Hawksmoor
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From the album: The Moon
Using my QHY5-11 colour planetary camera and my old 90mm ETX mounted on a StarAdventurer mount. 1000 frames reduced using PIPP and Registax6. Two still images stitched together using ICE. Colour enhanced to highlight surface albedo and indirectly changes in surface minerology. Mare Crisium, Mare Tranquilitatis and Mare Fecunditatis on display. The libration on 08-03-2017 favoured Mare Smythii, Mare Undarum and Mare Marginis which are clearly visible towards the lunar limb. The craters Stevinus A and Furnerius A together with their ejecta ray systems are prominent. -
According to th BBC weather site, the weather last night in Lowestoft should have been good to midnight. It started well so out came my mini imaging rig and off I go with some video clips of the Moon. Waxing fibrous so I thought I would go for a mosaic composite using my 90mm ETX at about F13.8. All was going well until the clouds rolled in. They began to clear and high level ice crystals took over. Nice 40 degree ring around the Moon but as for the video clips, there on in - blurry. Astronomy must be one of the coldest and most frustrating of all hobbies. I'm just too obstinate to give up.
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I'm more than little bit daft! Thanks for your comment, over the years. I've come to recognise blog writing as a publicised conversation with myself. regards from the seaside
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Well I've made a start on constructing my permanent backyard telescope pier by drilling the 6mm. mild steel laser cut 200mm. dia. disc to take the three levelling threaded studs and the 12mm. bolt for fixing my pillar extension tube to the plate. My investment in new drill bits and cutting oil turned out well, particularly as I have no pillar drill and had to accomplish the task using my trusty handheld Black and Decker. I am trying to minimise the costs involved by using as many bits and pieces that have spent many a year languishing in my shed. Using the extension tube, which I already possessed, saved me the cost of a 'puck' and after rooting about in my shed I found some reinforcement bar and most of the timber I required for formwork to cast the reinforced concrete pillar. By coincidence my friend Mr. Lidl had reduced the cost of a small angle-grinder to £9-99 and as I had given my larger disc-cutter to one of my sons, largely because I could no longer pick it up let alone wield it in any purposeful way, I parted with the cash and now have an effective machine for cutting the reinforcement. I have borrowed an arc welder from another son so I can weld the reinforcent together- excellent!. As a fair weather astronomer and sometime builder I'm awaiting a warm dry spell before putting the formwork and reinforcement together and mixing and casting the concrete (two pours). Looking out the window I guess this might be a while! Last night about 1.00am the sky over Lowestoft was dark and transparent. Jupiter was big and briight due south and most of the usual culprits for this time of year were visible through my handheld 11x80 mm. Helios biinoculars. I still could not find the comet lurking somewhere between the Great Bear and Hercules although I could easily see fuzzies of the same magnitude. I think I'm losing it!
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Had a quick go at Venus using my ETX 90 RA on my small rig and QHY5-11 planetary camera. Over did the gain as Venus is so bright at the moment but at least I captured an image of the crescent before Venus dropped below my kitchen roof.
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The crescent Moon with earthshine and bright Venus were so pretty last night! Even the intermittent fine hazy cloud added rather than detracted from the beauty of the scene. No need for any kit, two eyes were quite sufficient to take in the simple grandeur of this wide visual solar system pairing.
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Like it George, I just looked behind me and although quite light Venus is there in all her glory, last night I really got annoyed as the Moon and Venus was only a fingers with away from each other and although very cloudy I attempted to take a photo. I gave up after half an hour as if the Moon was in the clear Venus was not so it ended up either one or the other. As said I can see Venus but the Moon is a little far off, watch this space
Jim -
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Purchased some mild steel reinforcement bar today for my concrete astro pier. Getting quite excited. Over my professional lifetime I have designed quite a lot of rc columns etc but his is the first one I will have built myself. If it turns out well I might name it George's Column, if it turns out badly I might have to hire a Jack hammer. My good natured partner is beginning to give me funny looks as I squirrel the pillar construction materials away in my shed. She has agreed the pier's location but I'm not convinced she is fully aware of its size relative to the rather minimal dimensions of our backyard.
