Ouse Valley Observatory

Jelly Monkey and a cluster

2012-01-27T05:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot with the 200mm lens at f4. It shows cluster M35 with neigbour NGC2158 along with fainter nebulae IC443 The Jellyfish nebula and NGC 2174 the Monkey Head Nebula.. 22x5mins at 800iso.

Coming shortly

2011-11-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

Pete R posted that asteroid Eunomia is about to cross the California Nebula.. Sounds like a good photo op. Here is another interesting event for the 2nd of December (and a day or two before and after).

Its comet P/2006 T1 Levy passing in front of NGC 7331 - Near Stephan's Quintet in Pegasus. The predicted mag for the comet is 9.5 (We'll see) Let's hope for a couple of clear nights

M81 M82 & neigbours

2011-07-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

This image is from the IKI 70mm f6 scope. 20x6min @800iso. It shows M81 and its neighbour M82 - starburst galaxy. Also seen near the top is ngc3077 and at bottom left ngc2976 (a very odd spiral? galaxy.)

White light solar

2011-07-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

With my 8" newt ,Baader 3,5 filter & MKAS DMK21 camera

North America Nebula

2011-06-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the other shot from Thursday night.10 x 5min exposures.

The E nebula

2011-06-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

This dark nebula Barnard 142/143 is just north west of Altair.
15x5min at 1600iso on the 70mm apo with darks, flats + bias. I'm sure my image calibration isn't great but I think it's a lot better than with nothing.
I (obviously) expose the lights. I am imaging with the apt software. The free version is great. PHD is working fine now with a 400mm f6.3 telephoto lens. (It's well strapped down so there's no differential flexure.
I go indoors and connect my laptop via Tight VNC using a via mains network system and can view the frames as they appear. Same for the PHD graph.
At the end of the session I put on the lens cap. Start the series of dark frames and then leave the dome & go to bed. I'm using a power pack with an Astronomiser dummy battery pack so there's enough juice to do the work.
Next day I do the flats (using the sky at the moment, but I'm making a (some) lightbox. People say that if you do flats then you must do bias frames so I do. I just do some frames with lenscap on and zero exposure (actually 1/4000s).
I then plug it all into Deep Sky Stacker and see what happens.

Cocoon Nebula IC 5146

2011-06-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

18x 5min. darks flats bias frames.
70mm f6 ed

A quick video tour round the sun

2011-05-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

Gamma Cygni region

2011-05-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

I felt the need for a little nebulosity last night so I shot this area -around Gamma Cygni. The butterfly nebula IC1318. 28x3min. most at 800iso some at 1600iso. Unguided (long story) 70mm f6 ed from IKI.

Easter Monday mosaic

2011-04-27T09:32:00.001-07:00

Slice of sunshine

2011-04-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Mosaic of 5 pics across solar equatorial region , plus proms. I may rework this to avoid the sloppy joins.

Sunny Good Friday

2011-04-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Busy afternoon . This is the Lunt scope with stacked 2.8x and 2x barlows. Seeing not great but seeing some detail. Region 1193 is an active flare forming region and may have more to come. Click on the prom for an animation.

Back to the night sky

2011-04-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Before the moon returns with a vengance I got a couple of shots on Friday night including this of NGC3227 and 3226 just to the east of gamma Leonis (see diffraction spike)
8x5min 800iso

Sunny Monday afternoon

2011-03-29T15:48:00.001-07:00

This solar malarkey's quite hard work, but I learn a little more each time. Onward and upward.

another prom sequence from today. 21st March

2011-03-21T15:24:00.001-07:00

animated prom

2011-03-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

another sunny day today. Here's a (2 frame) animation of one of the active prominences. Click on the pic to see animation

and another

2011-03-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

More solar activity

2011-02-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

Lunt solar scope. First light image

2011-01-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

Circumzenithal arc

2010-10-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

I'd always heard that these were ghostly sights, but at its brightest this one was superb. Is it just that people go around looking at the pavement rather than the sky?

A few geosats near Jupiter

2010-10-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

I took a number of 30sec exposures with a fixed camera. The stars fly by but geostationary satellites are fixed (approximately). How many can you see? Video didn't load so here is a composite.

Pegasus to Fomalhaut (via Jupiter)

2010-08-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

This non guided shot shows the view from Pegasus to the southern horizon

Sundog

2010-05-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

There were a nice set of sundogs (parhelia) last evening. Here is a picture of one with contrail shadow.

