Latest Images (and News)
I've recently rearranged this site. The process involved changing hundreds of links. I think I got them all, but if you come across any broken or incorrect links, please email me with the details. Thanks, Peter. (email address below)
(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'
2004 Messier Marathon, Transit of Venus, Dalby 2004 Star Party, Kelling Heath 2007 and other oddments on the Bits 'n Pieces Page.
Laptop Upgrade. Here.
All photographs Copyright © Peter Vasey, and may not be reproduced without permission. You can email me at the following (written out to help to avoid web spiders): Peter at petevasey dot wanadoo dot co dot uk
Visits to La Palma. 2007 and 2008
Visit to Les Granges 2008
Comet 17P/Holmes There is a separate page devoted to this remarkable comet. Here.
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Previously imaged satisfactorily in 2006, the beautiful edge on galaxy NGC 891 in Andromeda with it's prominent dust lane again captured my interest in October 2008. A few clear nights at the end of the month gave me the opportunity to capture plenty of sub frames, albeit with mixed seeing. But the final result was most satisfactory! Luminance 38 x 10 minutes, RGB each 8 x 3 minutes, binned 2x2. ST10XME and AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10, Astrodon filters |
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Poor conditions through most of October 2008, but a reasonable night on 24th found me imaging the beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 7479 in Pegasus. Previously imaged in 2003 and 2005, but still needing a revisit. Seeing was poor, but a further sequence of 8 luminance frames obtained on 28th October improved matters considerably. SBIG ST10XME with AO-8, Astrodon filters, 12" LX200ACF OTA at f10, Luminance 8 + 8 x 10 minute subs, RGB each 8 x 3 minutes binned 2x2 |
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NGC 7814 is an edge on spiral galaxy in Pegasus. I first imaged it in 2003 with marginal success, although reprocessing with my current knowledge improved it considerably. But the night of 8th October 2008 was clear and I resolved to try and do better, particularly after admiring Adam Block's APOD image - worth a look for information as well as admiration! Unfortunately I experienced very poor seeing, so the image lacks crispness, nevertheless there is still a hint of many of the background galaxies and faint stars. 12" LX200ACF at f10. SBIG ST10XME, Astrodon filters and AO-8. Luminance 12 x 10 minutes, RGB each 7 x 4 minutes binned 2x2
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On 23rd September I took a break from Cassiopeia A and visited the Cocoon nebula - IC 5146 in Cygnus, this time with narrowband filters. I obtained the Luminance data that night, then returned on 26th for colour data. 12" LX200ACF OTA at f7, ST10 XME with AO-8. Luminance Astronomik Ha filter, 1 x 10 minute and 15 x 15 minute subs. Red H-alpha, Green O3, Blue S2, each 6 x 15 minute subs. |
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In order to locate a bright enough guide star to image with the narrowband filters I had to rotate the camera out of N-S orientation. So here is a framed crop with North up. |
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On 20th September 2008 , once the Full Moon had departed, although there was still a last quarter, the sky was pretty clear and I was able to get more luminance and colour data for Cassiopeia A . But although this image will have to suffice for now, I hope to revisit under a pristine sky if one comes along! LX200ACF OTA at F7, ST-10XME with AO-8, Luminance 12 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 4 minutes binned 2x2 |
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After capturing the new data for Cass A I visited vdB 141 in Cepheus. This bright nebula with associated dust cloud is popularly known as The Ghost Nebula for obvious reasons - when shown with North down as here, there they are, waving spookily! I only captured Luminance data on this occasion, but revisited it on 28th September and obtained colour data. Unfortunately again I was plagued with haze and thin cloud, so the image is rather noisy and blotchy. Hopefully I will get another chance under good conditions. Post Script. More data acquired on a decent night on 5th October, so this is the final result. LX200ACF OTA at f7, SBIG ST10-XME with Astrodon filters and AO-8. Luminance 29 x 10 minutes, RGB each 12 x 4 minutes binned 2x2. This image appeared in the November 2008 'Practical Astronomer' |
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Following my trip to Les Granges in August 2008, the UK weather was cloudy almost continually throughout the rest of August, culminating in severe flooding in early September. But the sky cleared for a few hours the night of 4/5 September. Frustratingly I had equipment problems, to be expected in a way when things hadn't been used for a while. Anyway, I'd been intrigued by the image of Cassiopeia A recently posted on the UKAI group, and managed to get 6 x 10 minute subs at f7 with the ST-10 and AO-8 on the 12" LX200 ACF before the 'fun' started. So work in progress, but looking promising. |
