Hawksmoor
-
Posts
1,256 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Blogs
Everything posted by Hawksmoor
-
Well last night, my partner's Aurora alarm app went off whilst we were having dinner - so pudding had to wait! We loaded the tripod and camera bag into the family truckster and headed off to Corton Beach under cloudy but clearing skies. Sadly, the street lights dont go out until midnight so Corton Beach, relatively close to our house, provides a dark site with a northerly view back over the cliffs largely missing the 'orange glow' that is Great Yarmouth. Whilst we were on the Beach the clouds began to clear and both of us thought we could see a green glow over the cliffs and just below the tail of the Great Bear. Anyway I took a number of photographs the best of which was taken whilst the app was telling us that photography would show the aurora from most of England. I have attached the image - 20 sec exposure - ISO1600 - F3.5 - tripod mounted Canon 600D DSLR - 18-55mm at 18 lens which has had the following image processing : Application of autocolour at about 20% Colour saturation enhancement using LAB color and adjustment of channels by increasing contrast. Colour blurring using a gaussian blur. Saturation of red and yellow colours reduced to reduce the orange red glow of some 'low pressure' sodium street lighting that I could not avoid when taking a photograph looking north. General lowering of saturation across all colours and some repetitive luminosity layers to finish I think it shows some auroral activity. Looks very much like the low level auroral display that I photographed in Tromso several years ago. But as my partner says when I reach for the 'imaging software' - "Cheating again" - So who knows for sure ? A bit of a bonus was the very dark sky view east out across the North Sea. Quite beautiful. We watched the Pleiades rise out of the sea and the Milky Way was absolutely marvellous. The dark lanes of dust could be traced with your finger and the Andromeda Galaxy was an easy spot with the naked eye. I took a sequence of images more or less centred on the Double Cluster in Perseus - 6x20 secs RAW-ISO3200 f=18 and F3.5- stacked in DSS - FITSwork etc. I do like widefield astro photography and very much enjoy reading articles and viewing widefield images created by Professor Ian Morison - I have some way to go! It was very nice to see a couple of meteors - one was quite bright - and to capture the less than bright one shooting by and just under Messier 31 - an exposition in 'near and far'.
-
As my partner's aurora alarm went off, so did we to the dark delights of Corton beach car park. Looking north we thought we could see something other than the Orange glow of Great Yarmouth 10 miles to our North. So I took a few 20 second images at F3.5 and ISO1600. I then realised how dark the site was and decided to take a few images of the Milky Way running through Cassiopeia and Perseus. Andromeda was naked eye bright as was the Double Cluster. The Seven Sisters had just appeared out of the North Sea horizon. Quite a lot of people lurking about in the dark on and around Corton Car park and I'm pretty sure few of them were Stargazers. Hey - ho it takes all sorts.
George now in bed after an hour or two of image processing. Will post the results tomorrow in blog format. Nighty night stargazers wherever you are.
-
NGC3191Super_ telescope.org COAST Open University Best.png
Hawksmoor posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Other Peoples Photons
I used the Autonomous Robotic Telescope on Mount Teide- Tenerife to capture this image of the Super luminous Supernova SN2017 egm –( Wednesday 4 October 2017 (05:20:33 UTC) – 1x120000ms – BVR filters) - in the barred spiral galaxy NGC3191. According to the information I have read on the Internet, SN2017 egm is the nearest super luminous supernova ever detected. Its progenitor is believed to be a millisecond Magnetar created in a hypernova and on the collapse of a massive star. Fast spinning neutron collapsed star core’s are thought to be one of the causes for the generation of long duration Gamma Ray Bursts (LRGBs). NGC3191, located in the constellation Ursa Major, is estimated to be 420 million light years distant and magnitude assessments have estimated that the luminosity of the hypernova exceeded the combined luminosity of our Milky Way Galaxy. NGC3191 is interacting tidally with its companion galaxy an arc-minute or so to its west. -
Full Moon - early hours of the 6th of October 2017
Hawksmoor commented on Hawksmoor's blog entry in Blog 19648
Sorry John about confusing the view from your home and workplace. It was late when I read your comment and I had just driven 200 miles from Sheffield to Lowestoft. Soon as I pressed the submit button I realised I had made a mistake. Old age is taking its toll! I very much envy the clear skies and minimal light pollution (clear skies over Lowestoft is an event rather than a given) and I hope the Club's hosting International 'Observe the Moon Night' on 28th October goes well. Best regards from George in a currently overcast Lowestoft. -
