Latest Images  (and News)

 (As you might expect, the most recent images are at the top of this page. But the Gallery pages read downwards.) 

If you're just popping in for a brief visit, have a look at my 'Pick of the Bunch'

Laptop Upgrade, 2004 Messier Marathon, Transit of Venus, Dalby 2004 Star Party, Kelling Heath 2007, Light Board, Camera Lens experiments and other oddments on the Bits 'n Pieces Page.

All photographs Copyright © Peter Vasey, and may not be reproduced without permission. You can email me at the following:

Visits to La Palma. 2007 and 2008

Visit to Les Granges 2008 and 2009

Comet 17P/Holmes There is a separate page devoted to this remarkable comet. Here. 

Round the World Trip 2010 (With the Total Solar Eclipse of July 11th - South Pacific page)

How to find the South Celestial Pole 

Still getting used to my QSI 683, and thought NGC 1499 the California nebula deserved attention to see what the little pixels could do for this large object in H-alpha. This version with a William Optics ZS66. Even with the WO Mk 2 reducer/flattener the edge stars are unfortunately distorted although it doesn't look too bad at a reduced scale. A clear night at first on 23rd January 2012, but a weather front was approaching, expected around midnight. Going from the Skymap chart I expected to get it all in comfortably at the reduced focal length of approx. 310 mm. Not so! Quite a bit missing. Maybe it's on with the WS cover and a 200 mm camera lens. Anyway I still need colour - the clouds rolled in earlier than expected, around 2230, so that was that. QSI683wsg, Baader 6nm Ha filter, 10 x 20 minute subs. Larger size

January 15th saw first light of my new QSI camera. Well, almost first light, a few tests on earlier nights to get my new kit up and running. I'm still struggling with reducer/flatteners - the chip distance from the front of the assembly is markedly different from my SBIG camera. But I'm sure I will prevail! Anyway, after weeks of terrible weather at last we had a fantastic clear frosty winter night. Pity the Moon rose around 11.30 pm. But before it did I managed to capture data for M45, and afterwards narrow band for the 'Jellyfish' nebula IC443 in Gemini. That one is still work in progress needs more H-alpha data (still a bit noisy) then OII and SIII to colour it. So. M45, Luminance 7 x 10 minutes (would have taken more but I'd been playing around with the configuration, and I needed to leave time for the RGB data before the Moon rose). RGB each 5 x 5 minutes binned 2x2. QSI 683 WSG-8 with Lodestar guide camera on Meade 127 refractor with William Optics 0.8 Mk II reducer. Large size

IC 443 is a Supernova remnant in Gemini, just East of 3rd. magnitude eta Geminorum. Although the magnitude is listed as 12, it is quite large at 50 x 40 arc-minutes, so the surface brightness is low, making it a difficult target in skies that are not completely dark. On 15th I got 10 x 20 minutes H-alpha. Same optics. Then on 16th I got a bit more Luminance and some colour of IC443. So here is the SHO (Hubble Palette) version. The halos round eta Geminorum are probably reflections between the filter and reducer - hardly surprising as it's a 3rd magnitude star! But not unpleasant IMHO 16 x 20 minutes Ha luminance, RGB each 7 x 5 minute binned 2x2 SII, Ha, OIII. Large size (660KB)

Jupiter has been big and bright this Autumn, but as usual my sky conditions have been dismal - poor seeing when there weren't clouds! But on the evening of 7th December 2011 the shadow of Io was due to pass across the GRS during its transit. Too good to miss, and a clear evening was forecast. Alas as usual the forecasters got it wrong - a weather front approached earlier than expected, and several swathes of cloud limited the sequence to only a few frames. The seeing was absolutely atrocious, worsening as the weather deteriorated. I'd hoped someone would have had better conditions than me, but I haven't seen anything on the 'net. But at least I got something, so here is the animated GIF. Each (half size when clicked on the thumbnail) frame made up of around 500 to 600 subs, Toucam on 12" Meade LX200ACF OTA. Unfortunately very poor quality due to the bad conditions.

A couple of nights later (December 9th) conditions were a little better though far from ideal. This shot shows the Great Red Spot, without a moon shadow this time, but with Ganymede in the frame. Again several hundred sub frames, Toucam on 12" LX200 ACF

NGC 6823 in Vulpecula is an open cluster with surrounding nebulosity and interesting dark lanes. The nebulosity is classified as Sharpless 86. But it proved to be elusive due to a run of very poor weather. For H-alpha I had 4 barely usable subs from Kielder on 28th October. Then a further 12 in better conditions on 1st November. But I had to wait until 22nd November to get OIII and SII data. Not a very bright area, so still a bit noisy in the darker sections - needs more time in H-alpha. But that's it for this year! SBIG ST-10XME on Meade 127 refractor (950 mm fl). Luminance 12 x 20 minutes H-alpha, also used for Red. GB each 8 x 10 minutes OIII and SII binned 2x2. Full size

I don't often do planetary imaging - my location in the lee of the Northern Pennines rarely has good enough seeing. And the night of 27th October 2011 was no exception. So the lack of fine detail is reflected in the image. But Jupiter is so big and high at the moment I just had to give it a try! 1200 frames (2 minutes worth) captured in K3CCDTools, stack of 600 frames in Registax, finished in Photoshop. Toucam on 12" Meade ACF with 3x Barlow.

