Perseus Galaxy cluster

It was  very clear, but also very cold here in East Cheshire on Monday night. I don't know what's up with our weather, I think somebody had better tell the big man, it's still only Autumn.

It was -5 with Snow on the ground!!

Last night, I decided I would concentrate on imaging galaxies in Perseus, so I decided, I would spend a couple of warm hour's (I can image from the comfort of my conservatory now) imaging NGC1275 or Perseus A, together with it's accompanying galaxy cluster.

I feel very humbled when I look at this image, as it shows you I think, just how vast and complex our Universe is. NGC1275 is a staggering 300mly from Earth. It is a radio galaxy and has a radio source at it's core, this is known as 3c84.

This image is a 1hr 44min exposure (cloud's buggered any remaining  exposures) composed from the usual 4min30second subs. Taken through the SPX 200-800 f4 with my Atik16ic. And guided by the QHY5 and PHD. The seeing was very bad Ant 4.

Perseus A is the galaxy just left of centre. You can, if you look closely, see that I was just starting to bring out the filaments that surround this fascinating object. These I think are caused by the galaxy's black hole at it's nucleus.

Here is another image only this time showing the catalogue number for each galaxy.

My other offering, is from Friday night. Again I decided to image galaxies and this time selected NGC1023. This is a beautiful galaxy that is over looked. I suspect the reason is NGC891 and the Andromeda spiral.

A double cluster for the early Winter evenings

I am now beginning to get active again, with imaging DSO's. I've not done any of this for a while, because I was starting to find imaging, stressful.

I was spending more time trying to figure out why my guiding was all to cock, than actually doing any imaging.

I am now feeling better  thanks to an easy fix.

I am now using my old and very small and light weight, 60mm finder scope which I've had for 16 years. The finder allows my guide camera to see considerably more stars because of the very short focal length (200mm) and a very wide field, than my WO ZS66SD could ever do, and this makes for better guiding with less stress, and more fun.

I wish I had done this sooner. Maybe I could have done something with my Vixen GP-DX, who knows.

Yesterday evening and quite by chance, the skies here in Macclesfield cleared suddenly, and I was able to take advantage of this break to try my Nikon D40 dslr.

The subject, because at 8pm it is very high and on the meridian, was NGC 884 and NGC 869. Both of these open cluster's fit nicely on the CCD imaging sensor of the D40, which makes a huge difference over my Atik 16ic.

I was imaging through my fast SPX 200-800 F4 "AG" deluxe, using a Baader MPCC with out a CLS pollution filter. The exposure times were all 0.30 seconds totalling 6 mins. Guiding was done using PHD and my Losmandy G11.

The darks and the subs where then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker with any additional processing done in CS2.

Make mine a Pyms part 2

My self a two other observers decided, yesterday, because the forecast was looking particularly good, we would head UP in to the hills for and hour or two observing.

We arrived shortly after 8pm to find the car park occupied with a mobile camper van, the owner asked politely what we were doing, and we explained that we were hoping to do some gazing and imaging assuming the skies cleared.

The skies were forecast to clear from 9pm, and it was looking hopeful after 21:30 when, large openings appeared all around the sky.

I suspected that the sky would be very transparent because of the amount of rain fall, during the past week. I wasn't disappointed. In the East where the sky was clear, the NELM was a good m+5.6 with the double cluster and messier 31 easy with the unaided eye.

I was able to take some fixed tripod, digital camera image's, using my Nikon D40. The image here shows the area surrounding Perseus and Cassiopeia.

This was really a test to see if my Nikon is suitable for imaging the night skies, and also to prove to myself that I don't need the expense of a Canon 1000D.

Looking at this image, I think my camera shows promise.It is a wide field taken with my 18-55 Nikon AF lens set to 18mm and fully open, f3.5 with an iso of 800 and 1600.

Later, when the camera battery died (I've since bought two new ones) I decided to use the 10" and Mk1 eyeball.

The skies at 22:30 where not fantastic, and I was only able to make one observation.

Using my 24mm Pany with a Baader UHC-S filter, I was fortunate to see the famous Crab Nebula or M1.

Through the eyepiece M1 appeared as a bright, but flattened patch of grey light, in a rich star field.  It has been said that M1 can been seen through 7x50 and 10x50 binoculars, and I have both, but I have never seen it.

The skies were getting worse towards midnight, so we decided to call it a night. It was a shame the weather couldn't have been more cooperative, but at least we did see something. And I was able to use my camera which was a bonus I suppose.

