Was looking after Rose (now 4 and a half) this evening so was able to show her the first part of the eclipse after giving her dinner and shower, ready for bed. Then she had coat on and we went out to back garden to see Moon eclipsed. After she was collected, viewed moon until it was totally eclipsed - did not look as red as it has done in previous eclipses that have seen, it kept a bit of a glow at the top. Meanwhile Merv took out our new telescope which was £50 in Lidl. He looked for M42 as usual, but then mistook Sirius for a planet despite my pointing out a real planet by the question mark of Leo - towards Cancer (invisible) and Gemini. Looked this up to convince Merv on my Heavens Above link, which confirmed it was Saturn. Merv set up telescope towards Saturn and it was brilliant. Could see it tilted slightly back and the rings were brillant. You get great pictures - see my Saturn website, from Cassini, but nothing can beat being able to see into space and such an amazing planet from your own back garden. And since the cyst inside lower eyelid had flared up after 4 months of slowly seeming to get better, it really makes you feel better looking in to the immensity of the universe and seeing such a view from your ordinary suburban back garden with a telescope from the supermarket.
I could not take photos as can do less pictures like these, with digital than could with compact and fast film.
Was discovered by Donald E. Machholz of Colfax, California. Said to be green and told it was in Pleiades on January 7 - 2005 - Merv's 60th birthday - impossible to see stars then - not until late on Saturday 8th Janary - when sky clear and wind died down - easier to see with binoculars (the old USSR ones) - it was further north than the Pleiades and you could see the two tails. With telescope looked at M42. The sky was interesting because you could see the Plough standing on its tail in the east and Orion in the west - you don't often get to see the two of them.
Here is my picture of it - taken about 7.30.
Kathleen phoned me up to see if I had seen it. The Moon was supposed to be in the south-east. Just then we both were able to see it. It was in the south-east but rather low and lurking behind a low belt of cloud. It had only just got dark enough as well, and on the other side of the sky Venus could be seen very bright. It was 21.30 and half-way through totallity. We could see a bright orange rim, dark centre. A little later, when the sky was darker, the clouds in that part of the sky looked red.
The skies cleared and revealed Mars in the south. It was so obvious a bright orange light - it spooked anyone who did not know what it was. And it seemed to follow where you went - an eerie feeling last experienced with the Hale-Bopp Comet Spring 1997.
Mars was high enough in the south sky to be viewed with our little telescopes. However the image was not clear enough to be worth photographing. We could just about see the central v-shaped dark markings and south polar cap - features recorded in the 17th century.
Mars was so obvious that anyone could notice it, and find it striking, even those who knew nothing of astronomy.
Mars is closest to the Earth for about 55,000 years so it is a splendid site for those who live further south than us. At our latitude it is still light in the north at night. Mars is in the south of course but so low down the seeing is very bad. Especially with the hot sticky weather we have been having.
We did have the opportunity to view Mars at nearly midnight on 3rd August 2003. It is a spectacular bright orange-red like a ruby in the sky and must have been an awesome sight to our mammoth-hunter ancestors. Being so low it was too wobbly to see much detail through the telescope and to take photos - but at least we did get the chance to see it. Before it rained again.
It was cloudy at first and we thought we would only see it on the ESO webcam but then it cleared just as things were under way. We were in email contact with the Echo but by the time their photographer could come it was over. Seeing the transit of Mercury was a chance of a lifetime - and from our own back garden. This image was taken from a back projection.
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