new camera

This Sony A7S is an extra special camera. Trouble is that when I produce a good shot I don't get a "well done" but "that's a sensitive camera". Heigh ho - I enjoy it anyway.

Solar System debris

Zodiacal light from Shropshire

MKAS Shropshire Trip

Some fantastic skies this time including my first view of the zodiacal light

Pierre Girard observing Orion

Zodiacal Light with Venus rising (and a plane)

Iridium flaring in Orion

Orion's Belt and nebulosity (mod of 2014 image)

Total Lunar Eclipse. September 2015

Fantastic night. Missed last contact because the moon set in front of nearby tree

Big spot

Doing a catch-up. This one was good fun in 2013

Comet ISON from an all-nighter 12-13 November

ISS

Composite of ISS images from 1 second of video at 1600mm fl. The video is here
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f47BLnR6wo

What's all this then

Here's a part of a timelapse on the cloudy Perseid night. There are three frames (at about the 39 sec mark)
showing what may be a flare from, probably a Chinese yaogan triplet satellite array. Let me know if you know better.

Hanslope sunset

Cornish polar startrails

Perseids (startrails)

Here are some perseids, satellites, planes and stars from Monday AM's Perseid display.

Nova Delphinus 2013

Fighting cloud and full moon, but you can see the nova. 70mm f2.8 10seconds 1600iso

Perseid overview

A montage of most of the perseids I recorded last Mon night/Tues morning. For a timelape of the whole night see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA2M5Nr9k7Y

Tumbling satellite

This was during a perseid watch. The satellite (below Cass) is the rocket of the COBE satellite

Back to the sky-Christmas day

Jupiter and the moon have their monthly assignation. Tweaked the lunar image to show the different coloured rocks on the lunar surface. The top image of the moon is from the same original as the other with Jupiter but has the saturation reduced. One may be tending towards"cheap pizza" but I think it shows off the colour differences better.

Interesting weekend. I'm not a twitcher (have neither the knowledge or the money) but I did enjoy chasing two local rarities - the Egyptian Goose at Manor Farm and then the Cattle Egret first at Manor Farm, then it came to Haversham - it was nice to be able to walk to a twitch!. The Orange Tip Butterfly was at Linford reserve

This was the bund yesterday That's a strip of comparatively dry land on Linford Lake that is a good habitat for all manner of water birds. It has been pretty much submerged for the last 2-3 weeks (about the whole of the time I've had a permit). It looks to be recovering now so I'm looking forward to all sorts of goodies.

Another trip to HESC today. Just missed a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning.
The Little Grebe was actually yesterday by the woodland hide - I'll keep trying to get the perfect profile.

I was alerted about the Hobby yesterday, and saw it flying over the far side of the lake. Today a couple in the near hide spotted this one in a tree over to the right hand side of the hide.

Being a beginner at this game I'm bound to be confused by LBJs. I suspected this might be a Lesser Whitethroat but a chap at the site thought it was a Garden Warbler. I'm happy to believe that. (apparently considered opinion is that it is now a spotted flycatcher) Sounds good to me

Here's another example of what you can do while waiting for a clear night. This was at the Hanson Environmental Study Centre - fantastic place.