The view from down under

2010-03-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

At the BAA Deep Sky Section meeting the other day there was an interesting talk about imaging via remote telescopes. The scopes mentioned were #1-Sierra Stars Observatory in New Mexico where you request particular images and your request is queued and done. #2- Global Rent a Scope based also in NM and in Australia, where you control the scope in real time. These cost about £1 per minute. Probably a better deal on SSO than GRAS because there you are charged only for the exposure time rather than the slew, focus time etc. The BAA offer a discount if Council feel that you have a worthy project.

Anyway GRAS offer a try before you buy scheme with scope and image quality limitations, so I signed up for that. Most of last week it was snowing in New Mexico and Australia was offline. On Friday morning G13 (Takahashi Sky 90 with SBIG ST-2000XMC on a Paramount) was available in oz so I grabbed it and did a couple of 600sec (10 min) images including this one of the Trifid nebula. Within seconds the jpeg was delivered in my mail. You need to sign up for the full package in order to be able to download full res FITS images.

The blurb on site compares the economics of GRAS compared to the cost of the whole system - pointing out that the money you spend on your own kit just gives so many clear nights in a year, whereas using a remote system you have a much better chance of many clear nights for the same number of £s.

So will I go for it? I suppose that if we have winters like that now finished ,compounded with a time of ill health discouraging me from going out in the cold I might.

On the other hand it may be easier to make my observatory remotely operable.

Off topic

2010-03-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

Haven't done much astronomy for a while (actually I did do a polar alignment tonight) but I've been into GigaPanning. This is the combo of a robotised tripod head centred on the nodal point of a compact camera set to full zoom. This enables extremely detailed panoramas - including from tens to hundreds of images. It comes from the people who assemble the images from the Mars Spirit and Opportunity probes. These are a couple of early links (luckily the GigaPan site has room for these large images
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/43208/.

http://gigapan.org/gigapans/43929/

Jupiter

2009-07-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

This is Jupiter from last night (2am Sunday morning). Need to sort out settings on webcam etc - couldn't reach focus with barlow so this was only at f10.
Not sure if Jupiter's new (impact site?) is just leaving bottom right but there are some prominent blue plumes.

Volcanic sunset

2009-07-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

Space Weather has an alert for volcanic sunsets caused by worldwide aerosols from Sarychev Peak in Russia- eruption June 12th. Not quite the "Pinatubo purple" but still a very nice sight.

Noctilucent Clouds -the movie!

2009-06-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

I missed any NLC displays in 2008 so I'm glad to have caught a couple of displays(so far ) this month. I have to go about 400yds N of my garden to view the North horizon. This time lapse movie is a series of 3second exposures every 30sec. 11PM GMT 17th June.

M27 The Dumbell Nebula

2009-05-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

Stayed up late to see the interesting side of the sky again.
M27 The Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula et Anser (The Fox and the Goose)
A little trailing (!) again but it's nice to have colour in the images again.
4X5min

Arcturus

2009-05-13T16:11:00.001-07:00

A picture of a bright star in it's field can look good- specially when there's a little colour.
In fact this pic is the result of some autoguider tweaking.
Unlike Pete R I haven't been changing the PHD settings, (yet) just tightening any mechanical flexure I can think of.
1 10 minute frame @ 800iso

Dust Bunnies Galore

2009-05-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is a lesson stating that you shouldn't get your dslr sensor in as bad a state as this one.
I know it's a picture of the daytime sky at f22 but those shadows still show through the scope or fast lens. I did get it commercially cleaned, and will probably do it myself next time.
The trick is not to leave the camera sans lens for too long, and when it is - point in down so the dust doesn't fall onto it.

Thinking aloud

2009-04-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

For some of my deep sky shots I have been taking dark frames (should be for them all) and although I have just had my sensor cleaned, I really should do flat frames as well. There are various designs for these on the web from bulky boxes to laptop screens.
My thought is to get a (cheap) digital photo frame and load it with a "white" photo. should work - shouldn't it? Anyway I think that's the plan.

Lunar badlands

2009-04-06T04:57:00.000-07:00

This shows the Hippalus Rilles concentric with wrinkle ridges on Mare Humorum.

Also seen are Hesiodus and Ramsden rilles. See Rukl 52/53.
This was mostly shot through thin cloud so I'm pretty happy with it.
120ED refractor + meade 2.8x barlow f21
mosaic of 5x60 second avi captures
click on image for larger view

Closer to home

2009-04-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

With a bright moon in the sky I turned my attention to our neighbours.