Full Moon - early hours of the 6th of October 2017
Hawksmoor commented on Hawksmoor's blog entry in Blog 19648
Thanks for the comment and image. Must say you have a much improved view of the horizon from your workplace than I get from our backyard but as I 'm retired I have the benefit of not having to juggle astronomy with working for a living. Best regards from George in Lowestoft on the East Anglian Coast -
Full Moon - early hours of the 6th of October 2017
Hawksmoor commented on Hawksmoor's blog entry in Blog 19648
Hi Jim nice to hear from you. The night got better as time went by after midnight. I tried to image Neptune early on and the atmosphere was much more lively. The detailed image of Mare Crisium was taken before the two pane image of the whole moon and suffered from too many thermal air cells wobbling about. The atmosphere had calmed down by the time I fired up the 66mm Refractor. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the performance of the little Altair Astro scope. When you compare the cost and performance with a comparative Canon Lens it wins hands down in the value for money stakes. Best regards George -
I was so keen to use my new 'fixing plate' - piggy-backing my little 66 mm. Altair Astro ED refractor, that I defied the clouds, a rain shower and finally extremely bright moon light. First of all and to test the seeing I tried capturing some video clips of Neptune using my 127mm.Meade Apo Refractor and a x3 Televue Barlow. An absolute disaster ! - Neptune was quite low over my neighbour's roof and the tiny image was 'bobbling' about on thermally active localised air currents. Further more and because the planet was so near the horizon, colour dispersion was a major issue. I eventually gave up and decided to use the little Altair scope to image the full moon which by about 1.00am was looking quite good and stable in a dark sky. Using my QHY5-11 colour camera at prime focus provided an image size that was just too big for the chip - so a 2-pane composite image was the way forward. I also used the 127mm. Meade with the x3 Barlow to capture some video of Mare Crisium but the atmosphere wasn't stable enough to take this amount of magnification with any great success. The plate works quite well but the alignment with the main scope is a bit out - will give this a bit of thought and will probably make a few adjustments at some time in the future - I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment!
-
First night for some time that was billed as 'mainly clear', so got out my scopes even though it was a full moon. It also rained as soon as I connected my NEQ 6 to the National Grid. Didn't mention rainfall on any of the weather sites.
Used my new fixing plate to piggy back my Altair Astro 66mm Refractor on the 127mm Refractor. Obtained two video clips to put together a two pane full moon image. Also captured some video of Neptune using the 127mm Refractor and a x3 Barlow. Very low near my horizon so lots of colour dispersion and the very small image was wobbling about in the thermals rising off my neighbour's roof.
Now in bed, photons viewed , collected and stored on my orange clockwork laptop computator ,tired but happy of Lowestoft.
Nighty-night stargazers
-
MESSIER31 Dust Lane.Pirate Telescope. Autonomous Robotic Telescope Open University png
Hawksmoor posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Other Peoples Photons
An image made from data collected using the ART (BVR filters -2min exposure) on Mount Teide showing a dust lane infront of the central bulge in the Andromeda Galaxy. Quite liked this small cropped image from the much larger picture of the galaxy core area. At the moment, the Canary Isles appear to be enjoying better weather than Lowestoft - shocker! -
It wasn't supposed to be clear here tonight but as it turned out I managed a good hour and 15 minutes out under a starry sky. Very transparent at times although the moon in the west rendered everything lower than Altair in that part of the sky invisible.
Managed to find Uranus and Neptune both appeared very 'blue' in my 11x80 binoculars. Another night I must try to image them with my big refractor. I have a better planetary camera now than when I last imaged the 'Ice Giants'.
Using my little red torch and the October Edition of Sky at Night - Sky Guide chart, I set about finding some of the stellar highlights. Globulars M15 and M2 were easy finds albeit quite small - I can usuaslly find these without a chart. Similarly I know where to find M31 and M33 although M33 is not always easy to spot - tonight it was easy as was the large planetary nebula M27. I do like looking at M31 through my big bins it is so big, so far away and so mysterious. I had a fancy that I could just see M74, small and faint, through my bins but this could have been wishful thinking.
I managed to view a number of beautiful open clusters - The Double Cluster, M103, M34, M52, M39 and NGC 752. M103 is jewel like through big bins and NGC was a new cluster for me - very large and a mixture of bright stars with a dusting of stars on the verge of resolution - very beautiful indeed!
