Garnet Star and an M31 fireball?

[samtheeagle]

For the first time in nearly TWO MONTHS it was clear last night! So out I went, lugging all the gear. As it was a last minute thing there wasn't much of a plan, so I consulted my pocket sky atlas (what a wonderful resource btw!) and noted that the Garnet Star sounded interesting. Everything, apart from me, worked like a charm, which was nice. I did have a brief spell of utter confusion with the autoguiding, but fortunately noticed that I'd flicked the handset switch to southern hemisphere mode! With that sorted I started snapping away. This is a really basic image, 10 x 2 minute subs along with a single 10 minute sub, I just wanted to see how my guiding handled that sort of sub length. ISO 800 from a modified 350D, taken through my ED80. Flats applied but no darks, hence the odd bright pixel. I think that a small amount of nebulosity is coming through on the right of the image, but only just. Anyway, I love the colour of this fella, and reading up on wikipedia Mu Cephei is quite a star!

Then as the night went on I noticed that M31 was starting to rise to a suitable height to image from my location, and having found that my guiding was up to 10 minute subs I was keen to have a go Again, very low quality image, 3 x 10 minute subs, and the same details as above. At first I was a bit miffed to see that my subs were getting messed up by planes or satellites, but then I thought perhaps it's not either of those things at all, but a meteor fireball? Is that wishful thinking? It's just that I don't think that a plane or satellite would just appear, get really bright and then fade away again. So hopefully I got a little extra in the image too.

And by the time I was done with the imaging Jupiter was blazing across the sky, and it seemed rude to pack up without at least a quick look So back to visual mode, 6mm volcano top ortho, and wow! What a cracking view. The rain earlier in the day must have really cleared the atmosphere up as the seeing was some of the best I've encountered. Very steady. So I spent a few minutes checking out the lack of the southern equatorial belt, and the four moons arrayed around the big beastie.

And then it was time for bed But what a great night, sooooooo good to get a chance to enjoy this awesome hobby again!

[astrokat]

nice capture bud thats a fire ball and a half

[samtheeagle]

Cheers Toby, more luck than judgement I can assure you!