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First Clear Night In Ages - And A Comet!

Monday 29th October 2007  

It was a nice cold, clear night tonight, and I was finally able to go out and see what all the fuss was about over this exploding comet I’ve been hearing so much about. Comet 17P/Holmes mysteriously exploded a few days ago, creating a large bright aura around the nucleus. Possibly formed by vapor erupting from vents on the surface, the exact cause is a mystery to astronomers, but it does make an interesting sight in the sky.

I was extremely (and pleasantly!) surprised at how easy it was to find in the sky. With the constellation of Perseus moving into light polluted territory, I was amazed that I could see it through binoculars, and the view through a small telescope was fantastic. Once I knew where to look, it was clearly visible with the unaided eye. I took quite a few pictures as this is the first actual comet I have been able to photograph, let alone observe, so this comet is a little special for me! I have selected two photos to share here; a wide angle shot showing the Perseids where the comet is marked with red pointers. The second is a closeup with my baby Skywatcher and camera mounted at prime focus.

It wasn’t long however until the Moon decided to put in an appearance, which greatly reduced the visibility of the comet. Still, I had loads of pictures and I took the opportunity to photograph the Moon some more.

 

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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 11:42pm

My Second M31 and Milky Way

Saturday 15th September 2007  

Its been a while since I have done any astrophotography, mainly due to all the clouds and lack of a summer this year! But anyway last night was a surprisingly good night. For some reason the sky was particularly clear and dark, and I could even just about make out the summer milky way in the sky! That was the first time I have seen it!!!

M31 was my target for the night, so I set about looking for it - and there it was! Visible by averted vision!!! The skies where I live are usually very light polluted which make finding DSO’s difficult, let alone imaging them.

These images were taken with my unmodified 350d mounted on an HEQ5 with a 70-300mm IS lens. The mount was not accurately polar aligned due to a tree being in front of Polaris. I used the drift method, which was good for 45 second exposures, however I used 30 second exposures because I broke my remote switch and couldn’t use the bulb setting. This image of M31 was created using 15×30 second exposures aligned and stacked with Photoshop.

My first attempt was nearly a year ago and can be seen here: M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

 

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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Cars, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 1:45pm

Action on Light Pollution!

Tuesday 27th March 2007  

Please consider signing this petition to the Prime Minister, calling for action to be taken against Light Pollution.

“For those who live in our towns and cities, the night sky is filled with a dull orange glow punctuated only by the dim glimmer of an occasional bright star or planet. Fitting well designed shades on all exterior lights would stop light leaking wastefully upwards, restoring the glorious beauty of a star strewn sky overhead. Bring back the milky way!”

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that all exterior lights are shaded to direct their light downwards, so as to prevent light pollution obscuring the beauty of the night sky.”

Petition the Prime Minister on Light Pollution

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This post is filed under Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 9:00am

Light pollution ‘masking stars’

Monday 12th March 2007  

A growing number of people are unable to see the night sky because of glare from poorly-designed outdoor lights in built up areas, a survey suggests.

Click for the full story on BBC

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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 8:01pm

First Time For Months!

Thursday 2nd November 2006  

This was my first time out under the stars for months! Every night has had total cloud cover which is not good for Astronomy. It wasn’t all good news however as we are only a few days away from the Full Moon - and that illuminates the sky worse that street lighting. Despite that I still managed to take a few pictures of the Moon as well as some constellations and also the M45 Plieadies star cluster. I also took the opportunity of the bright night to perfect the collimation on my optics as they have not been done so far. There was a noticeable difference in ability to resolve objects and I think the resulting images were a little sharper as well. While clearing away the equipment I left the shutter open for a star trail experiment which unfortunately failed.

 

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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 11:24pm

Too much Light Pollution

Saturday 10th June 2006  

I started off photographing the Moon, experimenting with the mirror lockup feature on the camera which lifts the mirror and lets the vibrations dampen off before taking the picture. The idea is that when the mirror flicks up it causes vibrations in the telescope and on the photograph. By flicking up the mirror and letting the vibrations die down you can get a sharper image. I used my home built shutter release to release the shutter and I was very pleased with the way it performed. Moon pictures were a little of the out of focus side but I didn’t have time to image Jupiter as it had moved behind a tree. Tried locating a few other Messier objects and failed miserably. Eventually I stumbled upon M13 again so imaged that as well. I think before I try this again I need to look into collimating the telescope.

 

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This post is filed under Astrophotography, Light Pollution by Lonewolf at 11:56pm