I'm fairly pleased with this effort from a 60sec avi sequence.120mm aperture @ f15 (using 2x barlow) Registax 5

Lost in the realm of galaxies

2009-03-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

Here's M100 in Virgo. Lovely face-on spiral.

I'm off to search for something bigger and with a bit more colour (may have to turn the dome north!)

Butterfly galaxies

2009-03-29T09:59:00.001-07:00

The central pair of galaxies are Arp 270 or ngc 3395-96 in Leo Minor, and off to the left (east) are ngc3430 and 3424.
Halton Arp (maverick astrophysicist) compiled a list of interacting galaxies which include tidal interactions between comparatively nearby galaxies and presumably very distant quasars. These distances are deduced from red shifts, and Arp questioned that the red shift was always an indicator of distance.
This small scale pic is from 4x4minute subs and rhe 350D was set for fairly small JPEGs instead of RAW.
(I have senior moments in the cold and dark!)

M3 with little neighbour

2009-03-28T07:05:00.001-07:00

M3 in Canes Venatici.
Quite a good night (when I eventually got out - after a visit to the theatre)
This is 5x3minutes at 1600iso with auto dark removal (a 3min exposure takes 6 minutes)
Interesting to spot tiny ngc5263 to the west. This is about m13.5 I was pleased to capture this with 120mm aperture and not ideal location

What a shiner

2009-03-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

M64 The Black Eye Galaxy.
A little tracking error but I blame that on the breezy night.
(Can't really use that excuse now. I've just viewed Pete R's view of the same object probably done at the same time. Brilliant [we could combine our two views to make a stereo pair])-joke!!
5x5min@800iso

Lulin - on the move

2009-03-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hope this plays. It's a video fromthe 20 or so pics from Sat 28th Feb. 90sec exposures

Lulin

2009-03-02T07:39:00.000-08:00

I had a little success with Comet Lulin over the last couple of nights. The pic shown was on Sat28th/Sun 1st and is a stack of 5x90sec exposures at 300mm f4.
I know that DSS can stack comet pictures but I must be doing something wrong. This was done in Registax 4 (I see that v5 beta is available).
Last night 1/2 March was a wonderfully clear night but I was plagued with hardware problems. My Canon TC-80N3 intelligent release was sticking. At times I was shooting off rapid fire 1/1000sec exposures and later I had no control at all. I fear it may be terminal!

Comet Kushida emerging from the Hyades

2009-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

Quite a faint comet, but good practice for Lunin in a week or two.

The left frame is 50mm f1.8 for 25s and the right is 300mm f4 80s (both single frames)

Near and far

2009-02-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Talk about depth of field. you have nearby stars, the Owl Nebula in the middle distance and galaxy M108 quite a few miles further away - and all (more or less) in focus!
Pleased to get this one because the SkyShedPod with a GEM can't see the whole sky. There are always areas out of view and I had to wait for this view.

Leo 1 (just)

2009-01-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia - Leo I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy in Leo. At about 820,000 light years distant, it is a member of the Local Group of galaxies and is thought to be one of the most distant satellites of the MilkyWay. It was discovered in 1950 on plates from the Palomar 48" schmidt camera. It is only 12' N of Regulus which makes it easy to find, impossible (for most) to see and very difficult to image.

I know this is a rough image but I'm just happy to capture it. 4x300s

needs no introduction

2009-01-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

As Pete says, It's hard not to get a half decent image of M42. Like all the others it's a work in progress.

deep red

2009-01-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

This shows the kind of stuff (The California nebula) which with an H alpha enhanced camera and an Astronomik cls filter you can start to image from bright skies.

Holiday snap

2009-01-28T08:12:00.000-08:00

Just to put some astro content in- here is a pic of Lower Tresmorn farm in Crackington Haven,Cornwall. I used a Zenitar 15mm and combined two exposures.

Tools

2009-01-28T06:29:00.000-08:00

In the last year I downsized (apparently they now say rightsized) from a 12" LX200 to a Skywatcher 120ED on an EQ6 goto mount.

This is on a steel pier in a Skyshed Pod dome.

Camera is a Hutech modded EOS350D.

Guide camera is Starlight Express lodestar

"Guidescope" is 300mm f4 telephoto. I also use this for imaging.

Where are we now

2009-01-28T03:49:00.000-08:00

This blog will show my ups and downs in the astrophotographic universe. I'm in Haversham on the Northern outskirts of Milton Keynes, UK. On a good autumn night I can just about see the milky way, using averted imagination!
One purpose of blogging is to encourage me to go out and achieve something - ie if I see no posts for ages I will hopefully feel v. guilty (or the weather has been as normal)