This may seem like a strange time of year to start a Scotland Astronomy newsletter. The days are getting longer and longer and soon there won't be any nighttime to speak of from our latitude at 56 degrees north, but that’s no reason to stop looking.
May 5th is our last day with any ‘nighttime’ (when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon), and it’s only 16 minutes long! From 01:05 - 01:21. Nighttime doesn’t return until August 9th.
I have always marvelled at the night sky (who hasn’t?). I keep looking up, because you never know when something amazing will happen. From a meteor to a supernova, there are no advanced warnings of these events, and a lot of discoveries have been made by amateur astronomers. I often set up a 15mm wide angle lens on a DSLR camera to capture a night scape (30 seconds at ISO400), and then study it compared to planetarium software, old-school ‘plate solving’, you’d be surprised what you can see.
Here’s one I prepared earlier!
The three arrows from left to right are Uranus, M33 Triangulum & M31 Andromeda, and yes that is an over exposed moon! The camera: a Canon 2000D DSLR APSC [cropped sensor, so not full frame for you camera nerds] with a 15mm fisheye lens. The photo was taken at F2.8 ISO 800 for 15 seconds. I often use this rig in tandem with a full astro rig, if the sky is washed out by a full moon, or the cloud cover can’t be accurately predicted (often in Scotland) or the viewing is poor (the stars are twinkling, caused by light refraction in the atmosphere, which makes general viewing more difficult).
My first telescope was a pair of binoculars, 7 x 50. I still have a similar pair. My first full fledged telescope was a 12” Meade SCT. I primarily used this for visual observations, but began astrophotography back in 1996, using a 35mm SLR with Kodachrome 64 film! Drift aligning and OAG’s [off axis guider] - it was difficult and frustrating! The results arrived in the post!
Since then astrophotography has changed beyond recognition. I decided to write about it as I have read a plethora of articles on the web about this subject, but found that there were always small pieces of information missing that tied it all together. This isn’t claiming to be the missing link, but writing about it may help or inspire someone to try.
The plan is eventually to host “Astro nights” here in Argyll or other dark sky sites around Scotland. Given the few windows of opportunity for clear skies in Scotland, and the remote locale, I anticipate the groups will be quite small and local! But if it inspires one other person to get involved, it will have achieved its goal.
We will have to wait until later in the year to get sufficient nighttime to start astrophotography again, but there is lots to talk about in between. Nautical and astronomical twilight does lend itself to practising polar alignment if you want to hone this skill. If not here are some other noteworthy things to observe…..
Scotland Astronomy Highlights for May 2023
Noctilucent Cloud Season begins
Noctilucent clouds are clouds that are in the upper atmosphere, the Mesosphere, between 76-85km up. They are generally only visible to these latitudes (50N-70N) between May-July. They are also further restricted to being viewed when the Sun is between 6 and 16 degrees below the horizon (see below). These high clouds are in fact in full sunlight unlike us on the surface. They are formed by tiny ice crystals.
The three types of twilight and their measurements. The same measurements occur at dusk.
Look at Venus!
Venus is visible as an evening planet currently (56%). The moon (waxing crescent 16%) will be close on the 23rd.
Sadly most other planets are morning planets and are difficult to view. With Mars being the only other evening planet, and very small currently.
Milky Way Galactic Core
The galactic core of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A) has nearly risen for us Northeners! But twilight is hot on its tail, there maybe an opportunity to get some good nightscapes with wide angle lenses early in the month, I would normally use a 30s exposure at ISO 400 or 800 with the lens wide open (lowest F stop). Pointed at the SE quadrant of the sky for the best results.
Daytime occultation between Jupiter and the Moon (Very rare!)
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Eat Sleep Wild to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.