special anniversary treat!
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Perseid Straggler
23:45 on the 12th of August 2016 I captured this Perseid just prior to the clouds rolling in from the north-west. I only found this after a long search through over 200 images. |
For more information about Deneb follow the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deneb
The small group of stars in the bottom right of the image is the constellation Delphinius - the Dolphin.
My hedge. in the bottom left corner, was illuminated by the moon, which was shining brightly low in the west.
I have decided to turn off my software defined radio telescope, the LVST, on the 25th of August. The LVST has been monitoring the frequency and amplitude of reflected radar signals from meteors falling over the Meditterranean and North Africa. The LVST has been running continuously since the 5th of August. I hope to analyse the signals over the next month and will post my findings soon after.
Credits: Wikipedia
Thursday, 18 August 2016
Perseid Meteor 2016
Meteor streaking past the constellation Cygnus the Swan.. Taken from our backyard with an equatorially mounted Canon 600d DSLR with an Eos 18-55 zoom lens at F5 and f=18mm. |
My SDR radio telescope, the LVST, has been much more successful at catching Perseids. Some of the radar pings I have recorded this year have been of large amplitude and duration. I shall analyse the data and make my results the subject of a future post.
Whoops found another meteor on images I captured late on the 12th of August.
A Perseid passing Andromeda |
Tuesday, 9 August 2016
The Summer Milky Way
A different version with the less bright stars reduced and with the brighter stars emphasised. I think I prefer this version. What do you think? |
What a beautiful night! We watched the International Space Station pass over our house twice, and Anita and Alice saw a fireball of a Perseid meteor move quite slowly over our neighbourhood. Unfortunately I did not photograph any meteors but I did capture light flaring off one of the Iridium Satellites.
An Iridium Flare |
Timelapse - 7 x30 second exposures - capture a passing satellite and Iridium Flare |
For more information on Iridium Satellites follow the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation
Sunday, 7 August 2016
Astronomical Clock on Piazza San Marco Venice
St Mark's Clock is the clock housed in the Clocktower on the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, adjoining the Procuratie Vecchie. The first clock housed in the tower was built and installed by Gian Paolo and Gian Carlo Rainieri, father and son, between 1496 and 1499, and was one of a number of large public astronomical clocks erected throughout Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries. The clock has had an eventful horological history, and been the subject of many restorations, some controversial.
After restorations in 1551 by Giuseppe Mazzoleni, and in 1615, by Giovanni Battista Santi, the clock mechanism was almost completely replaced in the 1750s, by Bartolomeo Ferracina. In 1858 the clock was restored by Luigi De Lucia. In 1996, a major restoration was undertaken by Giuseppe Brusa and Alberto Gorla.
The clock displays the original I to XXIIII numbering around the outside, with I at the right hand side. The gilded stars are purely decorative. The signs of the zodiac are in anticlockwise order around the inner zodiac dial: the zodiac wheel rotates clockwise with the hour hand but very slightly faster. As a result, the hour hand moves slowly anticlockwise relative to the zodiac, so that it passes through each sign in the course of the year.
Photographing the clock was an interesting interlude in our recent Italian holiday.
Credits: Text taken from Wikipedia
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
Venetian Sketches
Santa Maria della Salute and the Grand Canal - July 2016 - George Roberts mixed media |
Venice is a fantastic city of colour, light and shadows, an artist's dream subject for sketching and painting. My above effort was put together on my return to the UK, using the following pencil study which I made in Italy last week.
Pencil Study from my sketch book - George Roberts -3 hour study - 4B and 8B graphite sticks on paper |
Its all about making marks quickly and not necessarily, as it turns out, in the right place!
The Rialto Bridge, Gondola and Gondolier - July 2016 - George Roberts 8B graphite stick on paper. |
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