Fig 3: Looking North, Rousay, Sep. 13 at 22h 52m GMT; 8 sec. exposure, 27mm F/3.5, ISO 650. Click the image for enlargement.

First Autumnal Merry Dancers

There was a short but spectacular appearance of the Aurora on the night of September 13/14.

An extensive auroral arc appeared from around 22h GMT.

Shortly following were to be seen fast forming arcs, mostly green in colour but with tinges of red.

The activity continued on and off for the next hour but despite a clear night through to dawn, little was to be seen after midnight. (See Fig. 3)

JV 14/09/04

Morning skies September/October 2004

Fig 2: Looking East, Sep 10 at 03h 52m. A 5 second. exposure, 105mm f/4.5, ISO 620. Note: Both Mercury and Regulus (altitude very low at 1 deg. 48 min.) clearly visible on enlarged image. The bright star above the bush (left) is Algieba. The dark streaks parallel to the horizon are contrails.

We were fortunate in the North that the fine weather of last week continued up to the morning of the 10th September. Almost as a curtain falling on the event, within minutes of the conjunction between Mercury and Regulus, the clouds rolled in from the east.

Personally I cannot say I was able to separate the two objects without binoculars. But images taken with a 105mm lens clearly show the contrasting "gold" of Mercury and the lesser "blue" light of Regulus. (Fig. 2)

Mercury continues to brighten and will remain observable in the morning sky up to around September 23.

By then all the naked eye planets will be morning objects, though Mars and Jupiter will be too close to the Sun to be seen.

Venus moves into Leo on September 24 and will pass below Regulus on October 3. This will not be as close as the recent Mercury conjunction. Minimum separation (9 arc minutes) will occur at 15h on October 3.

JV 12/09/04

Vermin in the skies.

Shortly after the ending of the Second World War, I moved with my family from close to London's East End into the Essex countryside.

During those austere years street lighting was limited in extent and was switched off before midnight. As a young teenager I was struck by the magnificence of a starlit night. My father used to take me on evening walks and in winter time he would show me how to find my way amongst the stars.

One Christmas I was given a book called "The Conquest of Space"* in which there was a chapter entitled. "Vermin of the Skies". The authors were referring to the minor planets or asteroids. Why vermin?

Unlike the five bright, major planets, all of the minor planets are telescopic objects with the exception of Vesta, which at times may be discernible as a faint object close to the threshold of naked eye visibility.

The first asteroid to be discovered was Ceres on January 1, 1801. The discovery was made at a time when astronomers were showing a particular interest in the possibility of a planet lying in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, arising out a gap in the positioning of planets as required by Bode's now famous "law". A group of twenty-four astronomers was in fact engaged on the very process of searching for such a planet, though the discovery of Ceres was made by an outsider, Piazzi of Palermo in Sicily

Shortly after, in 1802, Olbers discovered another body similar to Ceres which was named Pallas. By the year 1807 two more minor planets had been discovered, subsequently named Vesta and Juno. This completed the "big" four but it was not until 1845 that the discovery of Astraea was made by the amateur astronomer, Hencke.

By August 1888, 279 minor planets had been identified all with orbits lying almost entirely between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as earlier envisaged for the "unknown" planet. Today the number of asteroids runs into tens of thousands - hence, vermin of the skies?

"The Conquest of Space" was a mixture of fact and fantasy; much of the fantasy has turned into reality. In common with most young lads, I was enthused by the idea of space travel. My father was of the opinion that we would never break away from the Earth's powerful gravitational field. Of course that was before the revolution in micro electronics.

Fig. 1: Andromeda Galaxy (M31) imaged Sep. 8 at 21h 13m GMT. A 4 minute exposure, 600mm f/5.6, ISO 620, unassisted equatorial electric drive. The streak is caused by a passing artificial satellite. Note, M 110 visible above M31.

It is difficult to imagine that only fifty years ago the Earth's near environment was completely free of artificial, orbiting material. Today "near" space has succumbed to the same menace as plagues the surface of the planet we mortals inhabit - junk!

Stand outside on any clear, moonless night and you may count a dozen or more points of light moving slowly across the sky during the course of a few minutes. These orbiting pieces of material may be a source of fascination to many, but to some they are a menace. It is now virtually impossible to take a photograph of the night sky lasting more than five minutes or so without having these traces feature in the picture. (Fig. 1)

Searching for Mercury and Regulus in the early dawn twilight of the 10th September I had to contend with aircraft condensation trails recently formed. (Fig. 2)

Aircraft and Earth-orbiting hardware - true vermin of the skies?

* "The Conquest of Space", Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell (1949)