Here is Sharpless 199, the 'Soul' or 'Embryo' emission nebula in Cassiopeia, also showing the nearby smaller Sharpless 198 (below) and Sharpless 20 (left edge). The data was collected over 4 nights - notwithstanding narrow band the background was affected by moonlight, so I had to grab what I could before it rose too high. And of course our usual UK clouds limited the number of nights recently available. Final batch of data on October 19th 2011. SBIG ST-10XME camera, Canon 400L camera lens at approximately f7 with narrowband filters. Luminance 27 x 10 minutes Hydrogen-alpha, RGB each 7 x 10 minutes H-a, Oxygen III and Sulphur II. The camera lens was stopped down from f5.6 to approx. f7 using an external mask to prevent 'starburst' spikes. But if I had not used the mask I expect it would have looked something like this version - spikes added using Star Spikes Pro. The lens produces 8 point spikes, (see here) and on this occasion the artificial ones nicely mask those produced by the microlenses on the CCD chip, so it is the image I prefer. Full size (850KB)

The night of 29th September was again clear although with slight mist. The larger nebula is Sharpless 157, also known as the 'Claw' nebula in Cassiopeia. The well known Bubble nebula (NGC7635) embedded within Sharpless 162 bottom left. Top left is Sharpless 158 (NGC7538) and centre left Sharpless 159. The bright cluster top centre is NGC 7510. Narrowband, ST10 on the Meade 80 refractor with 0.7 reducer. Luminance Ha 15 x 10 minutes, RGB each Ha, OIII,SII, 7 x 10 minutes. North is left in this image. Full size (900Kb)

Data was collected for this image on two nights - 22nd (at Kelling Heath Star Party) and 28th September. This is Sharpless 101 - the 'Tulip' Nebula in Cygnus. Narrowband imaging with the ST-10 on the Meade 127 refractor. Luminance from Hydrogen-alpha, 25 x 5 minute sub frames. 10 minute subs would have been preferable, but the bright stars in the heart of the nebula bloomed badly at that exposure. RGB each Ha, OIII, SII, 9 x 5 minutes. North is up in this image. Full size (570Kb)

The 28th September 2011 was a beautiful day - we were having an 'Indian Summer'. And Sunspot group AR 11302 was nicely positioned in the centre of the Sun. Not a huge spot, but the area of activity was considerable. There had been Auroral activity two nights before - possibly this spot was the progenitor. Artemis 285 on Solarscope 50 (cropped from the full frame.)
And a close up of the spot, Artemis 285 on Solarscope50 with 3x Barlow. Full Size This image appeared in the 'Hotshots' section of the February 2012 Sky at Night magazine

A bright supernova in Galaxy Messier 101 was first discovered on 25th August 2011 and brightened steadily over the ensuing weeks. I didn't hear about it until after I obtained the Comet Garradd image - I would have been after the SN as well, although the weather would probably have stopped me! And no more clear spells at night until 10th September by which time an almost full Moon was washing out the sky. Still clouds about and the target heading rapidly behind a neighbour's tree (to be felled a week later - yesss!). But I managed 9 x 5 minute monochrome subs, ST-10XME on the Meade 127. Same framing as my image in March 2011, and I was able to add colour from that image and produce a 'blinking' GIF. But much lower in the sky this time and the moonlight produced a low contrast washed out image. Still time for another go after the Moon is out of the way. Not worth a full size image. The SN is classified type 1a, named SN 2011fe. It reached a brightness between 9th and 10th magnitude - extremely powerful at the distance of M101 - approximately 24 million light years.

A little window of clear sky just after the Moon rose on17th Sept, so with darker sky around M101 a crisper image than a week ago, tho' still affected by moonlight. Next week with the intrusive tree gone and the Moon out of the way I'll try again for a better one, weather permitting! SBIG ST-10 with Meade 127 refractor, colour from my March image. 11 x 5 minute subs. Full size

On 2nd September 2011 comet P1 Garradd was due to pass close to the 'hook' of Collinder 33 - the Coathanger asterism. But the forecast for that night (and those either side) was dismal, and unfortunately proved to be correct for my part of the country. However the weather did relent briefly on the evening of 30th August, and I was able to get a wide field image of the comet and Coathanger prior to the close encounter. 10 x 5 minute exposures with my Canon 350D camera and a 200 mm camera lens. Larger image. This image appeared in the Gallery section of the November 2011 Astronomy Now magazine.

