A night in the cosmic garden...

On a dark, clear, cold winters night, you look up to the sky and see what seems to be thousands of stars shining back at you. You then stop and begin to wonder, how did we
get here? Why are we here? How many planets are there orbiting these points of light in the sky? Are there others out there? How many other civilisations or life forms are staring at the very same stars as me? Wow. This is the power of astronomy. 

I have been incredibly lucky this weekend in that I have had two very clear, absolutely breathtaking nights of stargazing. The seasons most definitely feel as if they are changing with the autumn equinox approaching this week, it was quite chilly but I've got my new Kielder Observatory coat to keep me warm and cosy :)

I was at the observatory on Friday night, and there was patchy cloud cover until around 11pm when it suddenly cleared up and the stars hiding behind the cloud came out to play, what seemed like millions of stars against the inky black skies of Kielder. I saw the milky way for the first time. I'll never ever forget it, you could actually see the twists and knots of dark nebulae, and it was so bright it made shadows...awesome! We also got the CCD camera on the 14" telescope linked up to the television screen in the classroom...galactic tv !! The detail of the images that were coming out were absolutely incredible, the galaxies we were observing were so, so clear you could see the spiral arms so well, it was just an incredible experience to watch and think that is millions of light years away...

Kielder Observatory went on tour and we hosted an event at the Dilston Physic Garden on Sunday night, which is an absolutely beautiful place, one of the best settings (apart from the obs!) for a night beneath the stars, uncovering the secrets of the cosmos. The garden is located on the outskirts of Hexham, so there is some light pollution, but the sky was so clear we could even see the milky way arching over us, right across the sky, and stars...lots of stars. There were laser tours of the sky, pointing out the constellations, helping our guests find their way around the sky, to find some order in the mass of stars above them.

I was lucky enough to see three objects that I have never observed before, the ring nebula (M57) a planetary nebula, the dumbbell nebula (M27) also a planetary nebula and the Veil nebula (above) a supernovae remnant - that was my favourite, through the 12" telescope we had it just looked stunning, like a slip of material floating the vastness of space...

I'm looking forward to many more clear nights to explore the wonders of the universe, wishing you clear skies !

I only want to be an astronaut.

(Image : NASA)

http://onlywanttobeanastronaut.blogspot.gr