Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Spring Moon



Well...it's Spring! Not that you would notice, weather freezing, snow, rain, sleet, hail had it all over the last week. Clocks go forward at weekend so it MUST be Spring really! Anyway, here is an image of the Moon taken on the same night as the previous picure. Used the Skywatcher ST80 and f0.6 focal reducer which works fine if I only use one Barlow Case as an extender with the FR screwed onto the nosepiece of the Toucam.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Winter Moon


Well, would you believe it...SNOW...and lots of it! Looking out of my window it looks like a Christmas Card scene and its Spring next week. My poor Daffodils and Crocus are wondering whats hit them!!
So, basically...no telescope in the garden. I did send for a nice bracket for fitting the Binoculars to a tripod, I look forward to trying that out.
Todays image was taken last week from the conservatory door of the Moon with my new ST80...Winter has come late this year!

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Sleepy Moon



Friday 3rd March brought a snow storm which started at 3.30pm. After an hour or two of heavy snow, the skies cleared to reveal the most beautiful Moon, idealy placed to image from the conservatory door.

The garden looked beautiful in the snow, particularly the Weeping Willow Tree full of snow. I imaged the garden with my Sony Cybershot camera and the Moon with the Skywatcher ST80 Refractor. I have been waiting for a Moon like this to test out my Rocal Reducer (which came from Australia!) I found that with just one extension (ie: one Barlow Lens case) the Focal Reducer worked fine! Some super images of the Moon with the reducer, can now see the whole of the Moon on the CCD on the Toucam Pro II.

The final image is a combination of the tree and Moon merged together on Paint Shop Pro by using different layers.