A Night Under the Stars

[Space Ranger]

After what seemed like a very long period of cloudy weather myself and a few others from the local astronomy group decided to take advantage of the forecast clear skies and spend a night under the stars on the 13th/14th. Despite the bright moonlight there were plenty of bright Geminid meteors on show. Unfortunately I didn't catch any of the really bright ones with the camera.....

The aurora was a nice bonus though.

Later in the night after the moon had set there was a short period of darkness enabling fainter objects to be imaged....

A quick shot of M51 was obtained before targeting Comet Lovejoy....

A fine end to a thoroughly enjoyable night under the stars.

[saturn5]

Great shots,lovin the Lovejoys.You'll have to tell that idiot on the right to keep still. ;-)

[symesie04]

Excellent stuff and great variety.

[Space Ranger]

Great shots,lovin the Lovejoys.You'll have to tell that idiot on the right to keep still. ;-)

Thanks Stewart - I was delighted to get a couple of decent shots of the comet. I'm not sure what the blurred person was doing - perhaps dodging Geminids, or maybe just looking for his gloves ;-)

Excellent stuff and great variety.

Glad you like the pics symesie04. Give me clear skies and a camera and I'm like a kid in a sweet shop who just has to try one of everything.

[saturn5]

Thanks Stewart - I was delighted to get a couple of decent shots of the comet. I'm not sure what the blurred person was doing - perhaps dodging Geminids, or maybe just looking for his gloves ;-)

Ha Ha,the camera was definitely dodging them.

[nvchad2]

Very cool location and great shots.  Lovejoy is looking more and more appealing to me with every picture I see.  Can't wa

[nvchad2]

....sorry about posting mid sentence.  Some kind of error.  I was trying to say that I can't wait to try some longer exposures when I get a chance.

[JonH]

You guys have got a fanatic location up there and glad to see you making the most of it. Great shots.

[sologuitarist61]

What fantastic images, especially like the star trails - very good indeed!

[bcsman]

brilliant images, sinclair and girnigoe is a brilliant place to shoot at night

[LeeWilky]

very nice mate

[Space Ranger]

Thanks all - glad you liked the pics.

If only the wind and cloud would clear to permit further enjoyment of the night sky over the holidays.

[tingting44]

you certainly made the most out of the night! cracking images!

[dtokez]

Amazing, looks like a fun night!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[tingting44]

by the way bud how did you image the m51 shot, im guessing no autoguiding from your sig?

all the best

martin

[Space Ranger]

by the way bud how did you image the m51 shot, im guessing no autoguiding from your sig?

all the best

martin

You're right Martin - no autoguiding yet, but might get myself a dual mounting bar to use both scopes and the ASI120MC for autoguiding at some stage in the future.

The M51 image posted is a handful of stacked DSLR subs through the SW 80ED (90s at ISO 3200). The aim was to see what my new imaging gear could achieve with this target for a future imaging session in the Spring when it's high in the evening sky. The polar alignment of the mount unfortunately wasn't very good, so I didn't crop the image much to avoid the elongated stars being too obvious. Still fairly pleased with the end result though.

[tingting44]

You're right Martin - no autoguiding yet, but might get myself a dual mounting bar to use both scopes and the ASI120MC for autoguiding at some stage in the future.

The M51 image posted is a handful of stacked DSLR subs through the SW 80ED (90s at ISO 3200). The aim was to see what my new imaging gear could achieve with this target for a future imaging session in the Spring when it's high in the evening sky. The polar alignment of the mount unfortunately wasn't very good, so I didn't crop the image much to avoid the elongated stars being too obvious. Still fairly pleased with the end result though.

thats awsome results mate!!! im really going to look into getting an EQ mount next year and getting my head around polar alignment etc, id be over the "moon" if i got anything half as good as yours cant wait to see more of your work in the future

[Space Ranger]

Thanks Martin. There are many better astrophotographers on SGL, but I'm quite happy with how my astrophotography adventure is progressing. I'm sure the dark skies at my end of the country help compensate a lot for my very limited ability on the image processing side of things.

I look forward to seeing how you get on once you get an equatorial mount.