mcrowle

I didn't capture it so well here in mid Cornwall this time. I got the purple sky on camera early on, just as it was getting dark - I could see the glow by eye, though not the colour. Following an interruption for cloud, I returned home for supper and to prepare for work in the morning. Much later it cleared again and I captured some very faint pink/purple columns. I was out for about 90 minutes in all, over 3 sessions between 21:30 and 02:30, but happened to miss all the peaks in the activity. Hopefully there will be more opportunities in this solar cycle 😃 . Regards, Mike.

Many thanks, Paul! Yes, indeed it was a wonderfully relaxing couple of hours, with just the sound of the gentle waves and the gulls. However I must admit that I’m not naturally an early riser, and in fact this was a very late night rather than an early morning! If it had not been a weekend, though, I would have done things differently 😄. Regards, Mike

I walked to Spit Beach near Par early Saturday morning to take my first Milky Way core photos of 2023, though I found myself sitting on a rock much of the time waiting for high, diffuse cloud to move through. The following both comprise 5 x 10-sec exposures at f/2.5 and ISO 6400, taken with a Canon EOS 5 MkIII and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens on a static tripod. The frames were stacked in Sequator and post-processed largely using an ancient version of Paint Shop Pro. Regards, and clear skies, Mike.

A quickly processed image, taken along a (currently very muddy) footpath near home. Regards, Mike.

Been viewing and imaging it from here in Cornwall. I'll keep an eye on conditions and will hopefully head out again a little later. Good luck all! Regards. Mike.

Yes, likewise I have a small refractor that I’ve carried in my kit bag on occasion for imaging close to home. In theory I could take it overseas but would no doubt have to cut back on other kit to compensate for its weight. Regards, Mike.

Yes, great landscapes over the years, though in some locations clear skies were just as limited as at home! Got to say, though, that while I travel with a tripod and occasionally a star tracker, I've never carried a telescope for overseas AP. No doubt others will have some experience with that if it's what you have in mind. Regards, Mike.

I’ve been trying to include some AP during my holidays for a number of years now, or at least until Covid put a halt to things. Initially I’d limit myself to a few star trails and the odd landscape astro capture. A couple of times since, though, I’ve also taken a star tracker. In the future I plan to do more AP on my travels, weather-permitting of course. In fact I’ve now booked my first post-Covid holiday, to the Dolomites, around a New Moon. So far, over several years, I’ve done at least some AP in 2 Swiss Alps locations (Saas Fee and Kandersteg), the Azores, Tenerife and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, taking the star tracker only to Kandersteg and Tenerife. I’ve also used stays at ski resorts in Finland to photograph aurorae. As well as Tenerife, which was a landscape astrophotography workshop, Saas Fee was particularly successful as 6 nights out of 7 were clear. I’m not sure how typical that is, but apparently it benefits from a rain shadow effect from several directions due to the surrounding mountains! I don’t drive, but as I’m often staying in small settlements, such as out-of-season ski resorts, I just walk a short way along local footpaths to locations that I’ve scouted in daylight. Tenerife was the exception, but it was a group workshop, with Alyn Wallace, so we travelled together by minibus. Regards, Mike.

Sorry, I had rather rushed my earlier post and it's a bit ambiguous. I meant that Comet C/2022 U2 ATLAS is perhaps brighter than predicted, not brighter than C/2022 E3 ZTF, which is nearby. Regards, Mike.

I looked out after my post and found a lot of cirrus cloud, as well as the full moon of course. I think E3 ZTF at around mag. 6 would be difficult enough in those conditions, never mind U2 ATLAS at mag. 11 or 12! Regards, Mike.

I've just posted similarly in another thread but you may like to know that C/2022 U2 is likely rather brighter, at mag. 11 according to the BAA page at BAA Comet section (cam.ac.uk). I successfully imaged and viewed it in late Jan, despite strong light pollution from the local football club floodlights! 😊 Regards, Mike.

Will be interesting to see if anyone captures this pairing! I've only just read about it, and wasn't planning to set up due to the full moon to be honest. However, luckily C/2022 U2 is likely rather brighter, at mag. 11 according to the BAA page at BAA Comet section (cam.ac.uk). I successfully imaged and viewed it in late Jan, despite strong light pollution from the local football club floodlights! 😊 Regards, Mike.

I'm not expecting an APOD for this image, but thought I'd post anyway as I was pleased to get anything given the conditions . Consulting Heavens-above.com I realised that Comet C/2022 U2 ATLAS would be near an easily-recognisable asterism in Camelopardalis on Tuesday evening. However, looking out at 7pm I found that the local football club had their floodlights on for an evening match. Though the ground is only 50 yards away I decided to press on anyway and set up the 12" Newt. It was only when the lights went out at 10pm that I could see that the sky transparency was also rather poor. Here's the result, composed of just 11 x 1-minute exposures at ISO 1600, taken while the football lights were on (as later the comet was no longer visible from my observing position). Regards, Mike.

