Archive for the 'Astrostuff' Category

Observing Report 22nd-23rd April 2018 (More Lyrid-ish meteors)

Posted by on April 23rd 2018 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

From the second session of observing the 2018 Lyrid meteor shower. 365 pics, only one with decent trails, and I'm fairly sure that they too weren't from true Lyrids as they weren't "pointing back" to the Lyrid radiant.

Here's the pic, again the bottom-edge is more-or-less East and the top edge is up near the zenith. The blurry coloured mess near the bottom-edge is a short section of the Milky Way . Click it to see a resized version:

Observing Report 19th-20th April 2018 (Lyrid-ish meteors)

Posted by on April 21st 2018 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

From the first session of observing the 2018 Lyrid meteor shower. 397 pics, only two with decent trails, and I'm fairly sure that they weren't from true Lyrids as they weren't "pointing back" to the Lyrid radiant.

Here's the best one of the two pics, the bottom-edge is more-or-less East and the top edge is up near the zenith. Sharp eyes will notice the Plough stood up on its stilts. Click it to see a resized version:

Observing Report 13th-14th December 2017 (Geminid meteors)

Posted by on December 17th 2017 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
Tags: ,

Typically there was much cloud on the two best Geminid meteor observing nights. Just to rub it in, it had been clear for both of the two preceding nights and it was clear again for both of the two following nights. I managed a stop/start session on the night of the 13th, the skies changing from short clear periods to longer periods of snow or sleet far too often for my liking. I seemed to spend most of the time stopping/starting the capture software and covering/uncovering the camera. About 25 bright trails were observed while only 118 camera shots were taken, but only two Geminids were recorded.

Here's a composite pic, click it to see a bigger version:

A pair of Geminid meteors.

Astro Imaging – Works in Progress from October 2017 Observing Sessions

Posted by on November 2nd 2017 in Astrostuff, Pics

I've managed to get out for a few observing/imaging sessions recently. So far I've only stacked four sets of sub-frames in DeepSkyStacker, I've yet to throw any Photoshop Actions at them.

Here's what I'll be fiddling with when there's nobody looking:

 

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae in Orion.

 

The Double Cluster in Perseus.

 

IC1848 Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia.

 

M45 Pleiades in Taurus.

 

I'll post the finished articles as and when.

 

Observing Report 5th-13th August 2017 (Perseid meteors)

Posted by on August 22nd 2017 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

From the 5th to the 13th of August I managed four nights watching and photographing the Perseids. 1799 pics later and I'd caught nine good meteors on camera, and I'd seen about 75 while lazing on the garden bench. Bearing in mind the low hourly rates, several bouts of cloudiness and the rising Moon, nine on camera is about as many as I would have expected.

Here's the best pic of the bunch, captured on the 12th - looking towards the zenith, West is more-or-less downwards. Click it to see a bigger version:

A pair of Perseid meteors heading west-southwest.

Observing Report 16th-17th October 2016 (coloured Moon mosaic)

Posted by on October 20th 2016 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports

Moon-gazing again last Sunday... playing around with a colour video camera on the 6" R-C... 17 clips each of 250 frames, stacked with AutoStakkert!2, coaxed into one mosaic using iMerge (see previous post), tarted up with Photoshop CS3.

The result is better than expected.

Feel free to click on it to see the full version, but be aware that it might take a while to load - it's about 12Mb:

 

If that's not enough, there's a ~40Mb .bmp version here.