Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Jupiter, Moon and the Moon 29th Sept 2009

Shot with Canon 200mm lens.





















You'll need a big monitor to get it all in. If you use Google Chrome use the Ctrl + & - to re-size.

Waxing gibbous Moon 29th Sept 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

M31 & M45 27th Sept 2009

Managed to get out last night with my Takahashi, first time for ages :-)
Thought I'd try some easy targets M31 & M45, although not so easy to process.
I imaged M31 for 2 hours and M45 for 1 before calling it a day(night) at 3:00 in the morning... zzzzz.
When I finished, my C9.25 (which was piggy backing the Tak) corrector plate was covered in ice!
I realised that after moving to M45, that the scope wasn't quite in sharp focus, so some of these stars are a bit bloated.

Larger wide field view... processed another way.

Friday, September 25, 2009

ESA Mars rover.

Just found this on the BBC news website about the ESA Mars rover camera tests... using a couple of DMK's, neat.

Credit BBC

Jupiter 25th Sept 2009

Poor seeing... and then it clouded over... ho hum!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Jupiter 21st Sept 2009

Almost an hour later. Red filter.

Jupiter LRGB - 21st Sept 2009


Jupiter & Io - 21st Sept 2009

4 x imagemate, Red filter and Skynyx 2-0M camera.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Warning; CGE mount tripod leg screws.

Just a word of warning for anyone using a CGE mount.
I was messing about in my observatory today and found that the screws that fix the legs to the tripod head were quite loose. I presume this is because they are supposed to be flexible for when you move the legs. But there was a fair amount of play in them, so I tightened them up for good measure (since it isn't moving anywhere soon).
They're the hex screws at the bottom of the pic, two per leg.
When you consider how much weight is sitting on top of that tripod, you don't want any movement at all ;-)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Going around the bend! - 3Dfication.

Here's another one of those image manipulation programs. This one is by Niels Noordhoek.
This is an image of the full Moon that I took last year.

3D Moon, red & blue glasses needed.

NB. I always find the best thing to do is to move closer to the image whilst viewing, then the 3D pops into your head.
Niels Noordhoek site.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Clavius to Tycho mosaic - 12th Sept 2009

Big pan of North region of the Moon.

I've got up at 4:00 am this morning to do some Moon imaging, but the cloud was too thick. Luckily I woke at 6:00 as well and the clouds had cleared. So it was quick scramble to get some imaging before the Sun rose too high.
Here's the preliminary result that I've been working on all afternoon. I'm knackered ;-)

If you use the Google Chrome browser (which I do all the time) you can use the Ctrl + key to zoom in and out, in MS Windows that is.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Sinus Iridum 11th Sept 2009

Clavius & Plato 11th Sept 2009

Here's one from last night. The seeing was really good when I started :-) But the transparency deteriorated quickly later :-( So I had to push the camera and picked a load of grain in the process & processing ;-(

First image of session.
Plato; using 3 x TV barlow, with the good seeing.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel 10th Sept 2009

Bird flight across the Moon.


I caught some birds flying across my field of view whilst imaging the Moon last night.

Gassendi 10th Sept 2009

Tycho 10th Sept 2009

4 image mosaic.

The Moon 10th Sept 2009

Taken with my Takahashi Sky-90 at Prime focus & SKYnyx 2-0M with red filter.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

New refurbished Hubble images.

The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble.





















Credit NASA, ESA & Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

OT: Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life [Video]

I love this.
Click on the credit link below for the video.
Credit Scitechbits.

















Credit BBC

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Full Moon Tycho 4th Sept 2009

Strange booklet.

I have this strange booklet that I bought from an old second-hand bookshop ages ago.
I always thought that it was from the 19th century, but on reflection I think it may be older, maybe 17th or 18th century.
There is no cover to it and no identifications to its date, it looks like the drawings from a books appendices that have been ripped out.
I like the Moon engraving.
I took out some of them and framed them for my study a while back, probably shouldn't have done that :-(




Full Moon 4th Sept 2009

Takahashi Sky-90, prime focus, Canon EOS 50D, single shot.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings 4th Sept 2009

Here is my 'Photoshopped' version of the event taken from CalSKY.
September 4th: Saturn’s Rings Do a Disappearing Trick.

Credit CalSKY.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Saturn 2006 to 2009

Here are my best Saturn's for the period of 2006 to 2009.