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Images from Kielder spring star camp


robbieince

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Hi Guys

I have managed to get my images from the Kielder Spring star camp processed, hope you like them.

As ever, Kielder was a brilliant star camp and, although the weather was not great, the social side was as good as ever. The campsite conditions started off poorly but did improve significantly over the week as the weather, although changeable, was a lot drier than it has been. It's a shame that a lot of people had been put off by the dire reports and the electric hook up field was pretty bare all week.

I arrived the Monday before the camp was due to officially start (one advantage of being between jobs....) and got position A on the elevated pitch at the entrance to the site. This was the best pitch I have ever had - so much nicer to be up out of the mud.

I didn't think the weather prospects were great for the first few days so didn't set up the scope and stuck to binoculars till Thursday - I did manage to see stars on every night though. Kielder on a dark moonless night, even with patchy cloud, is still magical and I spent many hours just mooching around the sky with my Canon IS 15x50s. Bliss.

The first highlight was on Thursday when after a rainy and cloudy day we got word of an aurora in Scotland (it's so great having internet on site these days) - although when I went out to check I found we had solid cloud - hmm frustronomy strikes again... But you don't get to be an astronomer without being persistent and after an hour or so the cloud thinned to the point I could see glows directly overhead and also to the South East.... That was unexpected as I expected the glow to be in the North....

I took a couple of piccies and saw some reds and greens that weren't visible to the naked eye so I decided to keep checking. Eventually around midnight the sky managed to clear a bit and although the aurora was obviously dying down from what it had been, I still managed to get some piccies and eventually made a time lapse which you can see here ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201501377718771 ) and the still of me gawping (Canon 500D, 30s, samyang 8mm)

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Wow - this was simply the best aurora I have seen and Antoinette and I were jumping up and down like kids - oh what it would have been like if the skies had cleared earlier....

Next day the weather was quite mixed and not really good enough for observing and this really lasted until Sunday with the prospects for the week after looking quite good - The law of sod seeming still to be an astronomical law. I checked with the boss and got a pass put to stay a few more days beyond the originally planned Monday leaving.

Monday night and Tuesday night were both clear for several hours although the transparency was poor and there was an annoying, persistent, thin and high cloud making the sky look quite mucky but it was good enough to get the attached piccies.

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Monday my first target was to see if I could capture the Supernova in M82, even though it was fading to 12th magnitude. This image is a result of 9 x10 min guided subs of luminosity and 3 x 10 min RGB binned x2 on my eq8 mount (which continues to perform flawlessly), imaged with my Atik 4000 monochrome using Artemis capture, through a SX 2 inch filter wheel, guided off axis with PhD v2 using my atik 16IC guide camera.

The SN was clearly still there and although the processing is subduing the stars and highlights, was still clearly visible, even on a few seconds of exposure. A crop and annotation is here.

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I then went looking for another target and decided to revisit the leo triplet, deciding to go for some deep 30 minute exposures. I decided only to do the L channel and to use the data I got in 2012 for RGB. I shot 8 30 min subs but lost 2 to cloud etc. the result is here.

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I was pretty pleased as it shows what a really dark site gives you, the tidal areas of ngc3628 showing up much better.... After this I turned in.

On Tuesday it was beautifully sunny and prospects looked good again. Darkness arrived to a clear sky and I decided to go for something new and chose the barred spiral M106. I shot 8 x 10 mins subs for the luminance and end up using 6 of them, and 3 x 10 min sub in each of rgb binned x2.

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There's loads to see here and quite like the view with lots of faint fluffies in the field of view - I will be coming back to this one...

I moved off to find another target and decided to revisit m51 - aiming to go deep,with 30 min subs. I shot 3 but the last 2 were badly affected by cloud cover and lost guide stars so this is just one sub of 30 mins....

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As the conditions weren't great now I decided to try using a h alpha filter to try and cut through the haze and pointed the scope at IC433, the jellyfish, shooting 10 minute exposures. I got 3 before the cloud fully closed in and ended play.

This is an interesting target but it is clear I need loads more exposure both in duration amd in number of subs - still it's nice to see what you can get through a little haze.

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On Wednesday the weather was clear and dry but set to change for the night so I decided to pack up and return home.

All in all a very successful star party and I even got some nice feedback on my talk on the Saturday.

A huge thank you deserves to go out to all involved in setting up and running the starparty - I have never had a Kielder where I went home disappointed even when I have been clouded out - the crack is superb and it's great to catch up,with old friends and meet new ones.

Here's looking forward to the next one - I might even persuade Antoinette to come to Kielder for a break out of starparty times.....

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