Gibbous Phased

What do you do at this time of the year, now the night's getting alarmingly shorter and shorter?

Well. I am now making regular solar observation's through the William Optics 66sd and Baader filter, and I am also observing the Moon and imaging it.

Last night for a bit of fun, I decided to use my little APO, and Nikon D40 for some quick lunar imaging.

Here is the result.

 

I've also been making observation's of the Sun using the same telescope, and below are a small selection of drawing's.

The Sun is now beginning to get active again, and with each day there is something new to observe. These drawings were made through my little William Optics fitted with a home made Baader solar filter. I find the use of a deep Orange filter, helps to increase contrast. And this makes any sunspots stand out.

So you see, there is still plenty of astronomy one can do during the long, dreamy, summer month's...

Our Moon

With the lighter night's, fast approaching. I've been tinkering with my QHY5 and videoing the Moon.

The Moon is one subject that, thankfully doesn't require a dark sky. And I have noticed before. How some of the best seeing can be found during the early hours, or, during the later part of the day. Around two hours before Sun-set.

The image's which you will see on here were all taken through a 10" Newtonian from the British company Orion Optics http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/ in Crewe Cheshire.

The OTA is mounted on top of my Losmandy G11 and I'm using a Red filter (W25) which is helping to reduce the effects of poor seeing.

The image is of Copernicus. Copernicus is a huge 93km diameter crater that is easily visible through small binoculars.

I took this image on 2011-04-12 on the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gargarin and his solo manned space flight.

This image was captured around 19:45 hrs UT through a x2 Barlow. You can also see, in the same field the Carpathian mountains which is the small rocky out crop below Copernicus. Also in this image is Eratosthenes. Which is visible to the  right, with three peaks visible in the crater.

The Moon is a lovely object, and It is one subject that I will return to with this telescope now the night's are getting lighter, and I can't do any CCD imaging because of work.

Enjoy...

Messier 3 a Globular clsuter in Canes Venatici

Messier 3 is one of the Northern sky's show piece globular star clusters. Lying at a distance of 48,500 lt-yrs. And it is an easy object for anybody with a small telescope, or binoculars.

M3 was  discovered by Messier in 1764, and looked on May 3rd of that year
"Nebula without star: centre brilliant, gradually fading away; round. In a dark sky, visible in a telescope of 1-foot"

This image was taken during a clear window on 2011 April 2nd, from my observing site here in East Cheshire. The seeing wasn't brilliant, and this was evident when using my Hartman mask to focus on a nearby star.

The exposure is made up of 16x60 second exposures, and it is the best out of 30x60 second exposures.

Imaged using the Orion 200-800 F4 "AG" and guided using PHD a QHY5 and William Optics ZS66SD.

The image could be better. And I will return to M3 again, on a night of better seeing.

 

Good By Orion

I think the tittle of this message is particularly apt.

Orion together with his retinue of Taurus and Canis Major, are slowly descending into the Western half of the sky, and will be sadly lost to the glow of twilight, by the end of March.

And of cause with the disappearance of Orion, we also loose the great Orion nebula, or Messier 42.

The skies where I live in East Cheshire were once again clear on Sunday 6th, (why it does this on a Sunday, I don't know).

I took the opportunity to use my new, TS 9mm OAG on my 8" Orion F4 to see if my guiding has improved.

The Orion nebula was just in the right place to image at 20:00, and I banged off three exposure's. Two x Five minutes and One x 30 seconds for the core regain.

These where guided using the OAG and QHY5, whilst imaging through my Atik 16ic and filter wheel with a CLS filter all attached to the G11.

I've stacked these in DSS, and done some processing in CS2. I wanted to try if I could, to bring the highlight's down, to reveal more of the core regain, and to show the trapezium stars.

This I have done, and I also used a deep space noise reduction, together with a couple of small UN-sharp mask's.

Messier42/43

The Peak Star Party

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a lovely three hour's at Shallow Grange, (the venue for this years PSP).
A committee, has been formed with the event organiser as chairman.