M71 in Sagitta was long a subject of discussion as to whether it is a globular or open cluster. But it would seem that the powers that be eventually decided it is a globular. Rather sparse, and not often imaged. BUT Comet P1 Garradd passed within 10 arc-minutes of its centre around 2300 UST (UK midnight) on Friday 26th August. A little to the right of the two bright stars at the middle of the left hand edge of this image. I was at the Dalby Forest star camp hoping for a clear night. Alas it was one of the wettest days and evenings of all the star camps over several years! But prior to that I realised I'd never myself imaged the globular, and the night of 22nd August 2011 was the first clear dark night for ages - at my latitude it was only then that I was back into full darkness, and there had been an awful lot of cloud around in recent weeks. With the presence of a bright last quarter Moon precluding faint fuzzies, and still limited time, I decided to image M71 to add to my collection. ST-10XME with AO-8 on 12" Meade LX200ACF at f7. Luminance 20 x 2 minutes, RGB each 8 x 2 minutes. Darks and Flats applied. North is left (I needed to position it that way for a bright guide star). Full size.

I was out imaging on 3rd. June, getting a test image of M63 following collimation problems with my Meade 127. At the time I hadn't heard about the supernova in M51, or of course that would have been my target! When eventually it came to light ;-) the clouds returned, and them along with a bright Moon on occasions when the clouds thinned put me well out of action. But a couple of reasonably clear nights on 28th and 30th June 2011, so at last I got SN 2011DH SBIG ST4000XCM on Meade 12" LX200R at f7. 8 x 10 minutes and 6 x 15 minutes. Of course at my latitude of 55 degrees, I get no better than Nautical twilight, so the image lacks contrast and despite a fair bit of processing is still a bit noisy. Not a patch on my early April image . Just think if the SN had happened 2 months earlier....

And here is an animated GIF showing the supernova blinking against the earlier image. (Click on the pic for full size).

Another shot for the ST4000XCM on the Meade 127, this time a wide field of the well known Messier 63 - the Sunflower galaxy in Canes Venatici. Again early hours due to limited darkness, only astronomical twilight, this time 23rd May 2011, and only 6 frames x 15 minutes. Revisit planned for early 2012! Full size

NGC 188 is an interesting open cluster situated in Cepheus, only 5 degrees from the North Celestial Pole. There are several bright stars in the vicinity,, so this was one for the ST4000XCM. Also quite large, so the Meade 127 refractor was used for this image. 9 sub frames x 10 minutes (with AO-8 guiding) in the early hours of 21st May 2011. Astronomical twilight. Full size

After a few days of very welcome cloud and rain, with twilight and a waxing Moon on a clear night on 8th April 2011, I decided to try for a decent image of Albireo, the beautiful double star in Cygnus. ST4000XCM of course to avoid blooming, and two different fields of view - one with the 400 mm Canon lens and one with the 12" Meade LX200ACF at f 10 (3m fl). Seeing was very poor, but the close up responded reasonably well to deconvolution. Wide field 22 x 1 minute subs, close up 30 x 1 minute subs. Full size wide field Full size close up This image featured in the June '2011 'Sky at Night' television program.

Magnitude 10.6 NGC 4651 (Arp 189) in Coma Berenices sports tidal tails both 'ends' of the galaxy, one in particular of a most interesting shape. I first saw an image of this here, and of course it prompted me to tackle it. What a struggle. I don't have New Mexico skies and 7000 feet of altitude! Although I had a run of fine weather, the nights towards the end of April 2011 were occasionally hazy, with only two or three really clear, and even then they sometimes clouded over early with an Easterly wind. And of course only 2 to 3 hours of full darkness to play with. Anyway, I eventually managed to capture 22 Luminance frames x 20 minutes and 6 each RGB x 10 minutes binned 2x2. SBIG ST10XME on 12" LX200ACF with AO-8 at f7. Some had to be scrapped due to passing cloud. And it seemed to be Clapham junction for bright satellites - no less than 3 Luminance and 3 colour subs were badly affected. And the tails were so faint that to show them meant a noisy final image and patchy colour. When I think of all the nice bright targets around....But here it is (full size), and one of the satellite subs (calibrated and reduced of course).

ON 12th April 2011 the Sun displayed a number of interesting features. A couple of beautiful prominences and some active areas and filaments. Unfortunately I omitted to insert a 'Moon' filter for the prime focus disc image and the chip bloomed slightly, hence the rather bright area at the top of the image. I would have re taken the photo, but by the time I found out what had happened, the clouds arrived!   Disc at prime focus, prominences with 2x Barlow. Artemis 285 on Solarscope SV50. All single 'best' frames hand picked from several.

