Well, if there's nothing to be seen, and it's a sunny day (the two often go together) then you can turn your scope through 180° and try to find some sunspots. Obviously, you don't look at them THROUGH the scope. That way blindness lies. You project the Sun's image onto a flat, pale surface .... your notebook is an obvious choice, or the flyleaf of whatever book you're carrying. All sensible people have a book with them ... [preferably in Welsh of course ]. It's a pretty spectacular thing to do. It got poor old Galileo into big trouble for a start. He got put in prison for saying the sun had spots on it ... the Sun is supposed to be "immaculate" - literally, without a spot. ( macula = a spot in Latin ). Observing them from day to day, you'll see them trundling along.... that's how we first realised that the sun rotates. They're not always anywhere near as spectacular as that lot up there. But even the dinky spots are a good bit larger than the entire Earth. Crumbs. Plus, they are very very hot ... thousands of degrees. They only look black because they're a lot less hot that the Sun's surface. But here's the exciting thing..... quite often when doing this, I've got into arguments with people. Oh yes. For a start, most people tell you that "we" can't see sunspots. Only "astronomers" can. And then they tell you that those spots aren't sunspots, just dust on the lens. So then you rotate the scope and the "spots" stay where they were. They don't like it. It tends to annoy them. Rather than believing you, they get angry. Smashing ! Then there's the hardliners who go down the "sling these dissenters in prison" route. I've had two of them. The "immaculate Sun" types. It takes all sorts. Incidentally, you can use the same "projection" technique to look at transits of planets ... I've been fortunate to watch transits of both Mercury and Venus in this way, as they drift across the Sun's image over a few hours. But those events are very ( very) rare indeed. Cook's marathon voyage to the Southern Hemisphere was mainly to observe a Transit of Venus . Plus, it's the ideal way to watch eclipses. I've set up the scope in our street quite a few times so that we all get to see it clearly. On a slightly different level, a few months ago I was in a hide with a few others, and it was as dead as a door-nail bird-wise.. Scanning around the skyline with my scope, I found that the incredibly faint sliver of the Moon was rising over the hills to the East. It looked totally beautiful, even ghostly. Looking for it with the naked eye, it couldn't be seen at all. With binoculars, you could just make it out, once you knew where it was. Everyone was dead chuffed to see it. Memorable. I'm wondering now what would be a suitably "relevant" bit of music. Well, me being me, we're going to have a beautiful version of a Gorky's Zygotic Mynci song, "Sbia ar y Seren" ( look at the star) .... mistakes and all !
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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