Martin's out and about blog

Out and About with the Sky at Night

    

Orion. January is the best time to view it

TV Programmes

Star gazing is a bug that is easily caught.  Scanning the heavens with just a pair of binos reveals enough for you to want to know more. Combine this with TV programmes like Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe with cute Prof Brian Cox is enough to provoke you into getting serious with books, Star Maps and maybe more sophisticated equipment. 

There's more fun to be had with Prof Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Brian on Star Gazing Live on the 16th, 17th and 18th January 2012 

   

Books

I was given the book Wonders of the Solar System as a christmas present and was surprised at how captivating it was to read. I have just finished it.  I shall have to move onto Wonders of the Universe next and then maybe I will be able to go back to Stephen Hawkings books A Brief History of Time  and the Universe in a Nutshell. I was given these some time ago and have struggled to digest them but maybe now I will understand more of them.

Planetarium

As a sign of my increasing captivation with the subject I have downloaded the planetarium Stellarium on to my laptop.

"Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope".

This is such fun and so informative I am in danger of spending more time watching it than watching the skies.

Monthly Star Guides

I like to know what I should be looking out for in the skies so that I can plan my stargazing. I'm too mean to buy a magazine each month so I find online monthly star guides are a great help in letting you know what is important and significant to look out for in the month and helping you navigate the skies to find it. The guides I find most useful are:

1. Telegraph Star Guides these appear on the first monday of each month  
2. The Universe Today Star Guide the January 2012 guide

Alerts

Finally I also like to know if I am about  to miss something important so I follow @VirtualAstro on Twitter who is very informative and amusing.

 

A sunny afternoon stroll along the Kennet and Avon Canal

Whenever my wife and I go out for a walk we always seem to find something interesting or unusual. Today was a gloriously sunny day so we went to to Aldermarston Wharf to walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal starting from the Visitor Centre 

We first went east and came across this wonderful example of bracket fungus.

Then we returned to the centre and walked west to the bridge across the canal just as it was being lifted to let a barge through

I wonder what surprises our next walk will bring

 

 

 

Exploring Cambridge Botanic Gardens

A business trip to Cambridge led to an opportunity to explore Cambridge Botanic Gardens

The Olive Trees in the courtyard bounded by the new Sainsbury's Lab and Restaurant

The fountain

The Rock Garden

New Arrivals at our Local Wildlife Haven

May day bank holiday was a beautiful blue sky day even if the wind was a little cool.  We have some gravel pits nearby and they are usually good for wildlife spotting. We ventured out to see what had arrived recently as we had received information that some black terns were stopping over on their passage to their breeding grounds.

We get our notifications via Berks Birds and their twitter feed http://twitter.com/berksbirds It is good to see that Berks Birds is expanding using a new site Going Birding to include Oxfordshire, Buckinghampshire and Hampshire. They also have a mobile site http://m.berksbirds.co.uk which I should have checked before venturing out because of course by the time we had got going the black terns had moved on.

However we did see our first swifts of the year and our first hobby of the year so we still had an enjoyable trip out.

Catching such fast moving aerial performances from swifts and hobbies on cameras is nearly impossible (for me) but I did take a picture of a carpet of speedwell blue reflecting the sun.

 

Delightful views from our daily walk

We have a favourite walk which we attempt everyday that we can.  Because we walk it nearly everyday you get to see the changing fauna and flora throughout the seasons. This time we have a photo of a carpet of crocus and an unusual fungus.

 

 

Snowdrops at Welford Park

It was a lovely day, sunny but not too bright, cool but not freezing. A good day for our annual trip to see the snowdrops at Welford Park.

Spring Has Arrived in Our Garden

The weather has been warm this week. The catkins are out as are the crocus. The snow drops are just breaking cover but not yet fully open. But the favourite in our garden are the dwarf Iris - Iris Reticulata. Such a fantastic shade of blue with a bright yellow tongue.

Hunting Waxwings in Reading

There have been a number of sitings of Waxwings in the Reading area. I keep an eye on http://twitter.com/berksbirdnews for reports of sitings.

This morning there was a report of Waxwings locally.  So off we went with all our gear to the Porsche garage at Calcot Reading.  In front of the garage is a group of trees still with berries and sure enough there was a group of Waxwings - about 7 or 8 - along with some Redwings feasting on the berries then flying off before drifting back again.

The light wasn't very good light and unfortunately my battery died before I could set up the telescope for digiscoping. So it was back home to recharge and hope they are still around later.

This is the only half decent picture I was able to capture

 

 

 

 

Views from Rock Walk in Torquay

There might be snow on the ground everywhere else but here in Torquay there isn't a sign of any and its a glorious sunny day. So we had to try out the rebuilt Rock Walk. These are views from Rock Walk and one showing the view up to Rock Walk from the seafront

Our Hotel Redwings and Blackcaps

We're staying at the Premier Inn in Torquay just by the seafront. We have a room on the second floor just by a tree favoured by a group of Redwings and Blackcaps (male and female)

 

Then as a real treat the blackcaps flew into the guttering just outside our window to feed on the vegetation in our guttering. Unfortunately I had to take the picture at an angle through the glass. Hence the not so clear pictures but delightful all the same. We have here a pair of males and then a pair of females