Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas Eve Spectacular!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

Christmas Eve, and you're snuggled cozily in your den. A glowing fire gently crackles and pops in the fireplace, and your head starts to droop as you nod off. Just then, something cold and wet nudges your cheek. You open your eyes to stare directly into a large black nose. It's time to take the dog for his walk.
Grumbling in vain, you put on your coat, snap the leash onto the wiggling dog's collar, open the door to a rush of cold air. You step outside and enter a magical landscape.
The night isn't dark, it's glowing with a silvery-white light. Up above, the 98% full moon looks huge and clear in the azure sky. It just might be the brightest moon you've ever seen. That's because it's the highest-riding full moon until the year 2023.

And not far from the beautiful moon glows fireplace-red Mars. This Christmas Eve, Mars is at its closest to Earth for the next nine years. Mars is also "at opposition." That's astronomy-lingo for "directly opposite the sun." It means Mars is up whenever the sun is down: on Christmas Eve, the Red Planet will be visible all night long.

As Christmas scenes go, it doesn't get much better. Gliding in formation across the sky, the moon and Mars seem so close you could almost reach up, grab the pair and bounce them down the street for Fido to retrieve.
Or maybe you could lasso them, as George says in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. "Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey! That's a pretty good idea! I'll give you the moon, Mary...."
In the years ahead, NASA is going to lasso the moon. NASA's giant Ares rocket, still on the drawing board, will take form and then take mankind back to that brilliant silver orb where scientists will learn how to harness the moon's powers.
Plans are to establish a lunar base for exploration and use the moon's surface as a springboard to even further destinations. At the moon's poles there is evidence of hydrogen and perhaps actual water frozen in the soil. Furthermore, ordinary moonrocks are made of minerals that contain more than 40% oxygen. These are resources that can be used to produce rocket fuel, breathable air and a welcome drink on a dry, dusty world.

Maybe on some future Christmas Eve, one of us will step outside of our cozy lunar cabin and walk our space-suited dog with long, floating steps down some dusty lunar road. We'll look up and say, "There's a pretty full Earth tonight!"
But on this frosty Christmas Eve, your feet crunch Earth's cold ground with a crisp clear sound as you walk back toward the house looking up through the silvery stillness at the lovely moon and its bright partner, Mars. The only other sounds you hear are dog tags jingling like sleigh bells. Suddenly a shadow flits across the moon. A cloud? A plane? A sleigh! Maybe those were sleigh bells you heard!
Smiling to yourself, you open the door to go back inside, taking one last glance at the night sky and one of the loveliest heavenly sights you’ll see for years.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Pleaides M45

Beautiful image of M45 taken on 10th December.
The Pleaides is a wonderful cluster of stars that is now visible high in the South East. I used to call it the 'Little Bear' because it looks like a minature version of Ursa Major 'The Plough'.
This cluster is very special as all the bright stars are blue and very hot. This makes nearby gas to glow because of the energy and produces nebulocity. I have taken images before of M45, but could not capture the glow. This time I managed to capture M45 with it's blue nebulocity and looks beautiful!
Tonight the sky is clear and the Moon sits low in the Southern sky, but it is frosty and really cold, I really didn't feel like going outside tonight. My next task is to try to image the Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula. I have never seen these before, but judging by the results of the Orion Nebula, i'm sure I can capture a reasonable image.
I'm beginning to think about changing some of my equipment, the Skywatcher 130m is brilliant for planetary work with the webcam, but I cannot attach the Canon 350D. Should I replace the scope with a Skywatcher ED80 refractor? This can easily be attached to the SLT mount...hmm....still thinking!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Orion Nebula M42 and Running Man Nebula



These images taken on 10th December, the lower image is a closer view of the blur at the top of the Orion Nebula image.
Cold, clear and frosty evening and a beautiful sky! At first I took about an hour of images of M45 Plaiedes while I waited for Orion to rise over the rooftops. I have waited a long time now to try to capture a more detailed image of the Orion Nebula with my Canon 350D. This is my first attempt and results are stunning! I played around a bit with colours which has given me several different results, the one above is my favourite!
The image is composed of 60 x 30s images, stacked in Deepskystacker and processed in Photoshop 7. Canon 350D and Skywatcher ST80 telescope.
If you look closely at the lower image you can see a shadow of a 'running man' this is a feint nebula above the main Orion nebula

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Comet Holmes 17p


These images taken of Comet Holmes on Sunday Night 11th November with the ST80 telescope and Canon 350D camera - wonderful!
The comet is gradually becoming bigger but more transparent, you can clearly see stars through the coma and the colour is stunning. Apparantly, Comet Holmes lost it's short tail a couple of days ago, but even then it was difficult to image. I think the bow of the comet is facing the Earth and the tail (what there is of it) is trailing behind.
Comet Holmes has reached a diameter of 1.4 million Kilometres, this makes it the biggest object in the solar system, bigger than the Sun in size but not mass.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Latest M33 and M74


M33 Pinwheel Galaxy and M74 Phantom Galaxy

Beautiful clear night on Sunday, crisp and frosty!
I wanted to try again at M33 with the ST80 and 1 minute exposures. I can't really go further than that with the mount because of star rotation. I'm not sure if Deepspacestacker will correct larger rotations.
Much more detail than my previous attempts, but I can't bring out the colour, probably because longer exposures are still needed. Still..i'm still amazed that I can capture this galaxy at all!