I just wish we could have a break from this persistent trough of low pressure. A cold front would be very welcome.

I'd like to thank Paul C and Ray S for there company last night. Better luck next time lads...

An Evening with the Milky Way

Here is another posting by, guest astronomer, Paul Cannon.

The evening of 10th of October was clear and I decided to venture up to Fernilee reservoir for an imaging session. My main target was Comet Hartley again, but it was so clear and the Milky Way was visible from horizon to horizon so, I decided to image it with the DSlR on a driven equatorial mount. These were 120 second images and no CLS filter was used or darks and flats taken, maybe next time. This means there is a degree of noise in these images, but I thought they were'nt bad for a site no more than ten miles from Stockport and Macclesfield. Comet Hartley as a fuzzy green spot can be located below the double cluster in Perseus. There are many deep sky delights within these images the longer you look  the more you see, take you time to browse.

 

Thank you Paul.

Sun fun and Hartley 2

These contributions are again from Paul. 

Sun Fun

Sunday 241010 11pm

Three active sunspot regions were clearly visible one due west, one in the north west quarter and one towards the east. The latter contained at least four small sunspots. There were two other interesting regions with possible sunspot or filaments, one near the south west limb and one on the west, hard to resolve.
Plages surrounded four of the regions I saw. Broad filaments were located in the north east and south west quarters
Prominences occured around the limb, the longest one due south. A busy Sun indeed again.

Comet 103P Hartley

Sunday 241010 1.30am

Another composite of 5 x 5min images stacked on the head and processed in Photoshop. As green as green can be, because of cyanide gas released as some of the core sublimes.

Comet Hartley 2 and the Sun.

I have been asked by a friend, and member of my local astronomical society, Macc Astro Soc.
If I can post a couple of observing reports, together with a picture, taken recently of C2003P Hartley 2 and a drawing of the Sun. Drawn using a Coronado PST, by Mr Paul Canon.


Sun Sketching
20/10/10   10.49am
The Sun was very active  on Wednesday. There were four  sunspot regions in the disc. Each region was surrounded by a large plage. Two large broad filaments were in the north east quarter with a smattering of smaller ones scattered around the disc. South east there was a plage region with a large filaprom visible. Around the limb there were groups of prominences, but not on the south west limb that I could see. The largest prominences were along the south east limb. Two unusual ones were near the north pole, one hanging above the limb the other looking like a tree trunk with a single branch.

Comet 103P Hartley 2
12/10/10 12.10am
A go at Hartley through the murk  early Tuesday morning. 5 x 5min images stacked on the head and   processed in  Photoshop. The comets tail in this image is towards the north east off the central core. The  coma around the core is very large, but diffuse and requires processing to bring it out.

NGC7331 Galaxy in Pegasus

On Tuesday I had a major breakthrough with my astro-imaging. For years I have been struggling getting my guiding sorted out, I began to give UP as I wasn't really getting the results which I had hoped for, when I bought my Losmandy G11.

Then two weeks ago I decided that I would try again, only this time use my CCD, an Atik 16ic and drift align my already reasonably aligned mount. This I did, and I managed to take a series of one minute test exposures of NGC7331 in Pegasus. Everything was looking very good.

On Sunday I decided to dig out and restore, my fifteen years old 60mm finder scope, that has been modified and now has a rack and pinion focuser, to use as a guide scope.

The biggest advantage in using this scope is it's small light weight design, and whopping field of view, which will make finding guide stars easier.

On Tuesday during a spell of very sunny weather, I came home to a clear sky and started to get everything ready.
Shortly after sunset, I was happily slewing and synchronizing on Beta and then Epsilon Pegasi, then onto NGC7331. This galaxy was visible near the centre of the CCD chip, and it was only a matter of seconds before I had it in the middle.

The next test was the guide scope, and would it focus with my QHY5 guide camera!

I attached the camera and powered up the guiding software that I use, PHD.

I didn't have to worry, because I was able to focus on a faint guide star in the area, so I begin my calibration run to get the guiding ready.

I am happy to say that I can auto guide, and at the moment I can take guided exposures of 3 minutes with know trailing.

To prove this, here is an image of NGC7331 with  a cluster of m+14 background galaxies.

The exposure length is 1hr 45min guided with PHD and QHY5 and short focal-length 60mm guide scope, and imaged through my Orion Optics SPX 200-800 F4 with an Atik 16ic and IR block filter.

Western Veil, NGC6960 Super Nova Remnant in Cygnus.