Sleepless in Suffolk
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Ohhh know what your going through George, good luck with getting it finished, hope this wind don't affect you in any way. Just been out to check on the garden, a couple of problems but happy to say my half built observatory is withstanding the wind well, can't see a quiver. Am happy to say my design will be helpful in this type of weather, no loss of roof
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No wind damage up to now Jim and the wind seems to have dropped. Just been out in the backyard with my big bins. Really nice clear sky. Got some good views of a few clusters etc. Beehive rather nice in a widefield view must try and image it with my 66mm Refractor plus focal reducer. Glad your observatory build is going well and that the wind did not cause you and it any problems.
Regards Georgeo
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Started preparatory work on my fixed pier and spectrometer mark3. I like a nice 'slow burn' project or two. Night sky over Lowestoft not conducive to observational astronomy other than in radio frequencies. If all else fails I've lots of meteor radar ping data to analyse from last year.
And so off to bed and dream land.
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Nice clear night in the early hours of Valentine's Day. Tried to find the two comets in and around Bootes. Sadly my trials and tribulations with binoculars and small refractor came to no avail. I might have got away with it, if it had not been for that pesky moonlight! Cloud in Lowestoft tonight so in my warm bed with March edition of Astronomy Now.
Nighty night stargazers.
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Light snow and cloud in Lowestoft, so no chance of viewing the fast moving Comet in Hercules or penumbral lunar eclipse tonight.
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Today Suffolk County Council swapped an all new LED lamp for the old high pressure sodium lamp outside our house. Looks very bright but luckily our house is in between the lamp and our backyard from which I stargaze. Let's hope in my lifetime, the Council continues to turn the street lights off at midnight. I will let you know how I and the new lamp get on!
George from Lumenstoft.
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Yes Jim, I'm a bit worried as they have left a lot of sodiums all around me but changed the one outside my house to LEDs. As LED lamps are cheaper to run I'm hoping they dont leave mine on over night whilst turning out the rest. It did go out at midnight last night but you never know what they have planned. I dont think it would affect my astrophotography much but it would stop my wife from getting a good nights sleep. The lamp is virtually in line with our bedroom window. She is a very poor sleeper anyway and is very light sensitive. Keeping my fingers crossed that after midnight it will remain astronomically dark in our bit of Oulton Broad.
George
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Really nice image. I like looking at the double cluster through my bins and although I've imaged it I've never thought that I did it justice. Your photograph does - well done ! Regards George -
Thank you very much for your kind comment. I was quite pleased to find my first asteroid amongst all the very many stars. Regards George -
From the album: Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
My first attempt at imaging an asteroid on the 20th January 2017 using my Canon 600D DSLR with EOS 18-55mm lens at f=45mm and ISO800 - all mounted on a Star Adventurer. The Asteroid Vesta on the border between Cancer and Gemini. Image created from a stack of 11x 2min lights in DeepSkyStacker. Jim T on SGL used his imaging rig to image Vesta and kindly confirmed that the speck of light on my widefield image was probably Vesta. Finally, I checked that I had identified the asteroid correctly by imaging the same area of sky on the 24th Jan and determined that the small dot had moved against the fixed backdrop of stars. I put together a GIF using the image from the 20th and 24th. All round quite pleased with this first for me. -
From the album: Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
Vesta on the 20th of Jan and 24th Jan 2017. Very small and a long way away but moving at considerable speed! -
From the album: Backyard Astronomy
It was a bit misty last night (24-01-2017) but decided it was worth a go with my quick to set up Canon 600D DSLR on the Star Adventurer - 18-55mm EOS lens at about f=45mm . 15x 4min lights at ISO800, 5xdarks and 20xflats . 4mins exposure seemed to push the Star-Adventurer to its limit as there was some star trailing that I removed in FITS Work freeware. Could be my short-comings in Polaris alignment? Anyway I reckon you can see M36, M37, M38 and IC405 without too much trouble. -
Another clear night until 23.00 when according to Lowestoft BBC Weather "The Fog" will come rolling in off the sea by 'Spivey Point'.
