geoflewis

Thanks Steve. Geof

Thanks Carole, I look forward to catching up with you again a few weeks from now, at Kelling Heath. Geof

Thanks Ciarán, the funeral was yesterday a mix of happy memories of a long life well lived and the sadness of a final goodbye. We got back home last night to a clear sky, but I was way too tired and too soon for me to open the observatory. Lots of other things to do the next few days to get back to normal after a week away, plus we are having a new bathroom fitted w/c 2 Sept, so as they say, life goes on.... Geof

Brilliant indeed 👍

Falmouth Cornwall at a golf and country club for 'eclipse week'. We had to book and stay the same week the prior year to book the 1999 'eclipse week'. We had 6 days out of 7 fabulous weather, guess which day was 100% cloud 😧 - we didn't even get a glimpse at any stage, just experienced the increased darkness under cloud. I had to wait 18 years and travel to the USA to see my first total eclipse, but it was worth it 😎

That's an excellent image Ciarán for 54N. It was (is) on my list for this summer. As the planets are too low for me to waste time on them night after night, this year I wanted to allocate time to summer DSOs this year, but my 92 year old mum's health took a downturn during the last couple of months with her passing 24 July, so this summer turned into several 300 mile round trips to be with her rather than hours at the telescope - the sky will always be there, but my mum won't be 😢. Now of course the Moon is interfering, but I may give it a try (skies permitting) in late August / early Sept, though likely I won't get much time on it as it will already be well past the meridian by the time we get into even astro darkness. Cheers, Geof

Ditto to this. I have met Martin a few times in recent years at Kelling Heath, attended one of his planetary imaging presentations and had the opportunity to look at and through his scope, which is a gem. He is very knowledgable and approachable and his website is a must read for tips and advice on planetary imaging.

Hunter, thanks for the recommendations. I don’t have any lenses for my Canon 600D, as I purchased it from new, as modified for DSO imaging with my telescopes. Since I went to mono CCD 3 years ago I’ve never used it. I actually sold it then bought it back a year ago, so have been thinking about adding a wide field lens for Milky Way shots, as it’s not been used since I got it back. Cheers, Geof

Well done Paul, you have a couple of lovely Moon pics there. Geof

Nice one Ibbo. Cheers, Geof

Cracking image Dave and yes, those are the correct IDs for the crew’s craters. Cheers, Geof

Wonderful image Hunter, thanks for sharing it. I keep thinking I'll try a Milky Way shot, but just never get around to it. Really I need to invest in a widefield prime lens for my astro-modified Canon to do it justice, but perhaps my 18-200mm Nikor lens at 18mm might be worth a try, even though my Nikon camera isn't modified, though it does suffer with serious amp glow at even a few seconds exposure. Cheers, Geof

I already posted this elsewhere, but thought I may as well enter it here, so sorry for the double posting. The image was capture a few minutes (+exactly 50 years) after Neil Armstrong fisrt stepped onto the lunar surface. The 3 craters (annotated) commemorating the Apollo 11 crew are well seen and I've also marked as accurately as I could the actual location of the landing site. As indication for the scale of the image, Armstrong crater has a diameter of approx 5km (3 miles), with Collins and Aldrin both at approx 3km (2 miles). The large crater (Delambre) in the bottom left corner has a diameter of just over 50km (32 miles), from which I deduce that the image is approximately 300km square covering an area close to 100,000 sq. km, or approximately 38,000 sq. miles. So no, I didn't capture an image of that first footprint.....😜 Cheers, Geof

Thanks. Geof Thanks Stu, I was listening to the rerun of the 'live' feed between Mission Control, Columbia and the LM, which was great fun. I had hoped to start a capture run just as Armstrong uttered those imortal words, but with so much cloud around I made sure to get some, albeit poor quality, videos in the can much earlier. In fact I was working through those for about 1 hour before the time of the Moon Walk (ok 50 years later) as I was totally clouded out. If I hadn't had the 'live' feed to keep me company I'd have given up and gone to bed. Imaging my surprise when about 5 minutes before D-time, the Moon started to poke through the clouds, so I was scrabbling around trying to reframe the camera and check focus. I heard Armstrong utter the words, 'Ok Houston, I'm on the porch', then silence. It took me a couple of minutes to realise that I'd lost my wifi connection, so I never got the 'one small step....' trigger to hit record, so I just started recording anyway, probable a few minutes late. It was to lose that playback feed, but I got the video that I wanted. Geof Thanks and glad that you got some visual. Geof Thanks Jock, yes, I too remember it very well. I still have the various press cuttings and Moon landing special inserts from various newspapers somewhere, though I couldn't find them yesterday when i was looking for them. Probably still packed and in the loft from when we moved house 3 years ago....!! Geof Thanks Dave, it was full sun up by the time I eventually closed down and went to bed about 5:15 - I got up again around 10ish. I look forward to seeing your process video pic. Geof Thanks Neil, yes, I was pretty stoked when the clouds cleared right on time; that doesn't happen very often in my experience - perhaps once in 50 years.....!! Geof

Well I've just wrapped up an all night session (actually still need to close the obs) and its fully dawn here, remembering the first moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and Buz Aldrin which I watched live as a 14 year old lad. I fought cloud all night, so captured some video data early on, then for once had good luck as the clouds rolled back right at exactly 50 years after that 'one small step.....' The seeing was not great, but the timing of the capture was what I was really after. Here's the resulting annotated image being the best 500 of 5000 frames captured with an IR filter through my C14 using my ASI 120MM-s camera . The video was processed in AS3, Registax and PS/CS2. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Geof

Thanks Stu, but not looking so good here. It did clear after the rain, but now have cloud building again. I got on Jupiter for about 3 minutes, not quite long enough to focus the camera. I will leave all set up and fingers crossed that I can get a look at the Moon when that rises later,,,, Geof

Hi Dave, Try these 2 articles from Martin Lewis's website. He's one of the best UK based planetary imagers with lots of useful info posted on line. http://www.skyinspector.co.uk/atm-dispersion-corrector--adc http://www.skyinspector.co.uk/adcs-part2 Good luck, Geof

I've just watched the SGL Moon Landing Special on iPlayer and thought it was well worth it. Geof

Another fabulous image Avani. Geof

Thanks Pete, Geof

Hi Neil, I was in a pub at East Harling yesterday evening (about 10 miles west of my home in South Norfolk). Around 10pm I stepped outside to see a totally clear blue sky with a brilliant Moon and Jupiter, so called it a wrap at the pub and drove home - to a totally clouded sky, and I mean totally, not one patch of clear sky - go figure...!! Geof

Thanks Charl, Not sure about 'mighty detail', but any detail is good to see from this far north.....😌 Cheers, Geof

Thanks Chris

Thanks Steve, they’re a tough get from the UK currently, but Mars should be much better (easier) next year. Geof

Thanks @MarsG76. Yes, very difficult from up here - fancy a swap..? 😉