Sunday night was once again clear. If I had a pound for every Sunday when the skies are clear. I would be rich by now.

The skies where I live were fantastic, with the Milky way faintly visible to the unaided eye, and together with that. You could also see the NAN, NGC7000, together with all of Aquarius, and the small and often over looked constellation of Equuleus. NLM was an estimated m+4.8

I looked firstly at C2003P Hartley, and noticed how much it had brightened since my last observation. I then moved over to some favourite dso's and started with M15, and then M2. Both were superb through my 24mm Panoptic and 10" Dobsonian (x50).

I then decided to have a look at the Western Veil; NGC6960. I could see 52 Cygni so I new that I could find it.

I used a wide field eyepiece, my 35mm Celestron Ultima, together with my Lumicon OIII. I centred the star, and found the Veil almost immediately.

The view at 35x magnification was just right, and I managed to make a drawing with out to much trouble.

Here attached is my drawing.



I packed UP shortly afterwards because I was tired, but happy.

M57

Last night after a day of very heavy rain, the skies where I live, finally cleared for an all to brief period. I was able to get out under a very damp sky and try my hand at drawing.

For many years now I have been using an Atik16ic for imaging and capturing deep sky object's to process and then store away on a DVD. At the end of the day all you have are a lot of pretty picture's that look nice, but at the end of the day that's all they are, picture's. And together with the problems involved with imaging, I was beginning to find it very stressful and it was slowly becoming less enjoyable with every session.

I've been looking at the work of members of the Webb Deep Sky Society, whom I am a member off, who are using video cameras and drawing what they see.

I would like to get back to basics and draw what I am looking at, using my Atik16ic and my 8" F4 Newtonian from home and my OD250 10" when away from home. The big advantage with using my CCD from home; it cuts through light pollution and acts as an electronic eye. And allows me to still look at deep sky objects.

One other advantage of doing this, you don't have to worry if you're stars are slightly elongated with each CCD image, due to a poorly miss aligned mount.

Last night as I said, the skies did eventually clear, and I got out and took the cover of my Losmandy G11, and soon had it fired UP and slewing, with my 8 inch f4 "AG" to the field where messier 57was.

It is remarkable how sensitive the CCD is over the human eye. With the exposure's set to 60 seconds, M57 was very clear and sharp with it's magnitude 13 central star  clearly visible. The camera is UN-filtered except  for a IR-block filter.

Despite the short exposures last night. I think that I was seeing stars between magnitude 13 and magnitude 14, whilst with the unaided  eye I was lucky to see magnitude 3.5.

Below is my drawing made at 19:07ut.

I found this way to be very relaxing and enjoyable night. And I certainly hope to do this again and again.

I would have made some more, but as is the norm, it clouded over shortly afterwards and I packed UP muttering to myself.

Macc Astro Jupiter Watch 2010

Last night members of my society, Macclesfield Astronomical Society hosted a "Jupiter" watch at Kerridge Cricket Club, Bollington. I am the society's observation co-ordinator, and decided last month it would be a good idea to get together in a public place to show members of the public, and our beginners to astronomy, Jupiter.

This event was, despite the annoying cloud, a success. We had a total of five telescope's set up ranging from my Orion (UK) 10" a 7.5" Mak-Newt a 6" SCT an 8" SCT and our chairman's Andrew Greenwood's 12" Meade Light Bridge.

Because of the slight haze in the sky, the seeing was for once superb. I estimated it to be Antoniardi (ANT) two. The Ant numbering is the scale used for judging the seeing conditions for the night. ANT 1 is excellent whilst 5 is very poor (why are you out side)

And because the seeing was very good, Jupiter was very sharp when viewed with a good high power eyepiece. At one time last night, I had the planet at x300 (4mm Vixen LV) but my best views of the planet were at x160 (7.5mm Plossl)

I said the planet was sharp, and what a view! When Jupiter came into view and rose higher in our sky the view's were simply stunning. I saw clearly the GRS which was very bright pink to my eye, together with the shadow of Io and various cloud features.

Later in the evening towards midnight. We were treated to a view of Io, that nobody could have predicted or have ever seen before. The moon was suddenly visible before it broke free of the planet, and we watched as Io slowly separated from Jupiter. The view is hard to describe; Io was a tiny disc that looked iridescent against the backdrop of Jupiter's invisible South equatorial belt, it really was an amazing sight through the telescope.