The camp site is excellent with everything you need to make the PSP a success. All the camping field's offer very good unobstructed views, with particularly good views towards the south, where Orion will be rising at that time of the year.

The site owners, are bending over backwards to make this event a success. The owner, although not an amateur astronomer, is very concerned about light pollution, and the effect's it has on the environment. And with this in mind, he has agreed to cover all, naked white light's. This will give us a totally dark environment.

We are also planning to have lecture's and we were shown, a very spacious shed, that we can use for this. We already have two speaker's booked, and it is hopped to find possibly a third.

The event is officially open for booking in on Friday October 21st, with a meet and greet station inside a marque, that will be kindly provided by a local scout group. It is also hopped to have hot water for drinks.

The committee all agreed that we need to be there on site from Wednesday 19th, to get everything ready.

There will be facilities provided, for a small fee (50p) for charging of batteries or mobile phone's and laptops during the week-end.

If people wish, they can stay on after October 24th.

I have agreed to give, new comers to astronomy, tour's of the night sky, and a tour, during day time of the telescope's. I am also planning a co-ordinated meteor watch on Saturday 22nd for the peak of the Orionid meteor shower.

Everything is looking, positive. All that we need now is you're support. 

Please take a look at our web site.

http://www.peakstarparty.co.uk/ 

And please sign UP.

If we can get a full compliment of 40+ the owner has agreed to close the site!

Supernova in Galaxie NGC2655

I have another report for you all , by my guest observer/imager Paul Cannon.

Paul was lucky enough, to image SN 2011B after being alerted by myself, after I received an alert from the BAA.

I how ever have not been so lucky, with work and fighting continue cloud coverage.

NGC 2655 Supernova

 

The images show a Supernova taking place in Galaxy NGC 2655 as it was on the 3rd of February 2011. The first picture is a wide field  image of 300s and the second a composite of

3 x 300s stacked images cropped to emphasise the action. Both were taken taken with a Canon1000D through a Celestron 8" SCT.

The Supernova was first discovered on 7th January 2011 by Koichi Itagaki and  Masaki Tsuboi

Macclesfield Astronomical Society; Observation of Occultation of mag 4.8 Zeta Arietis

Five members from the observing group, of Macclesfield Astronomical Society, were able to witness the disappearance of the 4.8 magnitude star Zeta Arietis by the dark limb of the Moon on Friday 14th January 2011.

It was touch and go whether or not we would actually see the event. The skies were, by 22:30 becoming very milky, making Zeta Arietis difficult to see visually.

I timed the disappearance at 23:06, whilst observing through my 10" Orion Optics Dobsonian with a 24-8mm Vixen LV zoom (16mm) X75.

The location was Kerridge Cricket club, Kerridge, Bollington, Cheshire. The NLM  here is normally +5.6 but tonight, we were struggling to see +3 because of the approaching cloud but also the wide gibbous Moon. The seeing was variable ANT IV.

The observers were.

Chairman: Andrew Greenwood WO Zenith star 66 "OG"
Paul A Brierley 10" OD250 f4.8
Paul Canon 4" Celestron "OG"
John Tipping Home built 6" Newtonian
Richard Lowe 8" Meade LX200.

We all confirmed the disappearance at 23:06. And we were all greatly relieved when the star finally disappeared . The Moon was, by 23:04 beginning to make some of the observers eye's water, because of the intense concentration needed, to see the slowly fading star. We had all been watching from 22:50.


Occultation observing and timing is one of the few aspects of Amateur Astronomy that doesn't require any high tech equipment or knowledge. All you need, especially for Lunar occultations are an accurate time piece, (in my case I have a radio controlled watch) and a telescope ( minimum aperture 2") or large tripod mounted binoculars.


Below is a link, to  the SPA's Occultation section web site, which gives you a full listing of occultation event's concerning the Moon.

http://www.popastro.com/sections/occ/lunarocc.php