The best thing about Stargazing is you can always learn something new. Its a bit embarrassing but I realised tonight that I've been miss identifying the constellation Cepheus. Up until tonight what I thought was Gamma Cepheus turns out to have been Delta Draco. It helps to have a chart infront of you when stargazing. What a numpty!
Hope you have clear skies wherever you are - nighty night stargazers.
George off to bed in Lowestoft.
-
Fixing a plate where the rain gets in and stopping my mind from wandering.
Hawksmoor posted a blog entry in Blog 19648
Bodging around with aluminium off-cuts in my shed I thought it would be useful if I could piggyback my cameras and smaller scopes on my 127mm. refractor mounted on a NEQ6 Pro. The weight would not exceed the maximum load and I already had an extension bar which would enable me to balance the different set ups. I had some bits of aluminium in the shed and time on my hands. Now, I know the workmanship is bit ‘here and there’ but I do not possess a pillar drill or much patience. I do however; have lots of nuts and bolts from Poundland and gallons of Gorilla Glue. The fixing-plate cost very little and kept me amused for a couple of days - so as of this moment, I’m pleased with it! Whether it works imaging wise remains to be seen and looking at the clouds overhead it might be sometime before I get to find out. -
Heads up. I've probably done for the weather tomorrow in the east of England as I'm off to watch the 'cricket' at Chelmsford.
Nighty night Stargazers wherever you are.
-
Yesterday was notable for its contrasts. The morning and afternoon were the component parts of a perfect September day - cerulean blue sky unbroken by cloud. I felt great, had a nice afternoon out with friends and then returned home hoping to go all 'astronomical' as night fell. Sadly on my horizon clouds were forming both literally and figuratively. I gave up on the astronomy early evening and the made my first and rather obdurate error of the day. My partner had warned me not to use the date expired cream in making my signature dish - 'bread and butter pudding' but like many old architects before me 'George knew best'. Now my younger son is a research biologist and as he has said before "it wasn't Lysteria because that probably would have been fatal - more likely the Lysteria was killed by the cooking process but the toxins they produce have a pretty unpleasant impact upon the more elderly adventurous cook". Well without getting into graphic details" Little of my night was spent in bed.
However in the early hours of the morning I looked out over my garden to see my old friend Orion striding across the close-boarded fence between our house and our neighbour's. So as 'Big Will' would have said "All's well that ends well"
George making a bit of DIY astro kit and recovering in Oulton Broad
-
Oh no it isnt - Oh yes it is - Aurora Borealis - well is it?
Hawksmoor commented on Hawksmoor's blog entry in Blog 19648
Sounds likely as the moon was directly behind me and very bright. Thanks for your comment and explanation. I guess I will have to wait a little longer to see the Aurora from Suffolk. Best regards George -
Oh no it isnt - Oh yes it is - Aurora Borealis - well is it?
Hawksmoor commented on Hawksmoor's blog entry in Blog 19648
Real difficult to know with atmospheric stuff. The posted image was taken at about 2.00 am on 10th Sept looking NNE. so I would have thought the sun would have been well below the horizon and much further west in September. However, on balance both my partner and I were a bit sceptical about the 'auroral glow'. Trouble is when you want to see something you often do. Thanks for your comment much appreciated -
Oh no it isnt - Oh yes it is - Aurora Borealis - well is it?
Hawksmoor posted a blog entry in Blog 19648
You could have knocked me down with a feather, when at 1.00 am. yesterday my partner said "why dont we go down to the seafront and see if we can spot the Aurora". So off we went in the family truckster with tripod and camera box in the back. We were originally going to set up base camp at the UK's most easterly point but the lights from the Birdseye factory were a problem. We ended up on Corton Cliffs with a fine view North towards Great Yarmouth and the offshore wind turbines. Well after an hour we had both convinced ourselves that there was a green auroral glow hugging the horizon. I took a number of 30 second images at ISO1600 with the aim of putting together a panorama using Microsoft ICE. Well here it is believe it or not? The red glow is light pollution from Great Yarmouth - those 'Norfolk Boys' dont turn the lights off at midnight like us ECO warriors in Suffolk. We returned home for 3.00am and had some pea soup to warm up - nice. -
3.00am BST - Just got back from Corton Cliffs and having some soup to warm up. Hoped, looking North out over the Sea, to glimpse a bit of auroral activity but reckon we kidded ourselves that there was a faint green band close to the horizon. Took some photos with a tripod mounted DSLR so after a little sleep I will go through them. Not hopeful
-
Been rainin' stair-rods here in Lowestoft. Clearing now and I can see stars, too damp under foot for telescope astronomy but if it stays clear will be out later with my bins. In between we enjoyed a sunset rainbow - quite an exotic looking beast and difficult to do justice with a handheld compact camera - but I tried.