The evening was a great success and, with luck, I hope to be there again tonight for stage 2 of our Jupiter watch; sadly though the weather doesn't look fantastic for tonight, but you never know.



Here is a report from the Chairman of Macc Astro, Mr Andrew Greenwood.

Chairman's note: As Paul has mentioned, the event was extremely successful, it was very gratifying to be treated to some wonderful views. It has been a long, long time since Jupiter has looked so good through a telescope at our latitude.

The changing sky itself was quite dramatic. The veil of Cirrostratus produced a number of subtle optical effects. We saw a paraselene (moon-dog) and part of a 22 degree halo, upper tangent arc and upper and lower Moon pillar. All three are infrequent night-time displays. The most striking optical effect was telescopic. Looking at Jupiter it was clear to see a beautifully coloured, oval-shaped halo around the planet. As Paul has mentioned, the seeing was amazing. The GRS and inky-black shadow of the transiting moon was striking. It has been a long time since the GRS appeared so orange/red. I expect this is because of the absence of the SEB. A multitude of subtle details were visible within the polar regions of the planet, and even after the GRS had exited the disk, there was a large oval in the NEB, which to my eyes had a very defined dark area, much smaller than the transiting shadow.

After waves of thicker Cirrostratus came and went, something miraculous occurred. The sky became ultra-transparent. The Milky Way burst into view straddling Perseus, Cassiopeia and into Cygnus. No telescopes were required to see the Double cluster and the great Andromeda galaxy, M31 - or to just gaze at the countless majestic stars.

The final target for the night was 2.5 billion miles away from where we were standing. It was Uranus. The pale green, glimmering disk of the distant planet was clear to see. All the more amazing was its line-of-sight proximity to Jupiter - it was only 0.5 of a degree from the giant planet, but separated by two billion miles ... Wonderful!

Upon returning home, I took one last lingering look at the Milky Way, hopefully anticipating the brief appearance of a meteor. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. Still, I felt very happy with the wonders I had witnessed.

Congratulations to Paul for organizing a very successful observing evening. I very much hope there will be many more.

Observations from Hardraw, Wensleydale, Yorkshire Dales.

A small select group from Macc Astro use an old school in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire for week-end observing trips, and I was very fortunate to be able to join Malc and the team for two night's, Friday and Saturday observing. I arrived on Friday afternoon to find the sky clearing, and with the prospect of doing some deep-sky with my 10" Dob, I was eager to set up and await for sunset.

Sunset at this time of the year is around 19:55hrs, which means that for astronomy, we now have almost nine hours dark sky observing, which is brilliant.

The sky's here are truly dark m+6.2. The milky way was very bright, with the NAN (NGC7000) together with the Cygnus rift very bright and clear.

I made an observing list, but unfortunately I didn't make any note's. I'll start doing this from now on!

61 Cygni.

Easy to split, and looks very similar to Albireo.

NGC6946.

This is a difficult galaxy which requires averted vision to see clearly. X50 the galaxy is visible against a starry background. Higher power x120 (10mm plossl) NGC6946 appears as a faint smudge of grey light. This galaxy is difficult.

M13.

Very clear and resolved at all magnification's used, x50 and x120.

I then took a break, and began looking at Jupiter, which was by now visible above the house. I then had a look at Uranus which was looking rather good despite the planets huge distance.

NGC884-869

X34 the double cluster looked magnificent. I have never seen so many stars in this cluster as I did tonight.

I can't really remember the objects I looked at afterwards. In future, I will record my observations.

Fernilee observing session

Last night was just one of those night's, when we were supposed to have clear skies all night. So myself and one of my observing buddies, decided at 20:00 to GO for it and head over to our adopted observing site.

The skies where I live in Macclesfield, and where Paul lives in Hazel Grove, where clearing, or so we thought!

I arrived after a very leisurely and relaxing drive to find the sky was almost, but not quite clear. I could see Vega (alpha Lyrae) over head and soon had my 10" OD250s f4.8 set up and collimated. What a joy it is to use a Dobsonian!

Below is a short account of my observations.

Observing site
Fernilee reservoir

Seeing A2 Transparency 5 Naked eye limiting magnitude +5.4
Telescope 10" OD250S f4.8 Deluxe

M15.
Very easy to find and resolve. x120 (10mm Plossl) very bright core, with granulation. x150 (Vixen lv zoom) granulation is now stellar with hundreds of faint stars visible, more stars are visible with averted vision. M15 is very small when compared with M13 and M92.

