July 05

[OXO]

WOW what a night :shock: after so much cloud even at 10.30pm July4th i was rewarded with mag 6 skies for a while :shock: .

Too knacked to report all the offerings but it was just amazing...

Post report tommorow.

James 3.06am

[OXO]

As stated above this was a fantastic night and much un expected.

Setup the Scope and Mount(new drives) roughly pointed north towards polaris, checked mount was level(about 80% without trying) quick look through polar scope couldnt see a thing for a tree but decided to carry on anyway..

Listed Objects..

1.Perseus Double Cluster

This was wonderfull with the 18m ep and i managed to try out a 26mm 2" eyepiece bought from gaz(cheers gaz), this was just awsome massive F.O.V

2.M57 The Ring Neb

Under amazing condition's for seeing the central star never went out of view and was superbly bright as was the nebula of M57.

3.M31

Brightest i have seen it this year nice hint's of dark lanes esp with 40mm ep.

4.M13

Well the best i have ever seen it many many resolved star's, i managed to get 350x mag with this could of gone higher.Awsome!

5.M71????

Spent a while looking for M71 i think i got it in is photo?

Well thats it folks hope you enjoyed the report n pic's talking of pic's these were all taken with a 18m ep and coolpix which brings me to the drive's. The Drives are great i managed 40secs exp with the roughly aligned mount described at the start of this report well chuffed.

James

[russ]

Hi James,

Great report. Nice pics. Sounded like a stunning night.

The Coolpix works very well indeed. Were any those stacked or have you tried stacking?

Can definitely see M71 in that final pic.

It was very clear sky here too but i'm not feeling at my best of late. Just couldn't be bothered to go out. Watched some telly and went to bed instead.

Russ

[Ant]

Sounds like you had a good night James, I've just been processing the images I took from Dorset... Errr not good.

There's a lot of good images within that lot. The ringn has come out really well... Never seen M71 so you're doing good!

Ant

[OXO]

Hi Russ,

Thanks,

I tried stacking some M31 pic's but no chance just end up with trails even when manualy stacking them in registax could do with image plus but alas cost too much lol.

It was a stunning night russ. M71 well it's my first go at it i was going to go for M27 but got distracted by M71 whilst slewing the scope.

The coolpix does a good job not perfect by any means quite a lot of photoshop processing is needed to get the best out of it. Could do with a canon 300d really..

I got a pic of M13 with a meterite crossing the frame too but alas my tracking wasnt great and M13 is Trailed slightly may have a go at procesing it later..

Hope you feel up too getting out soon russ i miss your reports/images..

James

[OXO]

Hi Ant,

Thanks, M71 was just there whilst slewing the scope so i took it in whilst i could it did look better at the eyepiece it has to be said.

Your dorset pic's noy so good eh thats a shame Ant..

James

[Ant]

James send me a frame of M13 with the meteor (with the start trails). I'll get rid of the star trails and send it back.

You've got my address right?

I've got images plus, so I can do some stacking for you if needed?

Ant

[OXO]

Hi ya Ant,

Hey thanks for that matey i will post you the frame when i get back from picking kids up. I do have your email addy thanks.

I may send you a zipped file of the m31 pic's for stacking is zipped ok? less file size for uploading/downloading..

Cheers Ant

James

[Ant]

Not really bothered about the size TBH James. But Zipped or RAR is fine. uncompressed would be better.

I'm going home in a little while so it may be tomorrow before I get to look at them.

Ant

[Rob]

Nice going James.

Cool Picy's!!

[AndyMac]

Very nice set of images James. Very well tracked & focused. I particularly like the Double Cluster & M57 images.

BTW your M31 image is labelled M32 (just thought I'd mention it).

As you said on the phone last night, having a tree in the way hampers your view of Polaris. However it seems not to have hampered it too much because the stars look nice & round.

A very good set of results, Sir!

[OXO]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for that matey i cant believe how well the mount was tracking from such a quick setup and go.

Great night though:)

James

[AndyMac]

I was well in the land of nod by the time you'd packed up! Hope you manage to get the council to see to that tree soon.

[OXO]

Paying for it now Andy i am so knacked matey.. early night for me tonight well before 2.00am anyway hehe...

The tree me thinks i will soon after go to other lenghs with it(zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

James

[AndyMac]

I have the same problem from where I normally set up my portable camera drive. A big blumming conifer blocking the sighting of Polaris. As you say, timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

[OXO]

Conifer's spread like wildfire them things mmmmmm theres an idea for you andy?

Grow so big too, theres a house down the road from me thats surrounded by 100ft conifers looks like a Fort god knows how the neighbours cope..

:?:

[AndyMac]

Well if they're 100ft, I'd say that the neighbour ISN'T coping! Hope they don't interfere with your observations too much.

[OXO]

Luckly there way out of my viewing andy or else mr chainsaw would be on a holiday....

[AndyMac]

i.e. a busman's holiday!

[OXO]

Too Right!

[OXO]

Ant has been very kind and stacked my M13 image's from the night and processed the image. I added a little processing myself and between us we have come up with this Image of M13.

Thanks Ant

James

[Ant]

Your welcome mate, did you reprocess from stratch from the TIF?

Either way that image is down to you alone and nothing to do with me, All i did was stack it through ImagesPlus.

Nice job.

Ant

[OXO]

Hi Ant,

The image above is processed from your orignal file to me non tiff you did such a good job of processing it in the first place it was a great starting point for me to try and improve it.

Your very kind thanks:)

over the moon with this image.

James

[AndyMac]

Well done chaps. Certainly a more 'full-bodied' image. :shock:

[OXO]

Thanks Andy

Cant wait for M27 now

James