Peco4321

We were away in Wales. It was a clear night that night, got some lovely wide field shots and did some great star hopping with my bins. Saw loads of stuff I wouldn't normally see at home.

Here's my Celestron 15x70's on my new tripod recently in Wales. I love these, especially now on an easy to use tripod. I use them almost every session I'm out, helping star hop to find new objects and then just gaze in wonder while imaging with my telescope.

It's been a while but here's some fairly recent shots of my kids preparing for a school project. Early hours for Jupiter, which you can just see, and a nice widefield of Orion

I never tire of these. Another great launch.

Another Space x tonight 21:00 http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Not sure if this the correct link, but in 20 mins, there's a launch in India https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VeQ0LrCfQC4

Well after weeks of rubbish weather I was able to grab a few hours last night and I took my lead from the latest edition of Astronomy Now, I went for M109 and The Twin Quasar, both in Ursa Major. Now I know I have not got enough data, and no flats means not the best image, the seeing was not great, it was very damp and cold, my breath was steaming up all over the place, but I think (correct me please if I am wrong), I may have got this quasar at 8.7 billion light years away, if not, I certainly was in the right area. I love hunting down new targets that I cannot see through the EP, that for me is the key thing about astrophotography, even at my very basic level. Anyway, only about 45 x 45 sec exposures, ISO 1600 for M109, 3200 for the possible Quasar. It was just great to be out!

All the info states launch is 18th, but it's counting down now to coverage, I'm s bit confused. http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Friday nights haul, NGC40 planetary Nebula, very small but a new one for me, IC340 galaxy, very faint, blocked by dust in our galaxy, and the Pinwheel galaxy. All ISO 1600, only bias frames added to 50 sec exposures , approx 60-80 for each target, stacked in DSS, stretched in GIMP.

The difference from the razzmatazz of Space x was amazing. All that grey metal.

Must be a problem, didn't launch then the stream stopped.

I can't believe 40 mins before launch and people are stood so close and cars are nearby.

Russian launch in 40 mins.

But it's in pursuit of the bigger picture and exploration even further. The technology behind this is amazing and let's remember space is exactly that, full of space.

The schedule for the next few launches and Space X are up for 2 more already next week. No rest for the wicked.

The pictures make for some great phone/computer wallpapers.

I just can't stop being amazed by this. I know the marketing machine is doing extremely well here, but the images are breathtaking.

3 favourite images.

I feel drained. Absolutely amazing. I've been banging on about this for ages to colleagues and friends and loads watched it. Massive smile on my face now.

Launch delayed 2 hours ?

I cannot wait for this tomorrow, 18:30 UK time. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/

Always good to see a successful launch. Here's some screen shots as it happened.

Fingers crossed

Let's try again tonight shall we.