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Then after an hour or more fighting with recalcitrant gear I had a quick peek at the area around NGC 680 - an interesting grouping of galaxies in Aries. Again 10 minute subs, only 4, this time at f10. Sods law struck in the first sub with a bright satellite trail, but I've left it in for now to reduce the noise a bit. Again work in progress. |
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Shortly before travelling to La Palma in June 2008, I upgraded from my SBIG ST-8XME camera to an ST-10XME. Partly to improve slightly on the Hydrogen-alpha sensitivity, but also to better suit the pixel size for wider field imaging. Almost all of June was cursed with cloudy nights, but fortunately a couple of clear nights came along just before my holiday and I was able to do some tests and imaging. This image of M39 was taken in the small hours of 21st June - the longest day! Despite nautical twilight and an almost full Moon the clear air gave a satisfactory result. ST-10 with William Optics ZS66 and WO 0.8 reducer. Luminance 5 x 2 minute exposures, RGB each also 5 x 2 minutes with Astrodon filters. For those who like 'spikes' on their stars, here is a full size version with them added using Noel Carboni's Actions. |
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Noctilucent clouds are a Summer phenomenon in the more Northern latitudes, caused by sunight from below the northern horizon illuminating high ice crystal clouds. A relatively rare and beautiful phenomenon. This example was captured at 0049 British Summer Time (1149 UST) on 20th June 2008, looking North over Hexham. A 15 second exposure at ISO 100 ('Starry Sky' setting) with my recently acquired Panasonic Lumix TZ5 compact camera - a nicely specified and capable miniature digicam. The solitary star upper right is Capella. |
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On 6th May 2008 there was a close conjunction of a young (approximately 30 hour old) Moon and Mercury. I was out in the early evening, but on my journey home saw the beautiful fine crescent Moon lowering in the West. I had forgotten about the conjunction, but determined to photograph the Moon anyway, and there of course was Mercury in the frame as well! This shot was only a 1 second exposure with the Canon 350D at ISO 400 and camera lens at 200 mm zoom. Larger image. |
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As the sky darkened I tried a 5 second exposure, hoping to improve the Earthshine. But as can be seen the Moon was sinking into a murky western sky, and there was no real improvement. The camera was tripod mounted, not tracking the sky, and in the larger versions the trailing of Mercury over the 5 seconds can be clearly seen. Larger image. |
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Solar minimum was dragging on with very few sunspots, and none I had an opportunity to photograph, but there was still some activity, and on 1st May 2008 I happened upon one of the rare flurries showing some attractive prominences. But no sunspots! Artemis 285 and Solarscope 50, prominences Barlowed 2x. |
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Hoag's Object (PGC 54559) resides in Serpens. Although it could be mistaken for a planetary nebula, it is in fact a Ring Galaxy. I previously imaged this interesting though small and faint (mag 16) target on a visit to COAA in Portugal in 2003. But always wanted to capture it from the UK. With a declination of +21deg 35 minutes, it culminates around 56 degrees altitude for me, so decently high in March/April. But this faint low contrast target needs crisp clear stable skies, and these were simply not forthcoming in early 2008. So I made the best of what opportunities were available in early and late April 2008, and this is the result. Luminance 6 x 30 minutes, RGB each 4 x 5 minutes, binned 2x2. ST-8XME, AO-8, Astrodon filters, LX200ACF at f10. Here is the Hubble image. I like to think I managed to catch a hint of structure in the ring.... |
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With the pleasing image of M96 under my belt, I hoped for a similar quality image of its neighbour in Leo, M95. But weather and other considerations conspired against me, so I only managed a set of monochrome images around midnight on 2nd April 2008. Colour will have to wait until next year. 9 x 6 minute subs, ST-8XME with AO-8, LX200ACF at f7 |
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The weekend commencing Friday 4th April 2008 was the climax of the Spring Kielder Star Party. Staying at Calvert Trust, we were blessed with a couple of good clear nights, but I wanted to experiment with some cameras to help with some purchasing decisions. So on the Friday night a friend kindly allowed me to 'play' with his recently acquired SBIG ST-4000XCM one-shot colour camera. I had my TMB refractor with me on my 'portable' EQ6 mount, and the field of view with a focal reducer nicely encompassed Markarian's Chain in Virgo. 7 x 10 minute subs. That's Messier 87 (Virgo A) in the bottom left hand corner. Larger (approx 1/2 full size) image. |
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Although the following (Saturday 5th) night was superb, I missed some opportunities through mistakes with settings, and was also involved with other people's operations. So although I later obtained some image data, nothing to post here. The Sunday night promised a very young New Moon, but unfortunately the sky never cleared. And remained mostly cloudy for the rest of the stay at Kielder. But a brief glimpse of the New Moon the following evening yielded this nice Earthshine photo. Canon 350D, single 4 second frame at ISO400. Larger image. |
