Hawksmoor

The evening of the 9th of March was cloud free and clear and presented a number of photo opportunities, e.g a double shadow transit of Io and Ganymede, obtaining spectra of Sirius and Betelgeuse (with my newly homemade diffraction grating), Supernova SN 2014J in M82, the planet Mars and a small comet in Gemini. Well the moon put paid to imaging the comet and Mars would not get above my hedges and trees until about 1.00 am. so I decided to save them for a better night later in the month. I had an accident two weeks ago and am nursing two broken ribs and a haematoma in my right bicep so did not fancy staying out later than midnight (when the Council turn off the street lights) which meant that in imaging M82 I would have to contend with light pollution from both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Anyway, I managed to capture some photons and am currently processing them. All things being equal I'm quite pleased that I could see and image the Supernova ( at my age I might not get to see another one through the eyepiece). The image was created from 9x30sec lights, 3x darks and 3x flats stacked using DeepSkyStacker and finished using APS. I used a Canon 600d DSLR, a Meade 127mm Apo at F7.5 all on a NEQ6 mount (unguided)

Fed up with the rain, wind and latterly moon-Iight I spent this afternoon making some inexpensive astro kit. If the weather improves I'll find out if it works! The house currently smells of sunday lunch and contact adhesive. http://george-artcabinedujardin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/moist.html

Lowestoft weather has been so changeable, breaks in the cloud so infrequent and the comfort of my fireside chair so all enveloping, that I have hardly ventured out with my scope for what seems an age. Pining for some photons, I set up my DSLR on a tripod and photographed Jupiter dodging the clouds and coming within 6 degrees of the Moon. With a bit of ham fisted Photoshop jiggery pokery, I constructed a composite image of the event. Looks a bit 'Macbeth' but I quite like it! If the weather stabilises, I would like to take some 'this season' avi- clips of Jupiter and maybe have a crack at a 'guided' image of the Horsehead or Crab nebulae.

Spent two early mornings, 4.00am to 7.00am, comet hunting. Second morning more successful, managing to get some images of a very small and faint Comet ISON and the bright planet Mercury with a tripod mounted DSLR. Second session more productive as I swapped the relative warmth of my sheltered backyard for the cold but improved eastern horizon of Lowestoft Seafront. I must say the beach was uncrowded at 4.30am. but oh my it was cold!!!. Why I didn't wear a thermal coat and hat I do not know, but hey that's the excitement of comets. It took me three hours, copious amounts of tea, a fried egg sandwich and a bath before I finally thawed out. Clearly my dear and accommodating wife thinks I've lost the plot.

Sounds like a great holiday and as usual your drawings are a delight to view. Recently took some of my grandchildren to a cave in Derbyshire to see their first stalactites and stalagmites. They were very impressed!

The evening of the 16th and the early hours of the 17th of August presented clear skies over our backyard and having read about the new Nova in the Constellation Delphinus, I decided to try and find it and photograph it with a tripod mounted DSLR. Even with the help of info from the Internet, finding the Nova amongst the rich fields of the Milky Way was a bit of a challenge. Hats off to the Japanese amateur astronomer, Koichi Itagaki, who discovered it!