Globular Star Cluster Messier 3

Messier 3 (credit: telescope.org - the Autonomous Robotic Telescope- The Galaxy Camera COAST BVR Filters - The Open University).

Regular visitors to my Blog will remember that, from time to time, I have posted astronomical images I have had taken using a robotic telescope located on Tenerife at altitude on Mount Teide - the third highest volcano on earth. The telescope was formerly managed by Bradford University but is now operated by the Open University. For some time the telescope has been out of operation and the subject of substantial maintenance and replacement. The telescope, camera and mount are being tested and systems refined. About a week ago I found that my requests for imaging objects in the night sky were being actioned and the above image of Messier 3 was in my 'inbox'. The image is a little soft, possibly a focussing error, there were a number of hot pixels and no flat frame was provided but hopefully these issues will be addressed in the near future.

In the meantime I posted this image as I regard Messier 3 one of the most beautiful globular star systems of them all. Can you imagine what it would be like to live on a planet revolving around one of the stars in this cluster?  At night the sky would be bright with  more stars than the eye could resolve or the mind could count.. At the core of the cluster, perhaps day and night would merge?

 Messier 3 -NGC5272- is located in the constellation Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs). It is visible, from a dark sky location through binoculars, as a small blurry patch of light. It can  be found midway on a line drawn between the bright star Arcturus and the less bright but naked eye visible Cor Caroli. I have to say that I find this globular difficult to see through my binoculars from my backyard!  Tripod mounting the binoculars helps!


This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 8 billion years old. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from Earth.
Messier 3 is located 31.6 kly (9.7 kpc) above the Galactic plane and roughly 38.8 kly (11.9 kpc) from the center of the Milky Way. It contains 274 known variable stars; by far the highest number found in any globular cluster. These include 133 RR Lyrae variables, of which about a third display the Blazhko effect of long-period modulation. The overall abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the metallicity, is in the range of –1.34 to –1.50 dex. This value gives the logarithm of the abundance relative to the Sun; the actual proportion is 3.2–4.6% of the solar abundance. Messier 3 is the prototype for the Oosterhoff type I cluster, which is considered "metal-rich". That is, for a globular cluster, Messier 3 has a relatively high abundance of heavier elements. Credit Wikipedia

Pyroclastic Flow

Pompeii  watercolour by Archie Boon Oxfordshire

Pyroclastic flow at its most dangerous best by the Oxfordshire artist and Health and Safety Consultant, Archie Boon.

Hot Cross Buns mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Toot's home-baked hot cross buns on Good Friday

These buns are very good, I know because of I have just eaten one and will have another one toasted with butter for my breakfast tomorrow.

In many historically Christian countries, plain buns made without dairy products (forbidden in Lent until Palm Sunday) are traditionally eaten hot or toasted during Lent, beginning with the evening of Shrove Tuesday (the evening before Ash Wednesday) to midday Good Friday.
The ancient Greeks may have marked cakes with a cross.
One theory is that the Hot Cross Bun originates from St Albans, where Brother Thomas Rocliffe, a 14th Century monk at St Albans Abbey, developed a similar recipe called an 'Alban Bun' and distributed the bun to the local poor on Good Friday, starting in 1361.
In the time of Elizabeth I of England (1592), the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced breads, except at burials, on Good Friday, or at Christmas. The punishment for transgressing the decree was forfeiture of all the forbidden product to the poor. As a result of this decree, hot cross buns at the time were primarily made in home kitchens. Further attempts to suppress the sale of these items took place during the reign of James I of England/James VI of Scotland (1603–1625). The first definite record of hot cross buns comes from a London street cry: "Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns", which appeared in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1733. Food historian Ivan Day states, "The buns were made in London during the 18th century. But when you start looking for records or recipes earlier than that, you hit nothing." credit Wikipedia

Steve Dongles Top 100 Trees: - No 6 Araucaria heterophylla or Norfolk Island Pine

The Norfolk Island Pine photographed by Armando Spleen outside the ruins at Herculaneum.

The Norfolk Island pine is a beautiful tree, grows well in sandy soils and is largely unaffected by a salty atmosphere. Consequently, Araucaria heterophylla  has spread and proliferated world-wide in warm coastal areas and is much admired by sailors.

Architects of a certain age have favoured the symmetry of the species and have used the outline of this tree on their elevational drawings of mediocre modern architecture.  Often the tree's silouette completely obscured the buildings proposed appearance making it much easier for the client to 'sign off' the design prior to construction.  The fact that the leaves appear to be defying gravity by 'pointing up' appealed to many an architect's poor understanding of physics and general positivity in the face of overwhelming failure to prosper.  Sadly, although many of these buildings were actually constructed, few Norfolk Island Pines were ever planted (although, Leylandii perform the same purpose in a much cheaper and uglier way! -see 'Value Engineering' and 'Design and Build').

Every one of us in our daily lives affect our fragile environment.   Every beach you rake, every earth you quake, every corn you crake,  I'll be watching you!" Steve Dongle; Eco-warrior, environmental activist and compiler of the Waveney Gazette's Top 100 Trees.