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Aurora Event scheduled to hit Northern Hemisphere on 13th!

Aurora over Alaska (NASA)

A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is headed towards the Earth and is expected to hit on the 13th. It's predicted strength (it's KP number) is thought to be a 6, which for the UK would mean viewing from Midlands, Birmingham area.

See here for more info. Keep checking back for more updates.

PANSTARRS bagged in North Hampshire!

Picture of C/2011 L4 courtesy of NASA

Or to give it its less prosaic name, Comet C/2011 L4! Last Tuesday evening proved to have exceptional seeing (for once a clear AND moonless night!), and with a lucky clear spot in our schedule, Mr Ghost and I headed off to our dark sky site up on the downs. Not the most spectacular faint fuzzy... but there none the less!

Certainly not a naked eye object, didn't even catch it in the 10 x 50's... but the 150mm newt with 25 mm eyepiece on our (un-motarised) EQ3 did the trick. The comet was located (very nicely and completely randomly by Mr Ghost who is proving to have a knack with this kind of thing) in the NW sky at about 8pm BST. Situated due south of M31 and 32 in Andromeda.

Of course that was low down on the 2nd April. By no it will be moving up through Andromeda and into Ursa Major. As it relative position in the sky gets higher, unfortunately, its apparent magnitude gets lower. I can see from my observing diary, that the previous session had been on the 15th Feb. Lets hope that that we get some good seeing in the next few weeks so that we cant have a look at the Virgo/Coma Berenices galaxies.

Clear Skies!