Good week for stargazers

 A couple of things happened this week. 

Firstly, I dropped the bike. Some idiot in a van coming barrelling around a corner on the wrong side of the road. Had to stop very sharpish. Unfortunately I was committed into a corner of my own. Tried to keep the bike upright. No luck. Broke some indicators, a mirror and the clutch lever. I can tell you it was fun getting home with half a clutch.

Approximately €100 later, everything is repaired and ready for the next round. Except my wrist, which is still slightly sprained, but not half as bad as it was on Thursday.

To lighten my mood, this week saw Mars and the twins line up perfectly. In true Irish tradition, the weather did not want to play ball. I was in and out of the house a million times just to be greeted by spectacular cloud cover right where the objects of my interest were supposed to be. Eventually, 11pm on Friday evening the clouds mostly parted, and there it was, all three of them in a row:

The other item of significance at the moment is the proximity of Venus and Saturn to each other. In fact, on Saturday (18th Jan 25) Saturn and Venus were 2.2degrees from each other. This time the clouds played along.

These shots were taken with an iPhone, so excuse the quality. 

Hiking around Powerscourt Waterfall

 On Christmas Eve I felt the need to escape the maddening crowd and headed to Crone Wood just outside Dublin. From here you can hike up Maulin mountain on a loop trail. 

A plus on this route is that you have rather spectacular views of Powerscourt Waterfall on the way up. There is even a bench or two set up overlooking the waterfall if you want to have a bit of a rest.

There was a lot of fog about, and I found "Far over misty mountains high" stuck on repeat in my head.

The trek up to the top of Maulin Mountain was rather muddy, and when I reached the top, fog all around. So no spectacular views for the album. I did however get my picture of the cairn, as you do.

I might just return in the summer for some spectacular view photos.

The entire trek up the mountain and the associated video clips can be found on the newly created YouTube channel 😁. 

Oh look, here is a link: https://youtu.be/GGWnR-Y8j0U

I used the All Trails app for general navigation. My expedition can be seen here 

Mars and the twins greeting me this morning

Taking the bins out this morning I was greeted with Mars, very low in the West, with Gemini just to the right. Mars is at it's closest to earth on the 12th January. In true Ireland tradition it looks to be cloudy that day. So I'll take this. Took a snap with the iPhone.

And for reference, the snip from Stellarium

And now, off to work we go for, as I like to call it, day one of the hostage situation.

Shooting Jupiter

 Seriously chuffed with myself. I tried my hand at astro-photography some time ago, and it was, shall we say, less than spectacular. On Thursday we had a rare, cloudless night in Dublin. Well then. Out comes the camera.

Now it is very low tech. I have an ancient Canon EOS 1000D and I have some kit lenses, a nifty fifty, and a 300mm zoom lens. From my research online it seems the prime lens is the best option and armed with my remote shutter, some crazy calculations for exposure times, a warm jacket and a mug of coffee, I headed into the back yard. 

I lined up on Jupiter, because it is bright and easy to see 😉. Did some focussing and fired away. Only did about 100 shots and stacked them using Sequator. 

On closer examination it is clear that my focus (or at least those of my pictures) are not all there. But it is close enough and definitely a base to build from.

Well, what? I think it is quite stunning. I am especially amazed that this was taken in the middle of Dublin, with an silly old camera and a wee little lens. 

Tonight, I went on to Stellarium and searched for the specific section of sky on the night in question.

My wife says it's cool. I agree.