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From the album: Out and About
Its rare for Oulton Broad to ice over nowadays but my partner Toot has just taken this rather lovely photograph with her I-phone of Venus shining brightly over a frozen Broad. -
From the album: Backyard Astronomy
Canon 600D unmodded on Star Adventurer. EOS 18-55mm lens at f= 45mm stopped to reduce distortion at periphery. 15x3 min lights, 5xDarks and 10xflats. All taken on 20th Jan 2017 before street lights went off and without light pollution filter. Usual freeware software culprits for manipulation and to remove light pollution etc. Its a lot less cold with an intervalometer! Best £9 I've spent on astro Kit! I have to say, I find this bit of sky is very attractive to view with either no or just a bit of kit. There is something for everyone in Astronomy. -
Well I think I captured an image on the 20th Jan 2017 of the asteroid Vesta with my Canon DSLR at f=45mm mounted on my Star Adventurer, but it is one small dot amongst many! I will collect a few more images towards the end of the month to see if it has moved against the fixed starry background.
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Anyway it didn't rain so I caught some photons arriving from the general direction of Gemini. High level cloud kept coming and going and as I was feeling tired and old I didn't await the street lights being extinguished at midnight - so I captured plenty of atmospheric sodium into the bargain. Must save up for a light pollution clip filter for the Canon.
Did take some nicely composed widefield frames of the Hyades and Pleiades. Finished the evening in the backyard by snapping some shots of everyone's best mate Orion.
Now nicely warm tucked up in bed. Back to decorating tomorrow. Hopefully will get to stack and play about with tonight's images tomorrow night.
Nighty8 night Stargazers.
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Well the BBC Weather forecast for Lowestoft tonight is set faiir and at the moment I can see stars through light cloud. I've set up my DSLR on my Star Adventurer and after I've had a bit of tea I'm going for imaging the asteroid Vesta which is currently tracking through Gemini. I have never knowingly imaged an asteroid so thought I would go for it. If I get some wide-field frames of the constellation tonight and a few more towards the end of the month I can hunt for the star-like/asteroid that has moved.
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Well I waited and waited for the clouds to clear, but they just crawled up the coast skimming the land and by midnight I gave up. I was all set for a view of Vesta myself if possible that is but it was mainly a photo shoot and check later. A bit miffed but as I have installed Vesta in Stellarium I might still have a go at it if clear tonight. This will my last weekend with the NEQ6 and 80mm scopes, hopefully next weekend I will be using a CGE Pro and the 11" RASA
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Sad you were affected by cloud. The couple of miles we are further inland than you seems to have made a difference this last week. Though my images from last night were not all cloud free. Managed to stack and process some of the images I took and should have captured Vesta. It's definitely there somewhere in amongst a widefield containing a lot of stars! I've run one image through astrometry.net so have some markers to go by. The new kit arrival must be an exciting prospect. I look forward to seeing some really deep images from you soon!
George
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From the album: Venus
For the first time ever I managed to spot Venus in broad daylight. I first found it using my 11x80mm Helios Binoculars but once found I could see it clearly with the naked eye. My 127mm Refractor is currently resting whilst I consider the construction of a permanent pillar. This image was taken with my QHY5-ll planetary camera fixed to my old USA made Meade 90mm. ETX RA Mak perched on a wobbly photographic tripod (The belt driven mount has long been consigned to a rarely opened box.) . Because the weather threatened to close in, I didnt take the time to set up my Star Adventurer, so a small crescent was chased several times as it rapidly transitted the chip in my camera. Lots of fun! Anyway I am quite pleased with the processed image - probably a processing artifact but I'm kidding myself there is a bit of cloud detail visible near the limb at 12.00 clock. -
Spent a happy fifty minutes in our backyard before the clouds rolled in. Used my 66mm Altair Lightwave refractor on a camera tripod. When it cools down its a great little scope. When you spend most of your time messing about with your kit to obtain an alright image you can easily miss the beauty of the night sky which straight through the lens observing delivers. I enjoyed some wonderful widefield views of Auriga's open clusters, the Hyades, Perseus, the Andromeda Galaxy, Orion's Dagger and best of alll the Pleiades. I reckon I could clearly see nebulosity around several of the larger stars in the Seven Sisters group. Not too shabby for a small scope with some light pollution and all done and dusted inside an hour.