The last time I imaged the globular cluster Messier 3 in Canes Venatici was in June 2003 with my MX716 camera. Long overdue for a re visit. And the night of 12th April 2011 was nice and clear, so despite the brightening Moon the contrasty bright target wasn't unduly affected by the Moonlight. And a pleasant change for me from trying to tease out invisible structures around faint galaxies! SBIG ST-10XME with AO_8 on 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10. Luminance 12 x 5 minutes, RGB each 6 x 5 minutes. Full size This image appeared in the Astronomy Now June Facebook gallery

Alas light nights are fast approaching in April, particularly at my 55 degree latitude. The end of April is the last string of full dark nights (and then only for 2 or 3 hours) until the end of August. (Early August only an hour or so for a handful of nights). So unless the end of the month has some clear nights, that's the end of faint fuzzies for me for some time. But the night of 7th April 2011 was looking pretty good as the early high haze gradually faded. And I went for a very interesting galaxy, the starburst NGC 3310 (Arp 217) in Ursa Major. Almost at the zenith, so a good opportunity. Inspired by Adam Block's superb image, I set to. OK, I don't have a 32" 'scope, 9000 feet of altitude and Arizona sky, so can't really compete. But disappointingly the seeing was only around 5.5 fwhm, and even more annoyingly before I got any colour data, at 2 am the clouds rolled in. Scotland got some, there was a big fat one right over me. But the rest of England, Wales, Ireland, France and Spain were pristine. I don't beleeve it!! So I guess it's work in progress until early 2012. Anyway, here's what I did get. Not worth posting the full size. There are also some large 'doughnuts' in the image, possibly due to the bright 5th magnitude star out of frame at the top of the picture. It was an excellent guide star for the dual chip camera, but may end up ruining any chance of a better image. SBIG ST-10XME with AO-8, 12" LX200ACF at f10 on Gemini mount. 12 x 15 minute subs.

Added later! Fortunately the weather at the end of April relented, and over 5 nights I was able to get a lot more data for this interesting galaxy. Seeing improved, and although the sky was a little hazy on the night I obtained the colour frames, it came out ok - the bright starburst regions shone through the murk! Still slightly 'noisy', but that's the UK skies for you! The faint blue arc at the top of the image is definitely down to the bright star (a great guide star!) out of the frame. Luminance 12 x 15 minutes + 16 x 20 minutes. RGB each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2, optics as above. Full size This image appeared in the Astronomy Now June Facebook gallery

A long time since I imaged Messier 51 - the wonderful 'Whirlpool' galaxy in Canes Venatici. There's a really bright guide star to one side, perfectly placed for my ST-4000XCM on the 12" LX200ACF with 0.7 reducer. So I gave it some attention on the night of 4th April. 9 x 20 minute subs, darks and flats applied. I would have liked more, but the skies clouded over, and it was anyway slightly hazy, so I didn't pick up the outlying 'mist'. Maybe 20 x 30 minute subs next season.... Full size

March 21st 2011 saw a lot of activity on the Sun with some magnificent prominences and a large active region containing a small spot. The main prominence group measured approximately 172600 miles (276000 Km) across and 34000 miles (54400 Km) high. Puts the 7960 mile (12740 Km) diameter Earth into perspective! Single frames chosen as best from a selection, Artemis 285 with solarscope SV50. Prominence with 2x Barlow.

The 2011 Kielder Forest Spring Star Party took place over the weekend 5th/6th March. I was staying a few miles South at Calvert Trust, and unfortunately the Saturday night was clouded out. Sunday and Monday nights saw a few hours of clear skies, but with thickening freezing mist and occasional passing clouds. I only tried to image one subject, using my SBIG ST4000XCM on M101 through my Meade 127 refractor. The hope was to well define the faint extensions, hence the use of the 127 for the wider field of view. But the haze affected the contrast, so not as clear as I'd hoped. Heigh Ho... Anyway here it is, 15 x 20 minute subs. Full size

What a beautiful night on Sunday 13th March 2011. Wonderfully clear - a sky full of stars. Typical of course that it should be accompanied by a bright first quarter Moon. If only we'd had those conditions the previous Sunday at Kielder! I was out earlier, but when I got home set to with my ST-10 to get some luminance data, the idea being to use the colour from the Kielder one-shot-colour effort above. And despite the bright Moon it came out quite well, helped by the excellent conditions and the position near the zenith. There's a pretty circlet of stars bottom right corner which I'd never noticed before. Luminance 13 x 10 minutes with the ST-10XME, colour 15 x 20 minutes with the ST-4000XCM in the misty condition last weekend at Kielder. All with the Meade 127 refractor. Full size

