lukebl

Here'e my entry into the Galaxy Clusters. This is an interesting group around the barred spiral NGC3079 in Ursa Major, with the brightest being PGC028990 and NGC3073 below it and a whole array of faint galaxies around. NGC 3079 is spewing out a huge hot bubble of particles in the centre detected by the Hubble ST. I tried to capture it in HA, but I suspect it needs a LOT of exposure time. What's most interesting, though, is to the lower right of the galaxy, something which appears to be a double star with a separation of 6 arcseconds. It is, in fact, the so-called Twin Quasar, a double image of the same massive object created by gravitational lensing, a result from gravitational lensing caused by the galaxy YGKOW G1 that is located directly between Earth and the quasar. The first to be discovered (in 1979) and my first. The foreground galaxy has bent space and forced the quasar’s light to take two separate routes to reach us. These individual light paths travel on different sides of the foreground galaxy so that one traverses extra mileage. Thus, any flickering or change in one image of the quasar is followed by the same change in the other image 417 days later. Apparently 174 times further from us than NGC3079, 8.7 billion light years away! Atik 383L+, 250mm f/4.8 Newt. 52 x 300s exposures luminance, 18 x 300s R & B binned 2x, synthetic green channel, 12 x 600s HA binned 2x here it is annotated

Asteroid 44 Nysa.

Not bad! Venus doesn't even manage to clear the obstructions in front of my obs at the moment. My expensive U filter ain't much use right now!

I’ve been trawling various auction sites in search of a 10 or 12 inch SCT, and stumbled across this 10” Meade It allegedly belonged to Paul and Linda McCartney. I was interested at first, but it’s clearly a very old model, and looks a bit ropey. Might be of interest to a fan! Quite a low guide price for a bit of Macca memorabilia. https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-226---paul-and-linda-mccartney-owned-lx50-telescope/?lot=19696&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=57&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=48&pn=5&g=1#

A couple of weeks ago I posted a capture of M101. Far from perfect, but for me one of my most satisfying images. Last night I captured some HA, and it positively spark!es now! ATIK 383L+, 200PDS Newtonian. 65 x 5 minute exposures Luminance. Just 22 x 2 minute exposures for R & B, binned 2x. Sythesised Green channel. 40 x 10 minutes of HA, 2x binned Original, minus HA

The distinctive blue-painted wood of my late Tardis now all cut up and helping to keep me warm during the current fuel crisis!

I'd highly recommend the free stacking and photometry software ASTAP. Not only does it stack images really well and quickly, it will plate solve and label your image with details such as asteroids, comets, magnitudes, deep sky objects. Here's your image with all the DSOs labelled. Yours is a lovely image!

I rarely do any imaging these days and rashly sold off a lot of my astro gear, so I'm pretty rusty. However, I'm getting my mojo back and captured this image of M101 The Pinwheel over the past couple of nights, and I'm reasonably pleased with it considering. Captured with an ATIK 383L+, 200PDS Newtonian. 65 x 5 minute exposures Luminance. Just 22 x 2 minute exposures for R & B, binned 2x. Sythesised Green channel, which seems to have worked fairly well. Processed using ASTAP for the first time, which I must say is a vast improvement on DSS. Images seem to suffer far less from gradients with it. And it's much faster. Here it is with all the galaxies labelled using the neat astrometry function of ASTAP. It's telling me that I've captured some objects down to about mag 21.

Whoops! Sorry. Found it. Working now!

Ah yes. I've found the files folder, and there's a SkySafari folder in there However, I put the png file in there but it doesn't come up in the 'Horizon Panorama' menu. In fact there are only two other files in that folder.

I remember that's how I did it last time, but how do you find the folder? That's the problem. Mine's on an IPad. I think it's a piece of cake with an android phone.

Having now installed the latest version of SkySafari, I'm now trying to insert my custom horizon which I had in my original version. The instruction say go to the 'Apps' section in iTunes and import the png file from there. However, I find the iTunes app a nightmare and there's no sign anywhere of an 'Apps' section. Does anyone know how to install a horizon?

I was offered a promotion a few days ago, which I ignored, and which now appears to have expired! Always the way. Anyway, I've now bought version 7 and the asteroids are in their correct positions. Now to get used to the different interface. Despite the cost, it is undoubtedly the best app around.

Admittedly, it is version 5, and I see we're now on version 7. Perhaps they've got built-in obsolescence! I guess I'll have to splash out on the latest version. £44.99. Ouch! Worth every penny though, Isuppose.

Hi, does anyone know how to correct the incorrect asteroid positions in Sky Safari Pro, as they are way out for me. See the screen grab below. The view on left shows the position of asteroid (2648) Owa in Carte du Ciel. I know this position is correct as I've checked it on the JPL Database. The view on the right is from Sky Safari Pro, where the asteroid is over one degree from it's real position. I know that the Minor Body Orbit data has been updated in SSP, so how can it get it so wrong? Completely useless, in fact, for planning an observation.

These look pretty impressive. Will they work with Ritchey-Chretiens?

Hey, I'm surprised that no-one else has mentioned that today is the 92nd anniversary of the discovery of Pluto. Let's raise a glass to Clyde Tombaugh, and to Pluto. I always make an effort to image it once a year. Always a planet to me.

Don't think so. It hasn't blown away yet!

It's no consolation, but I too have a PST and am also very disappointed with the view visually. However, it can be very effective for imaging, and I often set it up with a basic QHY5 cam and just view the sun on the laptop. You can make various adjustments to see either the prominences or the surface features. Here's an animation I did with it last year (colourised, as the QHY5 is mono).

Here's a further animation of 50 frames. 10 second exposures from 18:57 to 19:08 on 19th January, during which time it traversed approximately 15 arc minutes (half the visual width of the moon). Atik 383L+, binned 2x, 200PDS Newtonian, Baader coma corrector. Here's the start and the finish, showing the moon to the same scale.

It's in the wrong position for me in Sky Safari Pro too! However, Carte du Ciel had it correctly, which was how I found it.

Here's a quick animation of 10 x 10 second exposures, captured at round 18:58 this evening (19th Jan) Norfolk, UK. Atik 383L, binned 2x, 200mm Newtonian. Field of view 61.9 x 46.6 arcmin. The brightest star at the bottom is around mag 7.9, and the asteroid must be around 11.5

Excellent result. Well done! It was clear all day here, then clouded and fogged over immediately after sunset! Last night it was motoring along at 122 arc seconds per minute. Tonight it'll still be doing 75 arc secs/min, so should be still noticeable.

Well, here's the replacement. It's just a 4' x 4' shed bought for £400. I know it's not the TARDIS and just looks like an outdoor khazi, but it's pretty sturdy and, best of all, is waterproof!

Fortunately, it’ll be heading rapidly northwards and the following nights it’ll still be around 11th magnitude and at a much higher altitude in Pegasus, then Cygnus. Better for us northerners.