Off topic

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.