A late start on the night of 27th February, but several luminance subs captured before cloud rolled in. The next night starry but too hazy to image, but 1st March was a cracker until mist arrived at 4 am. Poor seeing on both nights, but good clarity and a bright guide star for this interesting galaxy, NGC 3938 in Ursa Major. Magnitude 10.4 but the outer regions are quite faint. SBIG ST10XME with AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10. Luminance 19 x 15 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. Full size

This is the result of a challenge by Paul Jenkins! Small, faint and green. No, not Paul, but this interesting object next to the mag. 15 galaxy IC2497, beautifully imaged by the Hubble ST. And with more time I daresay I'd have a better image. But this will have to do for now. 26th February 2011. ST-10XME with AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10. 9 x 20 minutes Luminance, RGB each 4 x 10 minutes. A bit of passing cloud for some of the colour frames. Nice bright guide star, so the Luminance AO-8 rate was 11Hz - helped to overcome mediocre seeing. Full size.  Full size crop, North is up, Need darker steadier skies and lots more time. In England? - fat chance! This image appeared in the May 2011 Astronomy Now magazine

After a prolonged solar minimum with only occasional 'burps' it seems as though the Sun is at last waking up. February 16th 2011 saw a nice display of sunspots al;though not much in the way of prominences.   Artemis 285 with Solarview 50, close ups with 2X Barlow.       AR 1158         AR 1161

 

When I'd finished messing about with my earlier offering below of a wide field Orion, I got to wondering how my modded Canon 350D would cope with the subject. So while out on the evening of 8th February 2011, I left it running unguided on my EQ6 mount for a couple of hours with this result. I'd felt the slightly smaller pixels might resolve the stars better than the SBIG ST-4000XCM, but there's nothing in it - the SBIG version looks more fussy simply because more background stars are visible! I'd intended to image at ISO800, but in fact (I was in a hurry and didn't check!) ended up with ISO 1600. 14 x 10 minute subs, same Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens at approx 30 mm, f5.6. Dark frame subtracted of course, and it was pretty cold, so not much noise anyway. Considering the SBIG was cooled to -30 deg C and I used 15 minute subs for that pic, I think the Canon has acquitted itself quite well. But IMHO the dedicated camera wins - so it should for the money! Again used StarSpikes Pro to bring up the main stars. Full size (2 MB!) Still those dratted power line shadows. I don't think I'll get another proper chance this year. Maybe next year if I and the world survive .

On the night of 7th February 2011 I had a look at the slightly distorted galaxy NGC 3893 in Ursa Major. Mediocre seeing and slightly hazy. SBIG ST10XME with AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10. Luminance 11 x 15 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. There's a faint hint of an extended arm dropping down between 3893 and the smaller neighbour 3896. Maybe I'll have another go with longer subs given the opportunity. Full size

The BBC 'Sky at Night' programme broadcast at the beginning of February 2011 put out a request for images of Orion. I submitted images, some of which were used along with old favourite Milky Way from La Palma to show the Scorpion - Orion's nemesis in mythology! But I didn't have a suitable image of the whole constellation, and bad weather prevailed for the 'window' available to submit. However a clear night on 30th January gave me a chance. I had to scrap some subs due to passing cloud and light pollution, but here is the result from my back garden. 13 x 15 minutes, SBIG ST-4000XCM with Tamron 17-50 f2.8 zoom lens at 30 mm and f5.6 . Unguided on EQ6 Pro mount. Full size (1.2 MB) Spikes added with Star Spikes Pro to enhance the main constellation stars. Despite combining many frames, still a hint of the power lines which cross my South field of view. Maybe I'll try again from a darker unobstructed site. The second frame taken, although not used because of the trail, showed what at first looked like a meteor. But on closer examination after processing probably an Iridium Satellite because the trail extends faintly for the whole frame. And there is a second trail almost paralleling the first. The start of the 15 minute exposure was 19:05.00 on 30th January give or take a couple of seconds. Full size And a visit to the Heavens Above site confirmed that they were indeed Iridium satellites, 91 and 52, with almost identical positions and only 67 seconds apart - apparently 91 is a spare with 52 active. Details here. A few days later I managed to fit a Hydrogen-alpha filter (Baader 7nm) into the camera lens, and before the weather deteriorated acquired a single 15 minute frame, binned 2x2 to prevent Bayer patterning from the one-shot colour chip. Although desperately noisy, by the time I'd played with it, dimmed and blurred the stars it was worth a try at blending with the Red channel in the original image. And it's a bit better - the nebulosities are brighter and the star colours haven't been affected. It would have been nice to get several frames, but the way the weather was looking, not very promising. And by next month it's getting too late in the year.  Anyway the dratted power line shadows really urge me to make a completely fresh start from a different site. Another time. Full size (1.3 MB)

6th January 2011 was again clear until the clouds arrived in the early hours. So among other (ongoing) stuff I paid a visit to NGC 2392 - the 'Eskimo' nebula in Gemini. Seeing wasn't particularly good, so some fine detail lacking. But the Eskimo looks happy enough. Full field (full size) and cropped and rotated.   SBIG ST10 XME on 12" LX200ACF at f10. Luminance 20 x 2 minutes, RGB each 8 x 3 minutes. Longer exposures not possible (or really necessary!) because of blooming of the central star.

