Camelopardalis

Finally managed to see the conventional lines of Camelopardalis tonight - usually I can manage to find alpha and beta, but the fainter stars that make the 'legs' of the giraffe are invisible.

Fortunately tonight I had the lucky combination of excellent seeing and my neighbours being away and consequently not having their conservatory lights on.

Another encounter with Urania, the library angel's astronomical counterpart, this evening: walking home I saw the Full Moon just rising and half obscured, apparently by cloud. Then discovered that a partial lunar eclipse had been in progress.

Very pleasant astro session last night - a half moon meant there were no chances to make out more of Camelopardalis, but I got a beautiful view of Praesepe (M44) looking like a patch of spilt diamonds in the 40mm. This wide field, low magnification eyepiece has been well worth what I paid for it. Then over to Orion to work on the Trapezium - I'm getting quite good at locating stars and then keeping them in field while I change up through the eyepieces to the 9mm. When I first started I would always lose them to drift during the changeover.

Some months ago I built a DIY tripod adaptor for my 10x50 binoculars, and using this I was able to see Jupiter as a disc, and several of its moons, for the first time. (In fact it was this that made me want to buy a telescope).

Since then I have several times been able to see the moons with unsupported binoculars, which I could never do before. I thought at first I was imagining it, but the positions of my moons always corresponded with the actual ones when I checked afterwards.

Further evidence that astronomy is about 'learning to see.'

A really good astro session last night, learning to find my way around with the telescope. Very clear, dark sky, one of the best I can remember.

I let the scope cool while I took advantage of the good seeing to learn the whole shape of Pisces - up to now I'd only been able to make out the head (under the square of Pegasus) but this time I could make out both fish.

The joined tails of the fish pointed neatly to the tail of Cetus, which I'd never grasped the outline of before. It does look just like a whale, with the body in the west and the raised tail in the east just next to Taurus. Gamma (where the fluke joins the tail) was a beautiful golden yellow in binoculars.

I wanted an easy start with the scope so I turned it on the Pleiades, to get a feel for how much sky the 25mm eyepiece shows me (80x magnification). Not enough for the whole asterism, is the answer.

Then I trained it on the bottom bar of Lyra to scan for the Ring Nebula, which I found without needing the setting circles. It's easy to find, being almost exactly on the line from beta to gamma. If anything it looked better in the 25mm, the 9mm eyepiece (225x) made it too dim to appreciate.

From there it was a short traverse to Albireo, my first attempt at separating a double. At first I mistook alpha Vulpeculae for it because I underestimated how bright Albireo would look in the finder. Once that was cleared up I had a fine view of the yellow and blue components, which again were more impressive in the 25mm.

As I was freezing cold by now I decided to finish with a look at Jupiter, where I was rewarded with Europa and Io very close either side of the planet. I also kept almost seeing a dark dot on the trailing side of Jupiter, which I later realised from the Jupiter's Moons applet was Ganymede's shadow.

I was pleased with this session, I got a lot of practice with the finder and the fine controls, and got a proper feel for the 25mm EP. It showed me that use of the setting circles is not needed for objects which you'd trust yourself to find with binoculars.

Had a good try for Kaus Australis last night, which would be a real triumph for advancing the limit of celestial navigation, but couldn't see it although the 'reverse Plough' bit of Sagittarius was bright and clear down to 30 deg S. My southern horizon suffers from chimneys and a tall tree in just the wrong places.

Did however get a nice clear view of Delphinus, and three new constellations Equuleus, Sagitta and Scutum, none of which I've managed to see the shapes of before. A summer night can, it seems, have good visibility if you stay up late enough. Indeed Vega and Arcturus were glittering away as brightly as you could wish.

The Milky Way was clearly visible through Cygnus, Vulpecula and Aquila too, anyone who says you can't see it from a town is overly pessimistic in my opinion.

McNaught

I was up at 12.55am looking for McNaught with binoculars, but it was hopeless. I could barely see 3rd magnitude stars that low down, so I was never going to be able to pick out a 5th magnitude comet in the combination of horizon murk, summer twilight, moonlight.

Definitely a Halley disappointment rather than a Hale-Bopp triumph.

Still, the great thing about comets is that a new one might turn up at any time.

When I got home tonight about 5pm, I noticed the New Moon with Jupiter about 2 degrees away. I'd been expecting the Moon to be near Jupiter and Venus when it reappeared this month, and was impressed by how close it was to Jupiter.

But I was puzzled by the fact that I couldn't see Venus anywhere. I assumed it was behind a cloud or the houses, and went up to the end of the garden anyway to see how the Moon and Jupiter looked in binoculars.

Leaning against the shed I had a good look at the Moon with Earthshine, and tried to make an accurate guess at the distance to Jupiter - about 4 Moon widths or 2 degrees.

Then I inspected the craters on the lower limb of the Moon, which were in sharp relief because of the angle of the sunlight. Suddenly my attention was caught by a bright spot at about 4 o'clock on the edge of the Moon. 'Hmm, ' I thought, that'll be the side wall of a big crater catching the sunlight. Impressive.'

The spot got brighter and brighter until I was reminded of pictures of the 'diamond ring' effect during solar eclipses. And then (about 5.20pm) I realised that the Moon was actually moving clear of the spot, which of course was the missing Venus appearing from behind the Moon.

All unawares I'd been watching a lunar occultation of Venus, which I'd had no idea would be happening. One of the most beautiful and impressive astronomical sights I've seen.

I've had help many times from the library angel, but it's not so often that I'm blessed by assistance from Urania, the muse of astronomy.