FenlandPaul

Welcome to SGL, Jon! There are astronomy societies / clubs in St Neots, Papworth, Cambridge and Peterborough. The Widescreen Centre based in Sutton near Ely also holds reasonably regular observing evenings if you get on their mailing list.

Great stuff. Sounds like quite a haul you’ve had already!. I agree with @Special K that it’s worth taking a look down south - Scorpius, the southern part of Sagittarius etc, because those extra few degrees of southerly declination get you so much compared to what we get in the U.K. I’m in the Charente in a week’s time under lovely dark skies and, apart from some lazy tours of the Milky Way and Veil etc, it’ll be down south that I spend most time. Paul

Makes you proud to be British!!

There's some lovely structure in the ion tail there!

What an interesting topic @Fozzie. I remember it really well. I was 5 years into this Astro lark, like you I was 17 years old, and I was trying to get my A levels so I could go off to university to do an Astronomy degree (big mistake..). The year before we’d been spoiled by Hyakutake while we were waiting for Hale Bopp to come round. I was kind of getting used to these specatular comets just showing up every year or two! I’d saved up to buy a used 9” Newt on a very heavy Beacon Hill eq mount. I’d just passed my driving test so I used to go up into Hamsterley Forest in Co Durham with my scope whenever I could to get some dark skies. On the night of March 30/31 I went there with my dad with the aim of taking some photos using the piggyback mount on my Newt. My dad held down my broken cable release for the predetermined time and I guided through the eyepiece. Very special time. I always say that I’m purely visual, but it appears I wasn’t terrible at pics with an old Zenit SLR! Just dug this out - apparently 60s exposure at f/2.8 on Kodak Ektar 1000 taken at 22.55 UT. A week’s paper round money probably went into that film, so I’m glad it came out!!

Love the idea of adding the cardinal points and altitude markers, Pete. Combines the scientific and quantifiable with the beautiful and mesmerising!! How did you calibrate the altitude markers? Was it using some of the stars in the image?

Going up on ABS at the end of the weekend, so get in now for your exclusive SGL-only bargain!! <glitter falls from ceiling / big band plays / dancing girls cross stage>

Now that's an NLC pic!! Lovely.

Should we pencil you in for a tentative 8 scopes then, John?

Looked out before hitting the hay tonight and saw some really bright knots of NLC activity low in NNW. Thought I'd try a DSLR capture (my first - inspired by the brilliant videos of @rorymultistorey / Astro-Biscuit) - here it is below. Won't win any competitions, but what a thrill to see it and capture it (I was clouded out last night so missed the "big one"). enjoy!

I’m fairly sure it must be an error here, in fairness to OVL. The other bundles on the page save money vs the sum of the parts.

Immaculate condition, boxed and as good as new, bought last year and used only once. Extract from the FLO website: These quirky new binoculars from Vixen have been developed for widefield observation of, for example, the Milky Way. They use a Galilean optic with 2.1x magnification which promises a more "walk in" view than 6x or 8x binoculars. Supplied in a soft carry case, these binoculars have been jointly developed with Miyauchi and are made in Saitama, Japan. 3rd party review here. In the interests of transparency, I should point out that I did not get on at all with these binoculars due to my shortsightedness. See my review here. If you are significantly shortsighted, please do your research before buying; they can be modified but that's just beyond what I want to be doing! Everyone else seems to give them outstanding reviews. £175 (via Paypal friends or bank transfer), including UK delivery.

Really entertaining and informative videos, Rory. I could watch these sort of practical guides all day!! *edit* in fact, having just watched most of your collection, I’m very tempted to start dabbling with a bit of imaging. Time to dust off the 1000d and start having a play....

Buy the Skywatcher 200p and EQ5 as a bundle and spend £1 more than buying them separately!!

That's very sad indeed. His name has been a feature of amateur astronomy in the UK throughout my observing career (and a lot longer than that!). His insight and helpfulness will be missed.