After days of snow/cloud/bright Moon I actually had some hours of clear dark sky on 5th January 2011. BUT.... The seeing was appalling. Using the 12" at f10 the fwhm was around 8.5 and the guide star was jumping all over the place. I need at most fwhm of 4 to be any good, so that was a non-starter. So. Go for wide field. And a couple of nights earlier expecting clear skies (but the forecast was wrong!) I'd fitted a 200 mm camera lens to my one-shot colour SBIG ST4000 XCM with Kemble's Cascade in mind. For anyone who isn't familiar with it, it's a grand binocular object in Camelopardalis (earlier imaged in 2004) a cascade of stars splashing down into NGC 1502. Although it was by now well past the meridian, it was still quite high, and a couple of hours produced this (cropped vertically for better framing). 10 x 10 minutes at around f6 (f4 lens). Full size. Although the asterism is plainly visible in binoculars, it is not so obvious in the photograph. But a light touch of artificial diffraction spikes, courtesy of StarSpikes Pro and it stands out nicely. Full size This image appeared in the March 2011 Astronomy Now magazine. Getting too low for any more data, but on the other side of the sky Coma Berenices was riding high. So on with a shorter lens (135 mm, f2.8 at f5.6) and I managed 8 x 10 minute subs before the clouds returned. Full size. Makes a change from the small stuff. If you look up the left hand side of the Coma image you can see NGC 4565 and higher up NGC 4559, both of which I've imaged close up in the past. Puts the sizes into perspective!

On December 21st 2010 just before dawn there was a total eclipse of the Moon. Visible from the UK, but only just as it set in the West. Fortunately it was a beautifully clear morning (but bitterly cold at -10 deg C) and despite a mishap with my EQ3-2 mount I was able to take some photographs. All with my Canon 350D and 400L telephoto lens, ISO200 and f7.1 Full sizes: 1 1/250 sec. 2 1 sec. 3 2 secs. 4 3.2 secs As I was lifting everything over a farm gate across the road from my home to give me a clear view from a public footpath the whole bl**dy thing fell over - the gate that is, with me on top and the mount underneath. It was just leaning against the gateposts with no hinge, not even a bit of binder twine!! And of course in the dark I didn't realise until it was too late. So one damaged and unusable tripod. Although the camera and lens were attached to the mount head, fortunately the damage was limited to the tripod. I also have an EQ6 Pro mount - my 'Star Party' mount. So out of the box in my garage and set up. But time lost, so I wasn't ready until almost 7 am by which time the Eclipse was well advanced. Nevertheless, although I didn't get a full record of the early stages, and by totality it was only 6 degrees above the horizon and dawn was breaking, I'm happy enough with what I did get. And thanks to help via the 'net I've got replacement parts to repair the damaged tripod.  On checking with Skymap to be sure that what looked like stars *were* stars, it's interesting to think that the only time you'll get to see a mag 7 star occulted by the Full Moon is during an Eclipse! The star at 4-o-clock in the bottom frame was behind the Moon two minutes earlier. It's mag 7.84 TYC 1863-1976-1 Unfortunately because of the accident with the mount I don't have a photo before the Moon occulted it, although at that time (0652) the Lunar limb next to the star would have been in the Umbra.

Unfortunately the wide angle shots I took (50 mm Zoom) were slightly out of focus. But for what it's worth, here is one, showing the totally eclipsed Moon over the snowy landscape.

The 8th was again clear, and although I was out during the early evening I was able to leave the mount running with my ST-4000XCM one-shot colour camera and Canon 400L lens - about time it earned its keep! 8 x 15 minute frames were saved before the mount reached its 'wrong side' electronically controlled limit, with this result. Clouds arrived later so that was that. I'm very pleased with the performance of the lens - although it's critical for focussing, as can be seen it has very good resolution, freedom from aberration and round stars to the corners. Only some very slight distortions in the bottom left of this image. A little 'noisy - another couple of hours data would be nice! But already my best M31 to date. More data from 25th December (another 5 x 15 minutes) improved both the processing artifacts and the noise levels. That's it folks! Full size

Another clear night on 7th December, and for a run testing various optics I targeted the beautiful rich open cluster NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia. This was the result using the Meade Series 5000 127 mm refractor. ST-10XME, Luminance 12 x 5 minutes, RGB each 8 x 3 minutes binned 2x2. Full Size
Added later. This also benefits from artificial star spikes applied using StarSpikes Pro. Full Size This image appeared in the June 2011 'Hotshots' in Sky at Night magazine