-
Thought I would give my profile picture a seaside flavour.
-
The things Dr Maggie can get me to do : Truth is my children some years ago banned me from using ladders, not unreasonably as I'm a tad dyspraxic and have fallen off a couple of times. I also know that the industrial revolution has thrown a lot of terrestrial magnetic debris into the atmosphere but all this withstanding, I could not resist the eccentric idea of ferreting about in my gutters with a magnet looking for space dust. So I did and a lot of the crud turned out to be magnetic. Anyways, I attach an image which may or may not be a micrometeorite - its shiny - its magnetic (other bits of dust are adhering to it) - its ovoid and its got some pits on the surface.
Best bit was I disobeyed my children and made my partner and grandchildren laugh. So thanks S&N for encouraging me to be naughty..
Just had a good idea - sadly I dont live near the pristine Antartic ice but I do live near to East Runton where there is an eroding exposure of the 500,000 year old Forest Bed (definitely pre- industrial contamination). If I select a sample where it is overlaid with clay it might well be worth looking for magnetic micrometeorites as well as the fossil pollen and shrews teeth I usually find. A future project beckons.
-
-
From the album: Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
Strangely the timelapse annimation will load today. Represents about 20 minutes in real time just after midnight on the 2nd September 2017. A big lump of masonry travelling at 13.5km/sec aproximately 7.1 million kilometers distant. Me and all the other dinosaurs are pleased it missed. -
From the album: Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
Asteroid 3122 Florence as it went whizzing by yesterday morning in Delphinus. 127mm Meade refractor -0.8x reducer and field flattener- Canon 600D DSLR at ISO6400 - 10 x 1 sec exps. For some reason my GIF annimation would not load properly but if interested its on my Jodrell Plank Blog http://jodrellplankobservatory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/neo-asteroid-3122-florence.html -
What does a meteorologist mean by partly cloudy and how does it differ from mainly clear ? I really enjoy my astronomy but some times I do believe I'm bonkers. I've spent an hour setting up my scope in hope that partly cloudy means there are gaps between clouds and that when and if it moves on to mainly clear the gaps will be bigger and last for longer. Currently in Lowestoft partly cloudy means I can just about see Vega, Deneb and Altair. I'm sitting in my backyard writing this on my laptop by red torch light -I'm holding the torch in my mouth and starting to dribble. All this grief because I fancied imaging asteroid Florence as it goes whizzing by, a 3 mile wide rock 7 million kilometres distant. As my mate Big Phil from Sheffield would say "Why do you want to take hundreds of photographs with really expensive equipment that mainly comprise white dots on a black background" He has got a point!
Do you know what, I think it is clearing a bit so 3 star alignment here I come.
George trying to take pictures in Lowestoft
-
This is something I have asked a few times. It is obviously different to our idea of clear. Occasionally I have had "Clear" but a heavy fog. As fog is a local event it is not covered by the weather forcast usually. So Clear and you cannot see the other side of the road.
I suspect a trip to Exeter and the main Met Office might help but equally I suspect that it is almost arbituary and could depend on who wrote up the forecast.
In worst case Clear could be not raining and good horizontal visual clarity.
Big George has a point.
-
Thanks for the comment. The weather did improve sufficiently for me to get a few images of NEO Florence in between the clouds. By heck that lump of rock is moving at a pace. Couldn't find it in my big bins but go-to technology and my 127mm. Refractor did the trick. I think the moon light was a bit of an issue. Tonight much clearer but moon very bright and setting later. Have to say after last night falling into bed at 3:15 am and someone's car alarm going off at four, two late nights in a row are not an option. Tomorrow I will have a go at putting together an asteroid animation.
Best regards from George by the sea and now in bed.
-
-
From the album: Other Peoples Photons
SN 2017eaw in NGC6946 - GIF annimation based on images taken with the Bradford Robotic Telescope in 2015 and the Autonomous Robotic Telescope- PIRATE Telescope (Open University) in August 2017. Did a rough 'shoes and socks off' calculation based on visible light - Magnitude 13.5 determination made on the 21st August and a distance of 22 million light years, I reckoned that the Type 11P core collapse Supernova was about 150 million times more luminous than the Sun.
