Stargazing Observation Book

 I'm by no means a professional or seasoned stargazer. It is a hobby (another one) I took up recently. My observations are done with binoculars that I have mounted on a tripod. I do star hopping to find my targets and generally  just enjoy the process.

Recently I decided to start tracing the constellations. Because I can. 

That required me to have a way to record my observations. I looked around online and came across quite a lot of resources. Everybody seems to have their own ideas on how to or why to record your observations. What should and what should not and what type of book to use etc. etc. etc.

Me? I like my own way.

First of all, I had to get some star charts, because I'm no astronomer. I happen to wander across this website that has a complete set of star charts, free for you to print.

Check.

I am, however, someone who likes to scribble, and a loose leaf is just too flimsy. Enter Amazon packaging.

I cut the sleeve that they use for small packages just larger than a printed start chart and glued a chart to either side. Bit of support for scribbles and does make it easier to turn a page.

Problem sorted.

What else do I have in the binder?

Well, for starters. The Greek Alphabet. Yes, I am an engineer. And as an engineer I know quite a lot of these, but sadly not all. So, right in the front cover she goes. And page 1? Well, the guys at Skymaps.com publish a monthly evening sky map, complete with monthly highlights and things to look out for. That is next in my book.

What else?

Well, need to record observations, don't I. So I found this observation log from The Astronomical League. I like it. In it goes. In fact, a couple of them.

And then, last but not least, a seeing and transparency guide. There are so many opinions on this, and I am terrible at making a judgement call. I like this one (and I cannot remember where I got it) because it uses the visibility of the stars in Ursa Minor as a guide. That works for me.

In she goes.

And now we are ready to gaze at the stars. 

Now we are just waiting for the clouds to give us a break. You can't win all of them.

For the next instalment I will take you through my process once I have completed a night of observation. Don't hold your breath now. The weatherman says...

Wet Fly - Alexandra

 As they usually do on the clickbait headlines; "This fly is banned!!". And to be fair, it was apparently, because it caught so many trout. It is a lough pattern, but is also used for sea trout on the rivers. Bit of history:

It is a Scottish pattern that was originally called the "Lady of the lake" and was later renamed after Queen Alexandra. It was apparently so successful in the mid 1800's that is was banned on some waters.

The picture below is of a variant of the Alexandra as tied by Davie McPhail. I will link to his video below.

I have to say, though, that it is a beauty. 

The Alexandra pattern is as follows:

Hook: Size 8-12 Wet Fly Hook

Tying silk: Black 

Tail: Red ibis substitute or slip of swan, dyed scarlet. Davie McPhail's variant uses red Marabou.

Body: Flat silver tinsel 

Rib: Oval silver tinsel. Davie's variant uses thin silver wire

Hackle: Black cock or hen hackle 

Wing: A pinch of green peacock sword fibres with slips of red ibis substitute or scarlet swan tied on either side. Red tinsel in Davie's variant. 

I like the variant tied by Davie McPhail. I like his videos in general.

What's up with the weather

 The weather has been, lets just say, less than favourable the last couple of weeks. I've planned and schemed, but to no avail. Every weekend seems to be a wet mess. Did get about between spells of rain, notably to ride up the mountain after storm Eowyn battered Ireland on the 24th of January. Rode up to Cruagh wood on the 1st of Feb for a spot of coffee with a view.

The evening of the 2nd Feb the Crescent Moon was seriously close to Venus. If I had known that it would be the last bit of stargazing to be done for the month of February, I would have made more of an effort. Be that as it may, I managed to get this shot, which I'm quite happy with.

And then it started raining and being generally Irish weather. 

Sitting around moping, I realised that the trout season is around the corner. I have not fly fished in ages, and I have never tied my own flies. Which ones to use though? 

So I have been scouting around for Irish patterns. I will be posting patterns that I have collected along with my attempts at making them. Should be interesting and entertaining, to say the least.

More stargazing

 The weather over the last couple of weeks has been, shall we say, challenging 😁. Fitted one night of stargazing in in the Wicklow Mountains, but the wind was so bad that I couldn’t take any pictures. Need a steadier tripod / bracket combination. 

Did however manage some backyard shots with the iPhone and a new app. The app is called AstroShader and it is a free app. I am suitably impressed. It takes a series of pictures and automatically stacks them. 

The results are quite good. 

This picture of Orion with Jupiter and Aldebaran to the right taken from my backyard in a class 7 bortle sky. I’m impressed. 

Was also able to capture this one with the crescent moon and Venus the other night. 

Tried another setup last night. Let’s just say that it was less than stellar. 

But I think I am on the right track. Some more experimentation required. 

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.