Wyvern

Seestar image from this morning's session. Slightly hazy at time of shot, but same 1 minute exposure as my earlier post. Definite red tinge to the Nova to my eyes anyhow! Regards to all, Les

Seestar image from the early hours of this morning. Les.

A couple of piccys from a photo session from 22.05-22.41 tonight. Not really obvious NE, but certainly so with camera. All pics are with Canon 70d & 14mm Samyang wideangle lens, 10 sec exposures at ISO 2500. Regards to all, Les

Hi to all, Bit late in reporting back on this. Slight "dense user" issue following SGL log in change. Deffo an interesting Perseid shower this year!! My Heatmaps and graph of activity attached below. Detection setup was running from 7th to 19th Aug to cover the maximum, which the International Meteor Organisation indicated as Aug 13th 07h UT to 14h UT but with possible enhanced activity from passage through older dust trails. An update from Radio Meteor Observing Bulletin below,- meteornews.net/2023/08/20/perseids-2023-by-worldwide-radio-meteor-observations indicates the detection of 3 separate maxima for the shower this year. (Marked on my graph as M1, M2 & M3 with a further spike at ???). Unfortunately, my system froze for a couple of possibly "vital" hours in the early part of the 15th, running up to this "extra" ??? spike, so I can't see what the shower was doing here. However, my M1, M2, and M3 spikes do tie in nicely with the RMOB results, so generally happy bunny. To my mind, we've certainly had a "prolonged" max for the Perseids, possibly over three nights instead of the usual one

Screen grab from the International Meteor Organisation. Running live update on Perseid observations. My radio detection setup has certainly been actively recording meteors over the past week, so I'll have a good look at the results in another 7 days or so. Perseids often have spurts of activity just off the predicted maxima. Time will tell!! Les

Opps!!! Well spotted MalcolmP. Imaged Pons-Brooks first and went back into the house to make a brew. On returning to the obsy, the next image I took was C/2023 E1 Atlas, but I somehow managed to write the order of imaging down in my notebook incorrectly!! It was just coffee I drank, honestly. To all those who rushed out thinking Pons-Brooks had suddenly brightened...... sorry 🔧 Below IS my image of Pons-Brooks from the 8th Aug. Yours...highly embarrassed Les.

For what it's worth, here's my image of Pons-Brooks from a night or two ago. Single image, sorry about slight trailing! Les

Hi Starpenguin ...have you moved to Llanilar yet? We are just along the valley nr Abermagwr.

For what it's worth, here are a couple of shots through my 8" SkyWatcher reflector. Regards to all, Les

Hi, Simple but effective. Does what it says on the tin. Many thanks, Les

For what it's worth, my radio results working GRAVES are below. Main dust return from the 1995 breakup of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann was predicted for the early hours of 31st May (UT) and this shows well on my heat map. A second dust stream produced from the normal 1897 return of 73P was also encountered this year, predicted for around 10h UT and again caught on heat map. Regards to all, Les.

Well that will do as an unexpected Xmas pressy. Thanks as ever and best wishes. Les

Hi all, For what it's worth, here is a photo and mag estimate from last night. Regards, Les

Tea tree oil is my favourite arachnid deterent. A liberal spray of the stuff around the inside walls of the obsy every couple of months seems to "help" remove the squatters from their lairs....... and it smells OK as well !!!! Regards, Les

Grab from this morning under less than ideal conditions. Regrds to all, Les

Quick grab under less than ideal conditions from this morning. Reards to all, Les

My effort from this morning with v poor seeing conditions. At least managed to grab the SN although C43 is virtualy lost to view in comparison with the image from 17th July. Regards to all, Les

Hi all, Photo from last night with a very rough mag estimate of 12.5 Field of View is 76'x50' arc

Hi all, Piccy from this morning. Les.

Latest image from the 6th May. Les.

Totally inspired by Banjaxed post "DIY Motor Focuser", I came up with this little system for my 8" SkyWatcher. Parts List - 1x 5 RPM reversible 12v Motor, 1x Flexy coupling to fit focus shaft dia and motor shaft dia (6mm and 4mm in my case), 1x DPDT momentary rocker switch (Double Pole Double Throw), 1x Cigar plug (yes I know you hate them but my power supply has a 12v socket doing nothing so what the heck!!!), 1x small enclosure for switch (Defunct laptop power supply case fitted the bill for me), and lengths of two core wire to reach to and from switch to motor and power source. To wire up the DPDT switch, I used this pin configuration when viewed from back of switch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Power to switch from cigar plug is 12v +ve to pin 3 and 12v -ve to pin 4. (Can be the other way around...... not vital at all.) Pins 1 and 6 are cross linked and a connection taken to the back of the 5 RPM motor to it's +ve pin. Pins 2 and 5 are also cross linked and a connection taken to the back of the 5 RPM motor but to it's -ve pin. Pressing the momentary switch should now turn the motor in ether direction, if you're fussy about which way the motor turns when you press the switch, reverse your connections at the back of the motor to get your preference. In my case, the focus knob was attached via a small grub screw and so once removed, the flexy coupling fitted onto the focus shaft and the 12v motor with similar grubs. Note that the motor can be purchased with or without a small mounting bracket. In my case I bought it with bracket and this fitted snugly onto the telescope tube body. (I've fitted thin radiator foil silver blanket around the scope body to help with thermal stability incase you were wondering about the strange scope colour!!!!) I sourced parts from eBay, item numbers as follows if anybody is interested.... and no, I am not connected to any of the item sellers. 393212190606 12v reversible 5 RPM Motor, 2022069898732 DPDT switch, 283138679258 Flexy coupling. And by the way........ it works !!!!!! Les

Latest shot of the Supernova, still seems to be quite obvious, but totally agree with skyhog in the "only a hint of the host galaxy"!!!

Quick grab of this S/N last night between the clouds. Thanks for the heads up. Les

Just downloaded and installed. Does what it says on the tin! One less bit of kit to take to the obsy (red acetate). Downloaded from this site for anyone's interest. https://www.otelescope.com/files/file/19-backyardred-12/ Regards to all, Les

Still easily visible. Les