For three years I have been pondering how to solve a tricky riddle. There are so many people who would love to learn about the night sky, but it is very hard to organise an outdoor course for this in this country because the weather is so unreliable. I need to sort the dates for my courses at least a few weeks in advance and it is impossible to predict the conditions that far away. Also, the best times of the year for star, moon and planet-gazing are not the best times for weather. Mid-summer is great for many outdoor activities, but with the late sunsets it is not perfect for stars.

The solution, it dawned on me (pehaps I should say dusked?) is to create a club for those who are interested and then, when the conditions are right I will let everyone know where and when I will be for a couple of hours of guided stargazing. There will be no charge – as there will be no guarantees – but I should be able to give a couple of days notice in most cases and less in a few. Most of these will take place in the South Downs in West Sussex, but I will also endeavour to host a couple of nights when out and about in other parts of the UK or perhaps, in time, abroad. All you need to do to join this club is to come on one of my courses, public or private.

Last night the visibility was great and we enjoyed the nearly full moon, Gemini, Pegasus, Taurus, the Plough, the North Star, Cassiopeia, Jupiter, Cygnus, Auriga, Orion and probably quite a few others! In total we looked at five different ways of finding north from the stars and many other techniques for finding direction.

I took the picture of the moon above last night. It is full today and so was one day off full last night, but it does look quite full. It goes to show how tricky it can be to tell the difference between phases precisely. Everyone can get very close, but I do not know of anyone in the world who can, without fail, gauge the phase of the moon to the day just by looking at it. This has implications for using the slightly involved ‘phase method’ of finding direction (see the book), as for each day you are out in your estimation of the moon’s phase this can throw your estimation of direction out by 12 degrees.

Here is a bit of a red herring from a navigation point of view, but fun all the same… When I was going through my photos this morning I was about to delete an unsteady one of Jupiter (the second one shown here), when I hesitated because I spotted something that jumped out at me. Below the bright Jupiter and in a crooked line there are four stars, but just above them and to the right of Jupiter there is a very small blue smudge. This, as I hoped and suspected, was Uranus. It was not visible to the naked eye last night, but showed up on the longer exposure of this photo. A lovely small ‘discovery’ to start the day with. Not sure my name will go down there with Herschel’s though!

My sources tell me that the first is a Magpie Inkcap (Coprinopsis picaceus) and the second is Green Elf Cup/Wood cup/Stain (Chlorociboria aeruginascens).

My thanks, in no particular order, to: Nick Weston, Brian and Ross Gardner.

——————————–

A thousand apologies for that title.

Seriously now, are there any fungi experts out there?

Yesterday I came across these two rather fun specimens during a family walk in our local woods. Thought one was a Panther cap, but looks a bit too ‘pointy’ for that. The blue one is beautiful, but not one I can even guess at. I’m assuming it is a fungus, but could be a lichen at a stretch I suppose?

If anyone knows someone in the know please could you waft these images under their expert noses. Much obliged. Credit will be given. My email address is here.

On a different subject, my thanks to James Garrett for booking a private course for 15 people on Saturday afternoon and to all those who came. We set off from Ditchling Beacon on top of the South Downs and after some exploration and investigation of an area rich in natural clues, we were able to wrap the day up with Jupiter, then Capella, Arcturus, Deneb, the Plough, Polaris, Cassiopeia. Way to finish. I was so glad to have an excuse to be on top of the Downs. Thanks!

Orion and his sword were first to offer their greetings and then I noticed Jupiter still visible in the southwest. Sirius, Betelgeuse, Capella, the Plough and Polaris sketched out some order in the celestial sphere.

The moon was close to setting and was lighting up rows of fluffy cumulus clouds on their western edges. As time passed the clouds lost their bright white western edges, but gained pink and orange eastern ones. They moved sedately towards the northeast, signalling the start to a fine day. (Photo to the right was taken a few minutes ago.)

I adore the Witterings in winter, the barbecue and beach towels may have to stay at home but it is invigorating to get blown along on miles of abandoned sand. In between games of hide and seek amongst the beach huts, games of football on the sticky sand and races to pieces of seaweed, I noticed some interesting patterns in the sand.

This photo shows how there tend to be broad ripples parallel to the coastline itself, but closer inspection reveals more subtle patterns and these can be used to decipher the action of the water and therefore yield more clues to direction. The ripples of sand fan out over the small hills that are exposed at low water. There are tight-packed parallel ridges where the water action is uniform, but a more confused system of diamonds where incoming water meets the returning undercurrent from earlier waves. All of these patterns can be used by walkers in low visibility to orientate themselves, if the sound of the water is not helping, but they can also be used by divers searching for a clue to the direction of coast in low visiblity.

It is navigationally interesting because of its declination or ‘celestial latitude’. At 19 degrees north it passes overhead a lot of major cities, including Honolulu, Mumbai and Mexico City.

The easiest way to find Arcturus is to follow the the handle of the Plough on its curved path away from the ‘saucepan’. The star that can just be seen in the top right of the photo is the end of the saucepan handle.

This morning I thought it would be nice to give it credit for being more than just a signpost. It is Ursa Major, the Great Bear and has featured in literature and art for as long as words and pictures have been recorded. Homer, Shakespeare and Van Gogh have given it the time of day.

The first thing we can do if we want to give it a second thought is to look to the middle star in the Plough (saucepan to some) handle. This can be seen clearly as a double star. It consists of the brighter Mizar and fainter Alcor. I took this photo early this morning, my fingers aching as I pried the frozen gate latch from over a post. One must suffer for one’s art. If you click on it and look at the expanded version you will see the double star.