London has a lot going for it. Really. It’s got all kinds of exciting things to do. You can ice skate outside a building full of prehistoric skeletons, or potter round the City of London wondering at the juxtaposition of ancient churches and soaring new structures. You can eat almost any cuisine known to man, catch the best new plays, listen to several of the world’s finest orchestras (one at a time is best), or sunbathe in one of the beautiful parks that span the centre of the city. It’s packed full of history, culture, entertainment, job opportunities and Boris bikes. However there is one thing that London is most definitely not great for, and that is star-gazing.
Despite the light pollution, crowded skylines and traffic fumes, I gamely bought my first astronomical telescope whilst living in Camberwell, south London. I had been to the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Greenwich Observatory and overawed by the stunning images of outer space; I needed to see these mind-bogglingly massive yet eye-wateringly distant nebulae and galaxies for myself!
Of course reality soon impinged as it has a dirty habit of doing, as I found myself struggling even to attach the Sky-Watcher Skymax-127 to its metal legs. When I had finally got it set up on the north-facing balcony on a clear evening, I realised that I’d only be able to see anything if it happened to be in the north half of the sky. And the glow from London’s many lights did make it hard to make out any but the most obvious of constellations. I managed to see Saturn with its rings (what a moment!) but only through the south-facing and rather grubby bedroom window, with the scope awkwardly jammed up against the bed.
So imagine the delight that is now mine to be able to haul the telescope out into our back field with no street lights for miles around, and take my pick from what’s up there. The week before last was a corker; no moon (which makes everything else stand out more), and four planets visible - Mars, Saturn, Venus and Jupiter. The latter two appeared very close to each other then; Venus was the brighter and higher of the two. I could make out the terminator on Venus (no, not another Schwarzenegger movie, it's the line that divides the sunlit side from the dark side). And last week with the full moon out, I was able to explore its crater-pocked surface in detail. If you have a pair of binoculars, next time the moon’s up get outside and take a look - it’s truly beautiful.
Sadly rainclouds are the latest feature of the Dorset sky and seem set to stay awhile which may mean I miss the Lyrid meteor shower this Saturday, but if you’re somewhere with a clear sky from 10:30pm this Saturday until 9:30am Sunday, wrap up warm, set up a sun lounger and look up for as long as you can near the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. (If you have an Android phone get the Google Sky Map app for free, it’s brilliant for finding constellations). You should with a bit of luck see some meteroids crashing through our planet’s atmosphere. What better way to spend a Saturday night?
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