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On New Year's Eve, December 2009, there was the second full Moon of the month - a 'Blue' Moon. And to add interest there was also a partial eclipse. Only a small Umbral effect, and because of clouds I only managed to capture a few frames. This was the best, taken with my Canon 350D on the Meade 80 mm f6 refractor at prime focus (cropped from the full frame). Single frame, 1/640sec at ISO200. |
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The Double Cluster, NGC 869 and 884 in Perseus. Kielder, 25th October. ST10 with AO-8 on Meade 127 refractor. Luminance 20 x 1 minute subs, RGB each 10 x 90 second subs. |
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Jupiter from Les Granges, 24th September 2009. Toucam on 10" LX200 OTA . The moon shadow is from Ganymede. |
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LBN777 in Taurus is also known as the Vulture's Head nebula. 23rd and 24th September at Les Granges using SBIG ST-10XME on Olly Penrice's Takahashi FSQ85. Luminance 17 x 10 minutes, RGB each 6 x 5 minutes binned 2x2 due to shortage of time. A very faint low contrast target which really deserves a lot more data. The dark 'head' area is also classified as Barnard 207. |
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This is an extremely faint bubble of gas in Cygnus, only discovered in 2008. Classified PN G75.5+1.7, popular name the Soap Bubble Nebula. See here. 25th July and 24th August. ST-10 binned 2x2 on 12" LX200 ACF at f7, 12 x 10 minutes H-alpha, 4 x 10 minutes each OIII and SII, 'Hubble' palette (SHO= RGB) |
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A noctilucent cloud, 19th July 2009. Taken looking North over Hexham around 11:20 pm. The cloud was isolated and soon dispersed, but reminded me of a whale cruising through the sky! The bright star in the middle is Capella. Panasonic TZ5 camera, 15 seconds using the 'Starry Sky' setting. Larger image. This image was published in the October 2009 issue of Astronomy Now. |
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The 'Propeller' nebula in Cygnus. Variously catalogued as DWB-111, Simeis 57 and MRSL 479 . 16th and 24th July. Luminance 24 x 5 minutes H-alpha, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes Ha, O3, S2. There was negligible O3 in the image, so the colour is predominantly red. North is to the right. SBIG ST-10XME binned 2x2 on Meade series 5000 127 (950 mm fl). |
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A long time since I imaged this and not happy with my effort from 2005. So on 30th May 2009 I decided to revisit the great globular cluster Messier 13 in Hercules. Lots of luminance, then went for colour. Strangely the colour only composite was crisper than the luminance result, although the latter had much more data! Don't know whether it was focus drift or moonlight in the earlier luminance (it had set by the time I went for colour). RGB, each 5 x 3 minutes. ST-10XME, AO-8, LX200ACF 12" at f7. |
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I seldom do planetary imaging now - although I have decently dark skies at my Hexham home, it's position in the lee of the Pennines means I rarely get good enough seeing conditions. But 20th April 2009 was an exception with high pressure, slight mist and no wind, so rather than have no record of Saturn with the rings nearly closed, I fired up my Toucam on my 12" LX200 ACF with 3x Barlow. Stacked approx 700 frames out of 1800. Reasonably happy - banding and ring shadow visible and just a hint of the Cassini division. |
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Messier 44, Praesepe the Beehive cluster in Cancer. 12th April 2009. SBIG ST-10XME on Meade Series 5000 80 mm, WO 0.8 MkII reducer, Luminance 20 x 30 seconds, RGB each 10 x 30 seconds, Astrodon filters. |
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The 'Whale' (NGC 4631) and 'Hockey Stick' (NGC 4656) galaxies in Canes Venatici. 28th March 2009 (from Kielder, Northumberland). Luminance 18 x 10 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes binned 2x2. ST10XME, AO-8, Astrodon filters, Meade Series 5000 127 refractor. Numerous tiny background galaxies visible in the Full size image. This image appeared in the September 2009 issue of Sky at Night magazine |
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M94 galaxy in Canes Venatici. 20th March 2009. 13 x 10 minutes Luminance, RGB each 5 x 4 minutes binned 2x2. ST-!0XME and AO-8 on 12" LX200ACF at f10. Full size |
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The background when stretched shows the unusual and interesting outer halo. |
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Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) in Leo, 1st. March. The bright star at the left of the image is psi Leonis. |
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Messier 78 in Orion. 19th and 24th January 2009. Luminance 8 x 10 minutes, RGB each 5 x 2 1/2 minutes binned 2x2. ST10XME with AO-8 and Astrodon filters on Meade Series 5000 127 refractor. Messier 78 is also designated as NGC 2068, and there are three other NGC objects in this image, 2064, 2067 and 2071. 'Mouse over' the medium size image for identification. McNeil's Nebula is also clearly visible. |
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Emission nebula SH2-142 in Cepheus which contains the open cluster NGC 7380. 9th, 12th and 13th January 2009. Meade 127 refractor, SBIG ST10XME with Astronomik filters and AO-8. Luminance 8 x 10 minutes, RGB each 5 x 10 minutes. This image using Hydrogen alpha for Red, Oxygen III for Green, Sulphur II for Blue. This image was published in the April 2009 edition of Astronomy Now |
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This version using the 'Hubble Palette', SII, Ha, OIII. |
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