Day 2 in Cabrera - 2014 Yearbook of Astronomy - Evening Moon from the Terrace - Ursa Major over La Pilica.
Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 10:56AM .CLICK THROUGH THE LINKS ABOVE TO MOVE FORWARD OR BACK
More settling in and organising today - a less cloudy day today - clearing completely by the time it got dark.
I brought a large number of astronomy books with me to catch up on and use for reference. I had bought myself the 2014 hardback Patrick Moore Astronomy Yearbook for Christmas and sat out on the terrace with an Ethiopian Coffee to start reading it.
It has a number of interesting articles about Patrick from his friends. I had spent a day with Patrick some years ago and found the articles to reflect my views of him - a very generous man who gave away much of his wealth without a second thought and much of his time - always replying to every query and request personally without hesitation. He did have very strong views in certain directions that not everyone agreed with. He sent me one of his famous postcards typed on his vintage typewriter that he used for his books that I am pleased to have. He used postcards in the same way that people use email.
The evening view fom the terrace is below with the Moon very bright.
A perfectly full Moon(well 98.55%) - very good through my Swarovski 80mm birdwatching telescope - and easy to see because of the current low altitude of the Moon (33 degrees from Almeria) - the 45 degree eyepiece makes it difficult to observe high objects.
The constellation of Ursa Major was rising from behind a local hill called La Pilica shown below.
Looked at the Double Cluster again through the TAL and was "rewarded" with a bright satellite going through the field of the cluster. Pinprick bright stars in the cluster through the TAL - a very good telescope - not bad for £40 on EBay a few months ago!! In my opinion the best telescope for a beginner - but don't expect too many on EBay for £40!
There are always bargains there if you keep your eyes open. My C14 was bought in the same way - but not for £40 I might add!! It is much warmer outside tonight - no coat or hat needed. I have been using my new Head Torch - extremely useful because you wave your hand at it to switch it on or off. I did find however that if you wave your head past the telescope to turn away for example - it has the same effect!