Archive for February 2011

Observing Report 7th-8th February 2011 (More Messiers)

Posted by on February 28th 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

Just this one and then I'm up to date...

It was a really cold night but at least it was clear - there haven't been many decent nights here lately so it was a case of "use it or lose it". The main purpose was to get in an intensive imaging session with the baby R-C scope, taking light, dark and flat frames for objects at various image scales.

Target-wise, I had a bash at a couple Messier Objects - M100 and M101. Neither of these filled the D50's sensor, and they're both quite dim objects, so more and longer exposures and a lot of post-processing ops were going to be needed to get decent-sized crops from the data. As ever, it didn't work out as intended - all of the flats were rubbish due to a problem with the lightbox, and a fair few lights had to be scrapped due to issues with guiding.

Anyway, after much jiggery-pokery, here are the results:

M100 (aka NGC 4321), a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices.
NGC 4327, 4328, 4323, 4322 & IC 783 are also just about visible as faint fuzzy bits.
Subs: 10 light @ 300s, darks, ISO200.
D50 on the
6" R-C, guided with PHD.

 M101 (aka The Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5457), a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major.
Subs: 20 light @ 300s, darks, ISO200.
D50 on the
6" R-C, guided with PHD.

Next time I'll get it right and hopefully the results will be much better.

Another bimble – Beacon Hill

Posted by on February 26th 2011 in Great Escapes

 Last week was half-term here. The kids were reluctant to go out, but we persisted in our efforts to drag them with us.

Beacon Hill Country Park was the venue for Thursday's walk. It's an interesting place - at 245m (802 feet) Beacon Hill is the second highest point in Leicestershire and the site of a Bronze Age hill fort. The walk up from the Lower Car Park is through pleasant wooded areas with good access, and there are many opportunities for geologising. Add in a few wonky trees, some interesting fungi and some weird moss, and it's a good day out.

As you will see from some of the pics, the kids didn't enjoy it at all...

Cones

Catkins

Through the woods

Searching for sticks

Bracket fungi

Mushrooms?

The Den

Bracket #1

Bracket #2

The Old Man

Rocks near the summit

The Old Man again

Layers

Rockhoppers

Chris at the trig point

More layers

Chris on the rocks

Anna and the little people

 

Dip and strike

Panorama - full view

 

Panorama in a scrolly-thing

Anna #1

Anna #2

Ella

Anna #3

3 of a kind

One up, two down

Bedding planes #1

Bedding planes #2

Toposcopy

The Great Unwashed... washed!

Stone Angels

On edge #1

On edge #2

Bedrock

A herd of moss

Wonky trees #1

Wonky trees #2

Wonky trees #3

Holey tree

Fungi?

Another bracket

 

Not a bad day out, I reckon we'll be going there again.

The Great Unwashed

Posted by on February 25th 2011 in Camera kit, Great Escapes, Pics

Note to self: next time you're out with the camera, remember to clean the lens before taking 150+ pics.

😥

Expect a report on yesterday's outing sometime after I've worn out Photoshop's clone tool. Don't hold your breath - I may be some time.

Kipper tie?

Posted by on February 17th 2011 in New tricks for an old dog

You never know, this might be just the stuff to encourage me to get out more:

Now, where can I lay my hands on a sledge and some Burberry gabardine?

Common sense prevails

Posted by on February 17th 2011 in Campaigns and Petitions, In the News
Tags: ,

This is brilliant news: Victory! Government to scrap plans to sell our forests.

Thanks to all of you that supported the protests and the petitions.

Well done!

A bimble around Braddie Park

Posted by on February 15th 2011 in Celebrations, Great Escapes

Chris took yesterday off work so we went out for a Valentine's Day walk at Bradgate Park. Despite the cool breeze and the cloudy weather it was good to get a few hours out together without the kids.

Old John and the War Memorial

Old John and the War Memorial again

Holed tree

Stags

Stream

The Bennion Memorial Plaque

Chris heading back towards the car

Gnarled

Deer

The War Memorial

Being watched

Old John