RayGil

Good article Rich, I was hoping to get out and look for Comet 103P Hartley soon, but looking forward to Orion.

Thanks for the heads up! Keep us posted.

Can we have a photo please of the camping mat dew shield? If Possible.

Ray

Well Vesper prepare to be Ecstatic, those images were taken with the SkyWatcher 200p, but bear in mind those images are nothing compared to the view in the eyepiece, the Jupiter view was taken when the planet was low in the eastern horizon just after rising so the detail is smudged, it's better viewed when its higher in the sky! The higher the object the clearer the sky, The moon shots are just as seen, no magnification, but with some magnification you are very very close, the Moon is a fantastic object to view.

Those shots were just snaps taken at the eyepiece.

What size scope you getting? the 200p is an 8" reflector, my older scope the Skywatcher 130 is a 5.1" reflector.

This shot was taken with the 5.1" reflector using a CCD, web cam camera:

Cumbria was clear for most of the Night, I was up Birkrigg Common, near Barrow in Furness from 23:00 - 02:15 and between us we saw 64 Perseid Meteors, few of them were fireballs :-)

Ray

Hello Pete.

I'm pretty sure it was a Perseid, it only lasted a few seconds, I also monitor Iridium flares, but I also agree it does look like your photo? I saw 3 in total last night, but perhaps my photo does not do it justice, because my camera takes a series of 10 pictures and I thought it was just coming to the end of the series when the meteor came over, so I was not even sure if I had caught it on camera.

Ray

Some good points there Rich.

Well written, should post it or point to it on Cumbrian Skies.

Ray