Under a Autumn Moon

Last night, was another of Macclesfield Astronomical Society's observing night's.
We meet on a regular bases at a local country park, 3 miles out side Macclesfield.

Although we are close to this large town. The skies are very dark, often peaking at magnitude +5.2 on good night's.

Last night's observing session was under a Full Hunters Moon. And was organised to co-inside with the opposition of the planet Uranus.

I arrived shortly after 19:30hrs to find the car park busy, with various members setting up equipment or, already observing. The sky was very clear and steady, which came as a pleasant surprise to every body, after the week-long monsoon we've just had.

This was the second outing for my Celestron C9.25, and what a joy it is to use.

Once assembled and the mount aligned on the North-Celestial-Pole. I happily toured the sky using planetarium software.

Because it was full Moon. I decided that I would spend my time looking at some unfamiliar open star clusters. I can't remember which one's I looked at, however I do remember looking at Messier 39.

Through my 24mm Panoptic x61. M39 looked like a jewel in the early autumn sky.

I soon tired off these star clusters and moved onto the ice giant's of the outer solar system.

Neptune. x61. Tiny blue disk. x113 (13mm Baader Hyperion) a slighly larger but still, none de-script blue disk.

Uranus. x61. Larger than Neptune, and appears Green. x113 the planet looks slightly bigger and you can see a tiny green sphere.

Later on, and once the Moon was higher in the South-East. took some DSLR images.

By 1am and after an excellent session. The sky turned gradually to solid cloud.  And the few of us who were left, called it a night.

It was an very good start to my 2012/13 observing/imaging season.

Deep Sky Wanderings

Since writing my last blog, I've been busy with holiday's and buying new equipment.
The equipment is probably why the weather here in England has been so wet lately.

Sorry about that.

During the middle half of September. I was very lucky to get the opportunity to visit, one of the countries premier star gazing event's. The Equinox Star Party at Kelling Heath, North-Norfolk.

My self and a imaging buddy, from Macclesfield Astronomical Society travelled down to Kelling on 2012 September 13 and stayed their until September 17.

During this time we were blessed with not one, but four of the clearest and darkest skies that I have ever seen, from this country.
Every night from 21:00, the Milky Way was seen. Not as a feint hazy patch of ghostly ancient light, when viewed from my home.

But as a brilliant white cloud arching overhead from Cassiopeia and Cygnus down through Aquila and on into Sagittarius.

The views we enjoyed with out optical aid were magnificent. NGC 7000 (North-America Nebula) was very clear every night. Together with. IC1396 in Cepheus. This is another huge region of hydrogen similar to the NAN, and it was very clear with out optical aid every night.

The unaided eye limiting magnitude, I estimated each night was magnitude +6.2. And to prove just how dark the skies actually were.
I found NGC7293 The Helix nebula, an easy object through 10x50 glasses and 15x70 Celestron Skymaster Binoculars.

NGC7293 is one of the largest planetary nebulae in the sky. But because the light is so spread out. You need very dark skies to see it visually. Through both sets of binoculars. NGC7293 was a ghostly oval shaped patch of pale light.

There was certainly plenty to see whilst we were their. The site was full to the rafter's with telescope's off all shapes and sizes.

It was interesting to see some of the big DOBs that I have read about, and seen advertised, but never had a close look at. I had the opportunity to look through a 18” and saw M92. Not as a misty granular ball. But as a glitter ball visible right to the core.

That was a wow moment. 

I took with me to Kelling my portable imaging setup. This comprises off the following.

T: William Optics Zenith Star 66SD

M: Losmandy G11

C: Canon 1000D modified

 My main interest is astro imaging. With this little portable set up I was able to  image,a load of stuff under those dark Norfolk skies.

Most night's we didn't turn in until well after 2am. But it was well worth every effort.

I imaged the following. 

M33,M45,NGC891,NGC1499.
Here they are.

M33



M45



NGC891



NGC1499



Since returning home from Kelling Heath. I have bought myself a new telescope.

I am now the proud owner of. A Celestron C9.25 XLT-CGE Schmitt Cassegrain. This telescope will be my work horse instrument from now on, and it will also be for keeps.

It will be used for visual observing and DSLR imaging. And I hope to begin re-acquainting my self with the Planets and the Moon.

I hope to try my hand also at web cam imaging of these worlds. But I think it will be a long time before I am as good as Damien Peach.

Watch out...