NGC6960.
I had difficulty finding this with cloud passing over head, but eventually I was successful. 51 Cyg is a faint m5.4 star that is easily visible to the unaided eye from this observing sight.
NGC6960 bisects 51 Cyg and is there for, very easy to observe, when the skies are clear!

At x34 with a Baader UHC filter, the Witches broom nebula as it is called, is very faint against a very rich milky way star field.
Using my 24mm Panoptic with a OIII filter, greatly enhances the view. NGC6960 is a bright luminous grey streak, with the southern portion brightest. I will study this region of space again on a better night.

Whilst hunting down NGC6960, I was lucky to spy some of the other bright parts of the Veil supernova remnant which I shall return to,when we are next UP there and the skies are more transparent.

M31.
I never tire of looking at the Andromeda galaxy so tonight was know exception. M31 was just on the fringes of naked eye visibility, so I was able to hone in on it with out any trouble.
For the best views of M31 I use a low power eyepiece, as this allows me to see all the galaxy.


x34 (Celestron Ultima) Bright nucleus with fainter spiral arms visible, this is a glorious sight to behold. M32 is also visible in the same eyepiece field.

Jupiter.
x120, North equatorial belt, very dark, and brown in colour. South equatorial still absent.

Unfortunately, we were clouded out after 00:45hrs despite the forecast of clear skies for most of the night. Paul's power supply was miss behaving, so we agreed to called it a night hoping for a decent break, for the peak of the Perseids on Thursday night.

Make mine a Pyms

Yesterday evening I travelled over to the Derbyshire peaks, to Pyms Chair which is a local beauty spot above the Goyt Valley. This site is very exposed, but does have one advantage, it is high up and has a good horizon all around.

I arrived with a friend at 22:30 to find one of my Macc AS observing buddies waiting for me, and I was soon joined by another good friend from Macc AS, Paul C. We had arranged to meet at the Pyms chair site to observe comet C2009 R1 McNaught. This comet is now quite bright, m5.6 and was seen visually and imaged, by Paul last Wednesday morning. What a pity the comet isn't visible later in the year when the skies are darker. I am sure it would be an easy naked eye object.

We soon had all out gear set up. My Dob is so easy to assemble and to use, it only takes a minute before I have an eyepiece in the focuser and I am ready to observe.

Last night I was fortunate to get my first views of a wide gibbous Moon, together with Venus and Saturn. Despite a howling gale buffering the telescope, the Moon looked exquisite.

I was delighted to show one of the group her first ever look through a telescope, she had never seen the Moon before, until last night. To say that she was gob smacked is an understatement. Of cause she now wants a telescope so you can guess what hubby will be saving for.

By midnight the wind was getting worse and so was the cloud. As for the temperature, well that was ridiculous; is it really the beginning of Summer?
Despite the forecast of clear skies all night, the cloud was gathering in the North east alarmingly fast shortly after we began observing, and it wasn't too long before we had total obscuration.

We called it a night at 12:20am and thawed out on our way home.

To good to be true

I thought the arrival of my a new telescope, would bring forth rain. Which it did on Sunday and, since then, the weather has felt more like April than the start of Summer.

On the plus side; I made myself an off axis baader solar filter, using a spare dust cover. The filter is about 3inches diameter and increases the focal length of my 10" from f4.8 to about f16 this is ideal for comfortable solar viewing.

I was lucky enough to get my first views of the Sun on Friday June 5th. I've found the 35mm Celestron Ultima works best, and with my baader contrast boost filter the image is greatly enhanced.
The low magnification 34x, reduces atmospheric heat shimmer, and the contrast is better than through a higher power ep. So you get a nice steady image that is very sharp, allowing you to see plenty of detail in white light.

At the time of my observation (14:05ut) there was a very nice spot group visible, with plenty of limb darkening, and faculae.

I hope to begin drawing the Sun, when I get the chance, and I also want to start drawing DSO's. But I think this will prove tricky as I have not done any astronomical drawing before.

I've yet to view the Moon through the 10", and if the views I had of Saturn are anything to go by. I'll be in for a treat.

Clear skies and a new telescope

Can you believe my luck! I collected my new Orion OD250S deluxe dobsonian on Wednesday afternoon. And believe it or not, the skies have been clear. On Wednesday and Thursday, I have been using a small run off car park at Fernilee reservoir in Derbyshire, here the skies are considerably darker than where I live.

My new 10" is well made, and very easy to use. The mounting is very smooth, and unlike other dobsonian telescope's, you have the option to adjust the OTA in the cradle for comfort. I can stay seated with the scope which is very nice, and still reach the eyepiece.

