Merak

Postman Pat brought me this today:

Now would this be classed as EEVA? - NGC40 and 1x 30s exposure with a dslr through my lx90

Decided to reprocess some images I took a while back, M61 with NGC4301 and NGC4929 circled. Arrow points to SN 2020JFO. M64 and M104 Meade LX90, Canon 70D, mixture of 30s exposures @ISO1600 + 3200. Processed in Sequator and GIMP.

M57. LX90 with Canon 70d, single exposure. Cropped, resized and brightened a bit is about the extent of processing I did. I'll have a go at some stacking next. It's a bit of a learning curve and two things I learnt were: The focus shift on the scope is a flaming pain and makes it hard to get it 100% so focus is probably slightly off. Some sort of counterweight at the front of scope probably isn't a bad idea as the scope with camera gear is a bit back heavy.

Another one if anyone decides to look tonight - NGC2169, the shopping cart cluster in Orion. It does actually resemble the outline of a shopping trolley as well! Did look at NGC457 a couple of nights ago and if I remember rightly, there's a pair of brighter stars at both ends of the cluster. Will try for 2301 tonight if it's clear.

Hi Mark, Unfortunately they're both not that well placed for me as I have a north facing garden and light pollution to the south of me. Did show the kids the Orion Neb and Venus and they were impressed.

I'll have a look out for more weird n wonderful named things and see if they actually resemble them!

Hi all. For the second night running I was able to get the scope out for an observing session. Tonight I was concentrating on open clusters in Auriga and Cassiopeia, having planned a couple of dozen objects to observe with Stellarium earlier in the day. Before I went looking at the open clusters, I had a look at a few other objects - a couple of globs, comet Y4 Atlas and a few galaxies . As in the previous night transparency wasn't too great so didn't spend too much time on them. As is popular with some objects, some of them have been named, such as NGC1502 - the Jolly Roger Cluster. With that cluster it's easy to imagine two crossed cutlasses. Then there's M38 which has been called the Starfish. I can sort of see a starfish, albeit with 4 points. Others, I'm not so sure about, such as NGC663 - 'The Lawnmower Cluster' Perhaps I was looking at the wrong angle but I couldn't make out an obvious shape similar to some sort of Lawnmower this time. One to look at again. Didn't stay out too late as I was getting tired so had a reasonably early night. Apparently it will be clear again tonight and if it is then the scope will be out again - may as well make the most of it! Judging by the present high altitude hazy cloud, transparency might be so-so again... We'll see eh? Mark

M31 last year was my first 'proper' go at DSO's with lights, darks, flats etc. Canon 70D with Sigma 150mm lens on camera tripod with no tracking, short exposures(4-6seconds, hence trailing on stars) at ISO3200 and processed to almost within a inch of itss life. I have thought about getting a half decent ap set-up but it seems like something I'd swear by, or swear at!

Thanks for the comment - I'll have to get a few more eyepieces to fill it!

I haven't got a case yet for my modest collection of eyepieces, though a well-known electronics chain have a large flight case, with foam for £20.99 so I may get one as it sounds like decent value for money.