On December 5th prior to collecting the rest of the (colour) data for Abell 426, I used the SBIG ST-4000XCM to image M33 - it's always worth a visit! Also using the Meade 127 refractor, 10 x 15 minute sub frames. Full size This image appeared in the 'Ask Alan' section of the November 2011 Astronomy Now magazine

After all the snow, a few clear (and very cold!) nights in early December gave opportunities for imaging. This is the central portion of Abell 426 - the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. The brightest in the group is NGC 1275, 13th magnitude Perseus A. Too numerous to name, there are galaxies in this image fainter than 16th magnitude. Data collected over two nights (2nd and 5th) due to seeing and weather problems. Luminance 11 x 20 minutes, RGB each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. SBIG ST-10XME on Meade series 5000 127 mm refractor. Full size

Winter came early in November 2010! A prolonged period of North Easterly winds brought severe snow and icy weather to much of Scotland and North East England. 29th November, around 10" level cover of snow, with more to come before conditions ease. Clear air between the showers, but although I cleared the snow off the Observatory, no opportunities for any astronomy - too many showers! Larger photo

At the same time as I was collecting colour data for NGC 1961 below, I imaged much of Ursa Major wide field with my Canon 350D and Tamron 17-50 zoom lens at 17 mm f5.6 Unguided on my EQ3-2 mount. 14 x 5 minutes at ISO 800, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, final processing in Photoshop. Cropped a little - some coma. How many galaxies can you find? You'll be surprised how small they are in this wide field context! M51 is particularly interesting. This image featured in the December 2010 'Sky at Night' BBC TV programme. Full Size (1.1 MB!)

Messier 45, the Pleiades or Seven Sisters in Taurus is a well known bright cluster, beautiful in binoculars. But to see the full beauty of the surrounding nebulosity long exposure photography is a must. And I'm quite pleased with my latest version here! After I captured the colour data for Abell 85 below, the night of 12th November remained clear despite a stiff breeze, and I was able to obtain 13 x 10 minute exposures using my SBIG ST-4000XCM one-shot colour camera on the TMB 105 refractor with William Optics .8 reducer/corrector. This image appeared in the April 2011 Sky and Telescope magazine 'Hotshots'. Full size

A very faint Supernova remnant lurks in Cassiopeia, quite close to the big 'W'. Variously known as Abell 85, CTB-1, G116.9+0.2, PK 116.9+0.1 and LBN 576. Difficult to image except in very dark contrasty skies, and this attempt is a bit disappointing. Taken on the blustery night of 2nd November 2010, the air was clean, but occasional clouds limited the imaging time. 11 x 10 minutes H-alpha, OIII and SII each 4 x 10 minutes. SBIG ST-10XME on Meade 127 refractor, Astronomik narrow band filters. RGB mapped HOS. All binned 2x2. I think I will need much longer unbinned exposures to have any chance of doing this object justice. And with our British weather.....

Well, despite severe gales, rain and fast moving clouds, there were some good clear periods in early November 2010, and I succeeded in acquiring new data over three nights, 6th, 10th and 12th. This time with my TMB105 refractor and William Optics 0.8 reducer/flattener. SBIG ST-10XME with AO8. Luminance (and Red) with a Baader 7nm H-alpha filter, Green and Blue with Astronomik OIII and SII filters. Ha 13 x 30 minutes, OIII and SII each 6 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. Full Size (1 MB!)

In October 2010 a friend of mine asked for a pic of the Full Moon for some students. Unfortunately I was away from home on 23rd October, but managed a shot on the night of the 24th. 96%, waning. Nice view of Mare Crisium. Single 1/500th second frame with modded Canon 350D on Meade series 5000 127 refractor (950 mm fl). Slight sharpening in Photoshop. Full size

A stable high pressure system established during the second week of October 2010, but unfortunately most of the period for me was plagued by cloud from the North Sea. But the sky cleared beautifully on the night of 16th. There was a bright gibbous Moon, so I first tackled Jupiter. Some software problems meant I just missed the Great Red Spot - disappearing bottom right. But the bonus then was Io just kissing the planet. Ganymede shadow and the moon to the right. Toucam on 12" LX200ACF with 3x Barlow. One of my better planetary images!
After some experiments with the ST-4000XCM, (no worthwhile results) and once the Moon had set, I replaced the Toucam with my ST-10 and went for NGC 1961 in Camelopardalis. This disturbed magnitude 10.9 galaxy is also classifed as Arp 184. The small galaxies upper left and lower centre are respectively PGC17659 (mag 14.8) and PGC17642 (mag 15.8)   Still work in progress, this image 13 x 10 minutes. Rather 'noisy' in the fainter sections so just shown as the intermediate size for now - next visit I think 20 minute subs might be needed.
Eventually I managed to get more data on the nights of 14th and 15th November. Each night starting around 3 am - clouds and Moon intervened! So finally Luminance 13 x 10 minutes + 9 x 20 minutes, RGB each 5 x 10 minutes binned 2x2. All ST-10XME on Meade 12" ACF at f10. Full size