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Not only cloudy as mentioned above, but we had a few snow flurries - enough to coat the ground. Here is a panoramic view of the new Kielder Observatory, taken on 7th April. Still under construction at this time. Larger image |
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Although the weather was rather unkind for the rest of the stay at Kielder, Wednesday (9th) was a reasonably sunny day with many breaks in the clouds. And the upper atmosphere was cold enough to produce ice crystals in the upper atmosphere and grant us a Solar Halo. When a cloud covered the Sun, there was enough contrast to photograph the phenomenon directly. As for the Lunar Halo photographed a few weeks ago, the circle is always 44 degrees in diameter. Larger image |
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NGC 2685 - the Helix or Spindle galaxy - is a peculiar polar ring galaxy in Ursa Major. Also classified as Arp 336. At first sight not particularly faint at magnitude 11.2, but the outer regions proved to be difficult in the poor weather conditions prevailing in early March 2008. This image is a result of several attempts both with and without a Moon in the sky. At this time (19th. March) the Moon is nearing Full, and I've abandoned any further attempts until dark skies return! Then I will hope for a crisp clear night to revisit this interesting and unusual object. SBIG ST8XME and 12" LX200 ACF at f10 (cropped from full frame). Luminance 12 x 15 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes binned 2x2 |
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After collecting more data - another 10 Luminance subs at 15 minutes, I managed to improve the detail within the galaxy. But still imaging under mediocre conditions for this difficult object. So unless a really good night comes along soon (it's now 29th. March and other targets are crying for attention), that's it folks! |
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The early hours of 21st February 2008 saw a total Lunar Eclipse. But not for me! Out of 9 clear nights there was only one cloudy one, the 7th of the nine and it was the night of the eclipse. Typical!! And there isn't another full sequence visible from the UK until 2015. But a couple of days earlier (19th February) ice clouds high in the atmosphere produced a beautiful Lunar Halo which I was able to capture. Canon 350D with 17 mm lens at f7.1, single 30 second frame at ISO 200. Hot pixels removed in Photoshop, smoothed in Neat Image. You can see the Sickle of Leo and Saturn lower left inside the circle. Castor and Pollux top right, Procyon to the right. The halo is produced by refraction of Moonlight at an angle of approximately 22 degrees, so the diameter of the halo is always 44 degrees. It just fitted in the field of view. |
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A bright Moon generally spells death to deep sky imaging, other than narrow band filtering. But of course the Moon itself is a wonderful subject - bright so ultra short exposures, contrasty and easily found! So the night of 16th February 2008 found me imaging it with my Artemis 285. Full frames take around 12 seconds to download, so taking hundreds of frames for stacking is out of the question. But careful choice of a few good frames works quite well, and with decent seeing a good result can be obtained. One advantage of using the 16-bit Artemis is the much improved dynamic range, producing a natural looking image. This one shows the upper part of Mare Imbrium , featuring Sinus Iridum to the left, and crater Plato with the Alps. Full Size (321 KB) |
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Then towards the South of the Moon, a study of the huge crater Clavius with Tycho above. Even in this gibbous phase the streaks of ejecta from Tycho are clearly visible. Both these images were taken with the Artemis 285 and 12" LX200 ACF at f10. Individual exposure times 1/50th second. I used a Red filter to improve contrast. Full Size (547KB) |
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Before capturing the extra data for ARP 84 on 12th February 2008 I decided to add M96 to my Messier images - I'd never imaged it before, it looking rather uninteresting on my wall chart which doesn't show the outer clouds. But after seeing Adam Block's superb APOD image I decided it was definitely worth a go. Interestingly the Isaac Newton Telescope image doesn't hold a candle to Adam's. But to be fair it was taken in 1995! Well, even with 2+ hours luminance it's clear that I need darker, more contrasty skies than I'm ever likely to get without a temperature inversion covering all the local area light pollution, and leaving me in the clear at my 680 ft. altitude. But I guess it'll do! SBIG ST-8XME, 12" LX200 ACF at f10, Luminance 1 x 8 min + 12 x 10 mins (I possibly could have gone longer, but was avoiding blooming), RGB each 8 x 3 mins binned 2x2, Astrodon filters. Slightly rotated to acquire a guide star. Full size |
