M106 re-processed.

Going over old data and re-processing for something to do in these cloudy nights.
This is a tricky one to process... they all are! because I think the exposure wasn't quite correct, bit too dark. The histogram needed to be a bit more to the right.

M31 tweaked.

As there haven't been any clear nights for ages, I decided to tweak my M31 that I re-processed the other day.

M31 rising again.

Here's my M31 from last year, re-processed yet again. Hope to improve this year ;-)
Now that I have the camera config sorted with the SKY-90.

3D Anaglyph: Cerberus Fossae

Gotta see this!
A 3D anaglyph composed of two Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images taken within the Cerberus Fossae region.

Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS

Lutetia closest approach images from Rosetta

Couldn't resist playing with these a bit. In CS4; high pass filtering, Smart sharpen, Shadows and highlights.

Credit ESA

Noctilucent Clouds 9th July 2010

Some nice Noctilucent clouds over Swindon tonight. First I've seen this year.

3 in 1

Three planets in one night, Venus, Saturn and Mars. 3x TV Barlow, IR filter & SKYnyx. All taken just after 8:30 in a blue sky.

Jupiter & Ganymede 26th June 2010 RGB & LRGB

RGB and LRGB using the IR in the luminance channel (LAB mode in CS4).

Jupiter 28th June 2010

Fairly good seeing again this morning, although there were some high altitude clouds getting in the way occasionally. And my corrector fogged over with dew just after this shot, time to break out the old hair dryer.

Below RRGB with aggressive sharpening.

Jupiter 27th June 2010

Good seeing early this morning, although Jupiter is still quite low.

3x TV Barlow

IR Luminance channel for above

Next two below; 2.5x Powermate


3x TV Barlow

4x Imagemate

Excuses, excuses.

Sorry for the lack of imaging, but I'm recovering from an illness and a bit immobile at the moment.

I'll be back very soon.

In the meantime here's a good charity to donate to.

Cheers Mick.

NASA Team Captures Hayabusa Spacecraft Reentry

This is like pure science fiction.
Look at what these guys have been up to! some people get all the good jobs.

Also a nice report by Emily from The Planetary Society Blog.

Credit: JAXA

Latest flash spotted on Jupiter.

Superb work by Anthony Wesley and Christopher Go.
Below image credit Anthony Wesley.

On CN and BBC.

Venus... with some cloud detail!

Managed to capture some cloud detail on Venus tonight, at last!!

Saturn 4th June 2010

The seeing wasn't good enough to push the magnification any higher. So here's a little'un taken with my 2.5x Powermate.

M57 & M13- 3rd June 2010

30x10sec per colour. Plus 10x10sec darks.
Just messing about, it's too light to do anything serious!

M13 40x10sec no filters.

HDD warning.

I bought one of these a few months ago for data backup. I usually use 500GB drives which I have a few of. But I thought, lets go for something bigger. Bad Move!!!
It went pop the other day with a shed load of data from this year. I couldn't even recover it because the drive wasn't even spinning up! so that was a lesson learned. don't put all yours eggs... blah blah.
I'll be steering clear of these in the future.

Western Digital Caviar 1TB SATAII 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Green Internal Hard Drive OEM

M13 through Takahashi Sky-90

I just bought a new T-piece coupler for my Tak. I had been using the incorrect nose-piece connected to the EP holder before now, see below.

So here is a full frame of M13 as my first test image.

48min, bias, flats and darks. No guiding 45sec subs.

50% reduced:-

Cropped 70% :-


Here are the bits:-
This is the correct configuration, which gives the correct FR distance.

and this is the old setup:-

The rings fitted together:-

The separate pieces:-

These items were obtained from Green-witch.
CA35 Camera Coupling No 30 - Ref. TAK-TKA35201
Wide T-Mount No 33 - Ref. TMW0004 (not available in Europe, but made up by Green-Witch)
I know that this all looks a bit mundane, but it taken me ages to sort this out without resorting to buying something from the states.

Shuttle Launch Replay Video from every angle.

Credit NASA and Motherboard.
I'd advise you to click on the video for the bigger picture.

Plato & Alpine valley - 21st & 22nd May 2010

One of my favourite areas... as if you haven't guessed by now!

The Sun in Baader K-Line Filter 24th May 2010

... and that sunspot. Using a 5x TV Powermate and Baader H-alpha Pass Filter (656nm) that should really be used for deepsky imaging.

2.5x TV Powermate.

And the nice plage region from the top left.

The Sun 24th May 2010 - White light

Baader Astrosolar filter, Takahashi Sky-90 @ prime focus, Canon EOS 50D.

Mare Crisium 22nd May 2010

High sun angle Mare Crisium.

And a "flying over the Moon" version below:-

Albategnius 22nd May 2010

Albategnius; four image mosaic, 3x TV Barlow, C9.25, IR filter.

Venus & Saturn 22nd May 2010

A few B&W's from this afternoon/night.
The IR is a bit blown out, but it shows the cloud detail better, I'll work on it.

Posidonius 22nd May 2010

The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.

My favourite telescope, from Palomar skies.

OT: Joke time... Conan O’Brien Visits Google

I don't normally put stuff like this on my blog, but this is really funny.

Here's the web address for the big picture.

M92 with 1 hour of data.

I also had a quick look at M92 before turning in a 3:00am.
M92 is a lovely globular cluster in the same area as M13, Hercules constellation.

Links credit Wikipedia.

M13 - 2 hours 15 mins

Nice and clear last night, so I managed to get some more data for M13. 3 Minute subs at 800ISO.

Softer version below.

Joke.

Credit; The Register