Well, its Sunday afternoon, and not my usual day for choosing the picture of the week, but I have just sat through 90 minutes of horrible football (4-1), so I
need something worthwhile to look at and talk about, and your pictures are just what the doctor ordered.

I also wanted to try out a slightly different look for PoW, with more images. Sorry I cant do one for every link, there is a 10 pic limit, but do be sure to click the links to those not shown, there's some great shots behind them.
Despite the short moonlit nights, we have had a good run of clear skies, and some very interesting submissions this last week.
Here are the ones which really caught my eye;

The sketches and unconventional board really lives up to its name this week with these two pictures, a great solar sketch by Andrew*

Solar disc in Ha - 27th June

It's not often we see solar sketches, but thinking about it, the sun is an ideal candidate for drawing, and Andrew's pic accurately relays the details on
the sun today.

So that's an unconventional sketch, here's just plain unconventional, an image from a pinhole camera which shows the tracks of the sun over a long
period of time as it climbs ever higher and higher. Very nicely done Kate, what a great result from an old tin with a hole in!



In the widefield board Toml42 posted a superb sundog capture, it must have been an incredible sight, it is simply huuuge!

I cant think of many places i'd like to be less than in the middle of the North Sea, however even there the beauty of our planet is evident, and captured
superbly in this gorgeous sunrise picture by Michael.


From the North Sea to Brittany, where holidaying Dangerous Dave made the most of the clear nights with some stonking pictures, including this star trail
over a cottage, and a fantastic Triffid and Lagoon nebulae widefield composition with his Astrotrac.
Check the full thread for more crackers, I especially like the moon in the weather vane

So then we go from "Dangerous Dave" to "Mad John" who was also on a break in La Palma. The shot of comet Mcnaught is really something, just look at
the tail and the colours revealed by the dark skies.

Comet 2009 R1 Mc Naught from La Palma


Jumping into the Lunar section there were quite a few quirky shots which are always nice to see, including planes coming and going in front of the
moon, and the shadow of the earth doing the same. However my favourite lunar pic was this 50 pane mosaic by resonator.

50 pane moon mosaic 21 June 2010

As usual the solar section is brimming with lovely pictures of the sun, and more and more PST Mod type pics are coming through. We have certainly
seen a lot of sun lately, so a big thank you goes to those who tirelessly document its activity and post the results here.


Jupiter season is well under way now, every morning when I go out to close the roof of my obsy I can see it blazing away in the eastern sky. I havent had
a look at it yet, but when I do I hope it looks like Francki's very natural looking capture here, with great detail, and of course, the big red spot

Jupiter this morning with my TSA 120

And so finally into the DSO section, where summer skies and bright moons did nothing to quench the appetite of the imagers for images. Right away it
becomes evident how useful the narrowband filters are during the summer, and we have some simply stunning compositions being posted just lately.
The Brazils, Argentinas, Germans and Spains (aaagh i'm back to football) of the forum have used their impressive kit to produce these spectaculr
images:

Elephants trunk (IC1396) in Hubble pallete by Malcolm
IC 1396 Hubble palette

Butterfly nebula by Gordon


Boring Dumbell Nebula by Paulo (anybody else got any "boring" pics???)


And finally the Swan Nebula by Anthony



All very impressive images. But just as Ghana have showed that the World Cup isn't all about big names, but passion, heart and grass roots ambition,
this weeks Picture of the Week demonstrates that SGL is about more than just posting up great pictures but little else.
With a great prtable setup, and just a couple of hours of imaging time, MadJohn used his night time on holiday in La Palma to grab my favourite image
of the week, a widefield shot of the Triffid nebula, the Lagoon nebula, and a superb rich glimpse of the Milky Way, showing its true colours under dark
skies.
So well done MadJohn, with your little WO 66, Astrotrac and Canon 450dD you have captured this weeks PoW!

Tim

Cracking images across the boards..

Well done MadJohn and all those mentioned and thanks to Tim for taking the time to watch the football Sorry I mean taking the review the weeks images...

Peter...

Nicely done Sir!

Good roundup too Tim

Great write-up Tim. The images in the thread are a fine idea.
A beautiful image Madjohn, and well worthy of POW

Cheers
Rob

Well done Madjohn on the POW and a great round up of the week Tim

Regards

Kevin

Congrats to MadJohn & Others who got mentioned..

Nadeem.

A testament to small, simple kit. It is such a rich image.
Olly

Congrats on POW MadJohn, stunning pics.

Mike.

Simply awesome and such a worthy winner.

Congrats John, well done all

Great POW

Well done, and congrats MJ. You really managed to get some fine shots way down there. I love the POTW selection by TJ. It's a corker.

I enjoyed the review of the weeks Images TJ.
Ron.

Congrats to MadJohn & all the others who contributed...

Well done indeed...

Guy

As usual a stunning POW, congrats john and cheers for the round up Tim.

Tremendous image, lovely colour and just a few stars!

One of the best POW i have seen on here.

Well done also to all the others.

Well done John !

Nightjar

Nice field. I love it.

Wow, what can i say? I knew it was a great picture but I didn't think it would make picture of the week!

I have only just started to get good success on my processing since xmas, when my wife bought me the 'a guide to astrophotography with digital SLR cameras' CD rom by Jerry Lodriguss, well recommended!

Also, I attended the SGL imaging day in March and all the speakers there gave great advice, especially Steve Richards (Steppenwolf), I realised the key is good data, you can't polish a t**d!

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, I have only just started to process the images I took so hopefully some more in the pipeline!

John

Gives hope for anybody thinking that you need a £2k CCD, Tak/Borg and a pier to take great shots.

Fabulous depth

Well done John & congrats to all

Wel done madjohn for wining and all the others too..

Absoloutly made my day to have had my first mention in POW SOME CHUFFED!!!

Thanks
Michael

Excellent, back to basics imaging from a great location - well done, John, a well deserved win. Nice change to the standard format, Tim.

The bar just gets higher and higher..

Superb...

absolutley stunning image,well done madjohn and everyone else.