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Updated March 21st 2010
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It's Spring!. Since it was a gorgeous clear night I went up to the Glenshane Pass to admire the evening stars and get a capture of the close conjunction between the crescent Moon and Pleiades (also called M45 or Seven Sisters). Here's a single 18mm wide angle capture showing both subjects while the glow of twilight was still present in the sky, I like the wide angle because it shows the pair in relation to the surrounding constellations around the ecliptic. Pity about the lens flare though which was caused by the bright lunar glare. I was soon joined by Conor McDonald and we ended up chatting and watching the sky for well over an hour. It was a calm, dry night, but extremely cold at this elevation. We observed several impressive Iridium flares and bright meteors which seemed to fall in the Virgo region with strange frequency despite there being no major meteor showers active. Later a Van pulled up with several local people inside and it turned out that they too had been observing the stars from a nearby location so we ended up having a great chat and pointing out various subjects of interest in the sky. Nice session.
The good thing about approaching frontal systems, especially the warm front variety, is that high level cirrostratus cloud will stream down-range ahead of the precip area for several hundreds of miles causing the Sun to sport a 'murky' or 'hazy' form in the afternoon sky. It looks this way because the clouds are packed with tiny ice crystals which refract sunlight producing a nice show of atmospheric optics. On Friday a nice 22 degree halo formed around the Sun, I took this image from the garden at the time, the halo was actually better looking in reality compared to the image.
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In other news, the long awaited CME did no impact Earth last night so no geomagnetic storms happened anywhere. Experts think the cloud either missed altogether (I doubt that) or it had weakened so much that it produced no effect when it encountered our magnetic field. This was a pity because it actually cleared up during the pre-dawn hours of friday morning and I was ready, however by that time I knew it had been a damp squib. I didn't waste the time though and made another observation of comet C/2009 K5 McNaught before the blue glow of morning twilight washed the delicate comet from the sky, this was 05.00 UT, quite shocking how short the nights have become now!. The birds were singing long before this time and the Summer constellations where putting on a good show, especially Scorpius, which is now very conspicuous with brilliant Antares in the SE-S at this time of the morning.
It's now Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and I'm sure many of you are as glad to see it as I am. Spring and Summer are my favourite seasons of the year, not just because of the longer days and higher Sun, but also because of the spectacular day and night transient phenomena which appear during this period. Spring produces the greatest amount of atmospheric optics displays (based on personal experience) and it's also aurora season. However more importantly, in just over two months, the infamous Noctilucent Cloud season begins which many observers are eagerly waiting for. This was my favourite image from the 2009 season, if I can equal or beat that during 2010 I will be extremely pleased. The competition this year is fierce among the seasoned NLC photographers in N. Ireland and Britain so it's going to be fun to see what happens when May-June arrives.
The other reason I love this time of year are the thunderstorms!. Below are the pre-00z GFS CAPE and storm risk charts from Netweather for Monday March 22nd. The theme remains, with great variation, through every update. The unstable post frontal airmass should deliver the first heavy showers and thunderstorms of the year during this period for Ireland, possibly N. Ireland, and parts of Britain, after this the week will stay unsettled with more fronts and showers with further t-storms possible mid week and again over the weekend where Britain will see further instability within the same week. I wonder when the first spectacular funnel cloud will be captured?
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(Above) CAPE & lifted index charts for Mon
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(Above) Storm risk chart for Mon. It should be noted that these charts will change dramatically, and many times each day so this is just a very rough guide at the moment. Things could get upgraded and become very exciting over the next few days, or, just like the aurora activity, it could get downgraded and be another damp squib. For storm lovers the future set-up does look encouraging, the jet stream is now moving N over Ireland and UK with the unsettled theme continuing, come April and there should be some very decent thunderstorms around.
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Detailed image account documenting five nights, March 7th to 14th, on top of Glenshane Pass, Maghera 1000ft above Sea level observing and imaging the elusive, but incredible, Zodiacal Light Pyramid in the evening sky. One of these nights was a joint session with Dr. Andy McCrea and his Wife from the IAA. During this unforgettable period I observed the ZL on five nights within a week which resulted in my finest visual sight on March 14th when the ZL could be seen passing over the Pleiades while glowing a remarkable blue colour. One page account with 14 images. - REPORT.
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(Above) K5 McNaught captured by Artyom Novichonok on Feb 22nd
The Moon is on the wane again, and with it the return of dark nights as the March lunation begins. There are currently two telescopic comets visible in the pre-dawn sky for those observers who live at mid northern latitudes. Since both objects are visible in the E to NE during the early morning hours, it would be best to wait until the Moon is less than last quarter phase to begin your hunt. The period before and after new Moon would be considered the best time to search, so let's examine each comet in turn.
The first is C/2009 K5 McNaught, this comet has now appeared in the pre-dawn sky and is already brighter than expected at magnitude + 10.2 on Feb 20th, however other estimates have placed it at a more optimistic +9.8. McNaught is expected to continue brightening during Spring and peak at magnitude +8 making it an easy object for moderate-sized telescopes and good quality, mounted, binoculars.
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The above chart was supplied by Skyhound.com and shows McNaught's climb in a NEly direction during March through one of my favourite regions of sky. The comet was in Scutum at the beginning of the month, moved NE past M11 then continues to move through the region of sky between Aquila and Serpens Cauda, passing through beautiful dense regions of the Milky Way which should make for a stunning background through any telescope. Later in the month it will approach Sagitta, enter Vulpecula, when it will be in the same camera field as M27 and the Coat Hanger Asterism. The comet is small with a 3.5 arc min coma diameter showing the classic green colour on CCD images. It's not known if the comet will sport a tail at this time, however if it does it will no doubt be a short and faint affair. The comet's trek near rich star fields in proximity to bright naked eye stars should make its visual detection a simple and pleasant experience. I'm looking forward to observing it myself.
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Dramatic twilight fog scene captured by storm photographer Chris Allington from Nebraska, USA, on top of 'Murray Hill'. Check out his image account to see more fog, sunset, and long exposure night shots.
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Astronomy is not the only area I'm interested in. One other such area is severe weather which will be playing a major role on nightskyhunter from now on, along side my other astronomical pursuits. Check out my new Storm Image section and read the reports and images. This area will become extensive in the future. As always I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks for your time.
Martin McKenna
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