Staffs Oatcake

I know I’m a bit late for the competition, but I just wanted to share my image of the Milky Way.  Taken earlier this month (September)

Having moved house last year, I’ve finally found some time to get out and take some images from my own garden, but also from the surrounding countryside.   I’ve mainly being focusing on wide angle images of the sky using my acquired. Rokinon 8mm and Samyang  14mm lens. 

20 hours ago, spaceman_spiff said:

The orientation of objects in the sky is reversed in the Southern hemisphere (from the perspective of someone living north of the equator), so Orion is upside-down there and Sirius is placed above it high in the sky. Here it is below Orion and never rises too high. Have a play around of Stellarium to see for yourself.

Ill be checking it out later.  But it makes perfect sense.  

On 22 October 2017 at 22:11, cletrac1922 said:

Strange seeing Orion other way round

 

Excuse my ignorance, but I assume he stands on his head in Australia.   Just something I'd not thought about until just.  

20 hours ago, estwing said:

Where have you moved to mate?

I've moved up the the county to Leek.   

Well ran the 77D out the other morning.  Images are taken at around 15 secs at f3.5-f8. And between 3200 and 6400iso. Not the clearest of nights when the images were reviewed, but the sky appeared clear to the naked eye.   I tried to focus more on Orion as this cluster is prominent to my southern aspect.  

iso1600 18-200mm canon lens at 18mm f3.5 and exposures of around 20-30 seconds.    But the 40D has now being joined by a 77D.  

We're lucky in that we are at the end of a private road and there is no street lights close to us.  The property is surrounded on three sides by open fields.   The view to the north can get light polluted as that looks over the town.  I hope to create a pier to mount the telescope on. I'll keep you updated on its progress. 

I've been absent for the forums for a while as I packed up my telescope with an impending house move.  Which has now taken place and the telescope will be retrieved from safe storage.  However a few nights ago I sat out in my new garden looking at the night sky.  I grabbed my trusty Canon 40d and set up my tripod.   Attached are some of the images taken.   

I got myself one of these for £39 .    Absolute bargain.  And if my car won't start. I  can sort that too.  

Micro fibre socks, neoprene socks and then my sundridge hot foot boots for the feet. Best thing I ever purchased.  Had them for yonks and still going strong 

walking base layers in mid season ratings.

mountain jacket. 

Microfibre gloves.  Nomex gloves if it gets really cold.   

Im a keen angler and hill walker, rock climber, so I learnt to keep warm many years ago with appropriate equipment.  Which if you layer up properly leaves you with full movement whilst keeping you toasty inside.  

I started by observing the top of a distant telegraph pole to ensure my finder scope was aligned correctly.    But my first celestial object was Jupiter.  

Welcome aboard Sue.     Certainly consider getting in touch with the North Staffs astronomical society.  They've been a great help with advice and queries.  

I'm fairly new to the world of telescope astronomy. But I'm the proud owner of an Orion Optics vx8 with a 1/10th Mirror upgrade.  I'm not planning on getting rid anytime soon so I'm not overally worried about depreciation.  As for customer services feedback I can say I have never had an issue with them. I've always found them friendly and polite, and as the factory is not that far away I can always pop in should I need to. 

Hello and welcome to SGL.    I often holiday near Wareham. Some great places with easy access to take your scope out away from the lights of Poole harbour area.  

Welcome to SGL.    

Interesting recollection of your trip.  Thanks for sharing your exploits

When I was doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenged. We stopped at a site in the upper ribble valley in the West Yorkshire dales.  It was grim and dismal weather,  so never saw the sky, but there were very few street lights or towns to the north.   It's called Knights Stainforth and we loved the site.  

1 hour ago, Dave Lloyd said:

I think Benllech faces north east over the Irish Sea. My north eastern aspect is Liverpool 20 miles away.

Mmm.  That might be why.  But for me it was more north north west than north east. 

On 7 March 2016 at 12:30, Dave Lloyd said:

Ahh, that's a good 80 miles from me I'm afraid.

Wonder what went on between you, and them in Wales and me and friends in the Staffordshire moorlands and  Uttoxeter.   But gaming said that I've been to Shetland to visit friends where we had no aurora and yet 3 miles down the road they had a truly great showing.  

Some truly great images.   Mind with the cold frosty night I managed to get my scope out and had some fantastic views of Jupiter, M 45 and some spectacular high level cloud.  But sadly no aurora last night.  

11 minutes ago, Dave Lloyd said:

That's a great pic.  My aurora watch app was showing amber throughout the evening but nothing to see despite clear skies.

And yet my friends on  holiday in Anglesey  got some great photos of the aurora on the beach at Benllech, and other friends who live around Portmadoc were treated to some great views. 

Nice photo.  The light show last night was pretty spectacular even down here in Stoke-on-Trent.  But I didn't go out with the camera or the telescope. I'd been celebrating Mother's Day in the pub earlier.   But it's predicted to be similar tonight, so you may get another chance to take more images.   I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I'll be able to get out with the camera

Nice photo.  Wonder if one of those holders may have helped stopped the blurring.   Might consider getting one.  

I was in a similar boat a few months ago, but with trial error I've had some great views of Jupiter .  Jupiter is currently a big bright ball of light in the early evening skies of the east.  Using Star walk & Aligning my finder scope using Jupiter as the target to align the scopes made for some fantastic views of Jupiter the other evening.   Even with the Synscan system fitted I found it difficult to get the planet centre eyepiece without some aligning.  Mind it always helps if you polar aligned your scope properly first.  Something in my haste I haven't being doing. 

A quality eye piece is on my list of things to get.   But which ones to get is a bit of a mystery.  Tempted to get a zoom one first to see which ranges suit me and them go from there.  I might get a decent barlow too.    But last night was a great chance to align my spotting scope with the main tube.  Well what better way to get a distant object centre scope in both eye pieces.    My scope was an insurance settlement after a house fire, but I put extra to the insurance monies to get this scope . I wouldn't have been able to get one otherwise.