Below is a round up of the last two night's.

June 2nd

24mm Panoptic (x55) 18mm Ortho (x66)35mm Celestron Ultima (x34) 6mm Vixen LV (x200) 10mm Orion plossl (x100))

Warm, and clear but with a slight haze. NLM +5 Seeing A3

Saturn.
At x150 I had a breath taking view. The planet is very sharp, steady and crisp, through this telescope. The contrast is also very good. I can see three moons.

Epsilon Lyrae.
x100 Easily resolved into two, separate components.

Alpha Canes or Cor Caroli.
This is a lovely colourful double. Using a 35mm Ultima Cor Caroli is a brilliant white, whilst the secondary is almost ice blue.

M94.
Through my 18mm Ortho (x66) M94 shows a bright stellar nucleus that fades into a nebulous haze.

M3.
WOW. x50 (24mm Panoptic) M3 is a dazzling mass of star light. Higher power x100 M3 is still very bright, and contrasty. I can resolve M3 to the core.

M13.
WOW x100 granular mass which is brighter towards the core, the proppella feature is almost visible. Increasing magnification, and M13 bursts forth in a mass of star light. It looks like white diamonds on black velvet.

M57.
Very clear open ring, in a very rich star field x50. x200 using baader UHC-S. M57 is bigger and clear. The smoke ring shape is now very clear, and I can begin to see braiding in the nebulosity. There is a m11 star clearly visible.

M56.
x50 M56 is clearly visible in a very rich milky way field, as a granular haze.

M10.
x150 is a bright, but granular circle of light. M10 is easy to resolve.

June 3rd

Very clear.

M51.
x50 two bright nuclei are visible, with just the hint of spiral structure visible. You can see these two are connected. On a night that is darker, I am sure M51 and NGC5195 will look better.

NGC4490.
I've not seen the "Cocoon Galaxy" before! x100 NGC4490 is a bright elongated fuzz. The fainter m12 NGC4485 (M12.5) is visible but only just when using averted vision.
Not bad for a 10"!

M81/82.
This galaxy group is best seen at low power. x50 both galaxies are clearly visible. M81 has a bright core, with spiral structure clearly visible. M82 is a distinct cigar shape, with a bright core.

M27.
x50 M27 is small and egg shaped. x66 Baader UHC-S M27 looks beautiful. It's large with a bright core, and fainter ansae. At this power M27 takes on it's dumbbell appearance.

Sunny Saturday

As this is the first time that I have posted a BLOG (I still can't get my head around that word)I thought I would introduce myself.

My name is Paul, and I have been interested in amateur astronomy since childhood. I was more of an arm chair astronomer back then. It wasn't until the formation of my astronomical society in 1990, that I really started taking an interest in the subject again.

I bought my first telescope in 1990 a 6" Newtonian, and I have owned two more telescope's since 1990.

During that latter day's of the 20th century I stared thinking about astro imaging. And I began to climb the hill of this very fascinating, and often trouble-some hobby.

The equipment that I use for CCD imaging are the listed below.

Orion Optics SPX 200-800 f4 "AG"
Losmandy G11 Gemini level 4 GOTO
William Optics ZS66SD (for guiding)
Atik 16ic
QHY5

Last year and particularly this year. I have been keen to get back to basics again, and begin visual observing again.
I sold my 12" DX300 F4 last year, to fund the SPX 200, and this year I sold my fourteen years old 8" GX200.

In April I took the plunge and bought from Orion Optics (all my scopes are from this firm in Crew) an OD250S f4.8 deluxe dobsonian. I collect this new telescope on June 2nd.

With the telescope I hope to be able to enjoy my hobby again, after spending to many night's capturing CCD image's. And I can also get away into the Peak district where the skies are darker than here.

I'm an all round amateur astronomer, and I enjoy looking at the Moon and bright planets, and observing the Sun, through a white light solar filter.

But my main interest is in the Deep Sky, so hence the tittle of my blog spot. I hope to start posting my observations on here as soon as possible.

Once I get to know the sky again, I hope in four years to upgrade to ether an OD350 or a Meade light bridge 16".

I am a member of Macclesfield Astronomical Society, which celebrates it's 20th birthday today, at Macclesfield Town Hall. And I am also the society's observing co-ordinator.

I am also a member of the British Astronomical Association the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Webb Deep Sky Society.

Clear Skies
PB