In the hope of capturing a greater extent of the comet's tails, I then imaged Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) with a Sky-Watcher ED 80mm 'scope. Not sure it really adds anything, though, as little of the ion tail is visible. Anyway, this was 13 x 3-min auto-guided exposures at ISO 3200, stacked and processed as before. Regards, Mike.

Thursday into Friday was my first clear night of 2023, but due to an early start for work I left the comets for the early hours of Saturday morning which were also expected to be clear. I targeted Comet C/2022 A2 PanSTARRS first, as I'd not seen it before and wanted to add it to my list . It was easily located in Draco, with reference to the chart on Heavens-above.com, via my 300mm Newtonian. I swapped the eyepiece for the camera and ended up with 16 x 1-minute unguided exposures at ISO 3200, after deleting those spoilt by periodic error. While those frames were being taken, I located C/2022 E3 ZTF between Hercules and Ursa Major using 7x50 binocs. For this comet I obtained 22 x 1-minute exposures. Later on Saturday I stacked on the comets in Deep Sky Stacker, and processed the results in the Canon RAW software and Cyberlink PhotoDirector. In due course I may also stack them for both the comets and the stars, though I've had mixed results with that in the past and I do like the way stacking just on the comet shows its movement against the star background. Regards, Mike C/2022 A2 PanSTARRS: C/2022 E3 ZTF:

If you get another clear morning soon, C/2022 A2 (PANSTARRS) is currently estimated to be mag. 9.5 and is in Draco, not far from C/2022 E3 (ZTF). I've not seen it yet, but I'm hoping to target it before long - cloud-permitting! Looking forward to having another look at C/2022 E3 (ZTF) too. Regards, Mike.

Comets are my favourite subjects, so hopefully 2022 E3 ZTF (again) and 2022 A2 PanSTARRS (for the first time). Also, if given clear skies, no doubt some deep sky imaging in the Orion/Monoceros area before it disappears behind the neighbour's house and then on to some early 'Galaxy Season' subjects. Having said all that, like others I'm not wildly optimistic about the chance of clear skies over the next few weeks, given what the last months have been like! Regards, Mike.

No, I haven't thought of setting up a meteor camera to be honest. Maybe it's something I should look into! Best regards, Mike.

I was out preparing to image Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) from about 2am until 3:30 on Christmas Eve and I'm quite sure I saw this fireball. It was pale green, with multiple bursts, just to the southeast of my zenith. The brightest meteor I've seen for a few years. Unfortunately I didn't note the time, but it does sound about right. As it happened, it clouded up before E3 (ZTF) cleared the valley side where I live. In the meantime I did get some image data on M51, but it was worth being out just for that fireball! I did capture the comet two mornings later. Regards, Mike.

Of mine, no one image stands out particularly, though I was quite pleased with this Heart Nebula capture (despite the inevitable coma and tilt issues). 2022 was significant in 2 imaging respects, though, as I finally took up autoguiding after decades of guiding manually and obtained my first good planet image using the 12" Newtonian that I've owned for 10 years. Regards, and happy New Year, Mike.

A delivery Friday afternoon from Auntie FLO via DPD: an Orion Dynamo Pro power pack to power my mount and laptop, and a Sky-Watcher EvoGuide 50ED that I plan to use for autoguiding my 12" Newtonian. Re. the latter, I've used an off-axis guider to guide (manually) with the Newt for the last decade - but more often than not I gave up trying to find a guide star and instead resorted to unguided short exposures! Hopefully the guide scope (and an existing ZWO camera) will be a better alternative, though I've not tried it yet. Regards, and happy New Year! Mike

Superb capture, Paul! I imaged it too, around 5am, but didn't have the ion tail showing up so well. Regards, Mike.

Yes, true the C8 is a bit over-the-top as a guider 😁. To be honest I've only started auto-guiding this year, after 4 decades of manual guiding. I suppose I didn't think to remove the unnecessary diagonal as I always used one for comfort while guiding manually. Regards, Mike.

If you mean me, in the pic I'm imaging with the piggybacked lens and guiding with the C8. Yes, the C8 has a diagonal here, but I've never used one in the imaging train. Regards, Mike.

Not many clear nights recently, but here's my 32-year old Celestron C8, piggybacking an astro-modded Canon 600D and Canon 70-300mm lens to image part of Auriga last night. Regards, Mike.