The poor weather continued, but the evening of 6th October was most promising and I revisited the 'Pacman' nebula, NGC 281. 10 x 10 minute Luminance Ha, 5 x 10 minute each OIII and SII, blended HOS. SBIG ST-10XME, Astronomik filters and AO-8 on Meade series 5000 127 refractor. I would have liked more data, but had to get some sleep to attend the funeral the next day of Gordon Bradbury, an Astro friend from Guisborough who sadly died suddenly and totally unexpectedly in his sleep the previous week aged only 47. He always came up to Kielder with us, and also abroad to La Palma and Les Granges. We'll miss you, Gordon. I dedicate this image to him. Full size

During a prolonged period of wet and cloudy weather a clear window of a few hours on October 1st gave me an opportunity to image comet 103P Hartley as it passed near NGC281 - the 'Pacman' nebula. This comet was discovered by Malcom Hartley in Australia on March 15, 1986 and has an orbital period of about 6.5 years, so this was its third known pass. Very high in the sky with the tail pointing away, so only the coma visible. Estimated at around 7th magnitude, and was just visible in my 15x50 binoculars. SBIG ST-4000XCM and Canon 400L telephoto lens (400 mm focal length) stopped down to approx. 7.1 using an external mask. 21 sub frames x 3 minutes, stacked using the special comet feature of Deep Sky Stacker. Full size (913KB) There are also animations of the comet head as it moved across the sky during the hour or so of the exposures, cropped from the full size. AVI (748KB) DivX Codec. Or for those who don't have the codec, GIF (3.57 MB) This animation was used in the November 2010 'Sky at Night' TV programme.

While Earth based telescopes only succeeded in capturing a dot surrounded by a greenish glowing coma, this image was captured by NASA's EPOXI mission between Nov. 3 and 4, 2010, during the spacecraft's flyby of comet Hartley 2. It was captured using the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD

14th September 2010 was a clear sunny day albeit with occasional cloud. And an interesting solar view worthy of imaging. Several prominences and a very active area with a small sunspot. Of particular interest was the large patchy filament, the nearby long filament and the chain of smaller patches around the upper section.   All images taken using the Solarview 50 Hydrogen-alpha telescope with the Artemis 285 camera. Disc at prime focus, close ups with 2x Barlow.

When Jupiter reappeared from behind the Sun in 2010, it was immediately noticed that the Southern Equatorial Belt had dramatically faded! On August 31st I had reasonably steady skies and was able to obtain this image - a composite of 1000 frames with the Philips Toucam on the 12" LX200ACF at f 30. Sure enough, no SEB.

This small but beautiful galaxy, magnitude 10.2 NGC 7217 in Pegasus was a real challenge. I tackled it on three separate nights, but seeing conditions almost defeated me, and the only really worthwhile luminance data was 4 x 20 minute frames from the early hours of 30th August 2010. But it proved just enough to tease out the fine detail . RGB was only 3 each at 5 minutes binned 2x2. ST-10XME with AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF at f10. Full size

Light nights are with me, and unless I go narrowband, only brighter objects are of interest for imaging. So here's one of Corona Borealis from the early hours of 3rd June 2010. SBIG ST4000XCM with Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens unguided on the Gemini mount at 50 mm focal length and f5.6. 10 x 5 minute subs, darks and flats used. Of interest is the large asteroid Pallas at mag 9.0, now gradually fading from a maximum of 8.6 in April. Pure chance that it's in the field - I didn't know until I started playing with a Skymap overlay to work out what was stars and what was noise. In fact nearly all stars, just the odd hot pixel that escaped the dark frame but was then removed. Full Size (810 KB!)

With all the experimentation with lenses, my main imaging took a back seat for a while, and May twilight nights were upon me. But still good Astronomical twilight, so with a nicely clear night on 12th May 2010, I thought I'd try (with a view to returning in September) and see if I could pick out the extended shell of NGC 6543 - the Cat's Eye nebula in Draco. And I could!! But it's faint, and I used 11 x 10 minute subs binned 2x2 to get as much data as possible in the limited time. To get a decent result unbinned will require many hours of data. The nebula itself 'bloomed' in about a minute, so of course was horrible in the 10 minute subs, but I took several one minute frames as well to get a bit of structure and pasted it into the centre. No colour, probably no chance now until the Autumn, but we shall see.... ST-10XME with AO-8 on Meade 12"" at f10. The core nebula is very small - only 20 arc-seconds. To image at a reasonable size the seeing would have to be sub arc-second and a 3x Barlow used. OK I've got a Barlow, but the seeing? No chance in the UK!