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After some more terrible weather (with severe flooding in the South of England) a brief clear spell in the early evening of 16th January 2008 gave me an opportunity to image comet 17P/Holmes again as it neared the star Algol in Perseus. See Holmes page. Then although Mars was still relatively low in the East (46 deg altitude) and the seeing was poor, I knew that Syrtis Major would be on the face, so as no Mars sequence would be complete without it, I fitted the Toucam to the LX200 with a 3x Barlow with this result. Rather blurry and lacking in detail, but Syrtis Major without a doubt! Taken around 7 pm (1900 UST) |
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I then had to go out for a few hours, and when I got back home nearing 10 pm (2200 UST) the sky was starting to mist over, but the seeing had stabilised considerably and Mars was at its maximum altitude of 62 degrees. So before the clouds thickened I was able to capture another sequence with this more pleasing result. Mars was now around four weeks past opposition, and the diameter was just under 14 arc-secs. A far cry from the 25 arc-secs maximum of August 2003, but then the maximum altitude for me was around 20 degrees. I think on balance altitude wins! |
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The evening of 10th January 2008 started out with a stiff breeze and the occasional cloud scudding over. I first went for images of Comet 17P/Holmes and 8P/Tuttle. The Holmes image is of course on that page, here is Tuttle. With dire weather forecast for the near future this was almost certainly my last opportunity. In an attempt to capture the tail without too much blurring of the fast moving head I used the Canon 350D on the WO ZS66 with AP reducer and took 7 x 3 minute frames at ISO 1600. Just a hint of a tail! Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker using the special comet/star processing feature. Pure wizardry! |
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Other images I've seen of the Great Nebula area in Orion taken with a Canon 350D seem to come out well, so I removed the AP reducer from the setup for Tuttle and Holmes and got cracking. Clouds were being a nuisance, but I managed 8 x 2 minute frames at ISO800. I'd hoped to get some shorter and longer ones to blend together, but no joy, so the core is a bit burnt out, and the fainter detail noisy. But I'm reasonably happy with it considering. The Canon and Deep Sky Stacker are a great combination - it's actually fun! |
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The seeing was again pretty good, so once the clouds broke for a while, Mars was next on the list. Around 1000 frames with the Toucam, 3x Televue Barlow and 12" LX200R. Stacked in Registax and finished in Photoshop. |
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I next revisited a galaxy I first imaged in February 2006. A most unusual and beautiful galaxy, NGC 3718 in Ursa Major. With the SBIG ST-8 and AP 0.7 reducer on the 12" LX200R, and using my recently acquired SBIG AO-8 'adaptive optics' unit I was able to take advantage of the good seeing and resolve the fine detail missing in my earlier effort. Luminance10 x 10 minutes, RGB each 4 x 4 minutes binned 2x2. |
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In its two and a bit year cycle, Mars was closest to Earth around midnight on December 18th 2007 at which point it was 15.9 arc-seconds in apparent diameter. My seeing is rarely good for planets because of my location in rolling countryside in the lee of the Pennines, never mind the jet stream! But a run of bad weather and worse seeing prevented me obtaining an even half decent image until midnight on 7/8th January 2008, when despite blustery showers the seeing was better than for some time, and I was able to capture a few minutes of reasonable video in between the gusts. With this result. Apparent diameter 14.8 arc-seconds. Toucam and 3x Barlow on 12" LX200R, approximately 800 frames stacked in Registax and finished in Photoshop. |
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Comet 8P/Tuttle is a regular visitor to the Inner Solar system. First discovered in 1790 by Pierre Méchain, it was not then recognised as a short period comet. But it was rediscovered and studied in greater depth by Horace Tuttle in 1858, when he confirmed its identity. It's orbital frequency is 13.6 years, and it is recognised as being the source of the debris for the December Ursid meteor shower. This is the closest approach of the comet since its discovery in 1790. It is expected to attain a maximum brightness of around 5 during its pass by the Earth on 1 January 2008 at a distance of 0.25AU. Then on 26 January 2008 the comet is closest to the Sun at a distance of 1.03AU. On 30th December 2007 it was due to pass close by the 'Pinwheel' galaxy Messier 33. Unfortunately the weather that evening in the UK was totally clouded out, but I was able to capture a wide field shot on the previous evening. 7 x 2 minutes RAW frames at ISO800, stacked using Deep Sky Stacker with the special comet processing feature - works very well! |
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The same session I obtained an image of 17P/Holmes (on my Holmes page). Here it is superimposed on the Tuttle shot at the same scale. Holmes is 3.5 million miles across the coma at this stage in its extraordinary outburst. 'Mouseover' the medium size image (click on the thumbnail). Both images taken with my Canon 350D and William Optics ZS66 telescope with Astrophysics 0.7 reducer. |
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