I am even more amazed to capture an image of M74 galaxy! This feint little object close to M33 has a magnitude greater than 10.0. Cannot even see it visually! You can see the shape of this spiral galaxy, but not much detail...i'm dead pleased with it though!
I've got to say that the Celestron SLR GoTo mount is brilliant, no way would I be able to find thse objects with my Skywatcher 130m. They are face-on spiral galaxies and are a sod to find!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Frogspawn in Space?


Another image of Comet Holmes 17p taken on 8th November.

This time I used 30s exposures with the Canon 350D and 200mm lens. Stars are streaking and there is movement from the Comet, but a nice image!

Comet Holmes has grown in size, but has become more diffuse. It can be seen easily with the naked eye but I also had a look with the Skywatcher 130...WoW! It is enormous...the Comet completely filled the FOV with a 17mm eyepiece. This is the biggest Comet since Halley-Bopp back in 1997!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Fireworks in space!




I like this image of Comet Holmes...this image produced from two lots of images stacked in Deepskystacker (DSS)
A spectacular object and now larger than any planet! Whatever caused the outburst of this comet is better than any terestial firework on bonfire night!
Since becoming interested in Astro-imaging i'm amazed at the number of comets that are about and can be seen from Earth, this one without a telescope. It's just knowing where to look. I'm surprised that this comet has not had a mention on television, it is so easy to see!
Happy Birthday Website!!!
My website has now been running for two years and I have had more than five thousand hits! (alright...a lot of them mine) ...but when I look at the statistics I can see that I have had hits from all round the world...brilliant!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Comet Holmes 17p



A couple of nice images taken myself last night of Comet Holmes.
Amid the pops and bangs of fireworks I managed to take some images of the comet with my Canon 350D on a tripod with the 200mm zoom lens. Although the sky was clear, there was a lot of smoke and mist in the air. The widefield view was taken with the 200mm zoom lens set at 50mm while the close up view was taken with the zoom lens set at 200mm.
I would like to try imaging the comet with the ST80, but I will wait for a clearer night!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween Holmes


Comet 17P Holmes....Spooky!
At the moment in the constellation of Perseus, lies a strange object bright enough to view without a telescope. It is the Comet 17P Holmes which started as a very feint object a couple of weeks ago and then suffered an 'outburst' which has increased it's brightness to that of a bright star!
It's coma is ghostly!
Problem is...I can't see it at the moment because of the total cloud cover. I hope to capture an image as soon as the cloud clears...watch this space!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Wildfires and Discovery Launch



I found out today by accident, that the Space Shuttle Discovery was launched today on it's way to the ISS again to build on more of the Space Station.

Not a mention on today's news!

It seems that the only way to find out these days are from the NASA site directly including the super NASA TV site.

Only a couple of days ago I was watching the ISS pass overhead, the rest of the country total oblivious to this bright star (without lights) which can't be missed and wonderful to view!

Meanwhile, on the other side of USA, wildfires are causing havoc in California and making the news. The satelite pictures are superb, but again...why don't they show them on TV?

Last week the Russian Soyuz craft docked with the ISS, again...not a mention in the news.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

M33 Triangulum Galaxy


M33 Triangulum Galaxy
This image was taken with my Canon 350D and 200mm zoom lens mounted on the Celestron SLT. Quite a bit of processing to bring out this feint object, but you can clearly see the arms of this face on galaxy. I have tried to find this with my Skywatcher 130m but just cannot find it!
The SLT is brilliant, it finds objects with no problem once the mount has been set up correctly.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Andromeda again!

This image taken on the 17th October.
Another go at M31, this time with the 200mm lens fitted to the Canon 350D and mounted onto the ST80 mount. I also used dark frames and a flat frames with this one for the first time. I must admit that I don't fully understand flat fields. The ones used here were shots of an empty twilight sky. I love the widefield view of the stars with Andromeda in the centre. I still can't find the 'ulimate' image, but i'm trying hard!
Weather at the moment is gorgeous, warm sunshine and freezing cold but clear nights

ISS pass in twilight

This nice image taken on the 17th October at 7.05pm.
It's great to see the ISS pass over in clear skies. I tried to take some stills but can't see much detail. The image above was taken with my Canon 350D, 20s exposure, ISO 400. ISS travelling from West to South East. Quite a difficult shot really as it was still light and the settings were an educated guess.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Andromeda and M33




Here they are...my best yet Andromeda Galaxy and first M33 Triangulum Galaxy.
Wonderful Indian Summer weather, temp still in the 70's and some nice clear nights. This morning I woke up and looked out of my bedroom window and saw a beautiful sight, the cresent Moon and Venus close together!

On Friday night I set up my camera and ST80 to have another go at Andromeda. Took nearly an hour to set up and centre Andromeda with the 350. I decided to try 45 sec subs as this seemed alright on my test images. I left DSLR Shutter to take 120 exposures of Andromeda and this worked fine. This time I used JPG format rather than RAW.

Later I tried the same with M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy. The results are impressive after a few hours on PhotoShop.

I really need to remember to take Darks as the results have a lot of noise and blue pixels which i'm sure can be ellimated. I must admit that I got quite frustrated with these images because you never know when to stop processing. I'm sure that someone who knows Photoshop better than me could produce superb images from the raw data.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Dawn Spacecraft Launched


NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on its way to study a pair of asteroids after lifting off today from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:34 a.m. EDT (4:34 a.m. PDT).
(Click the picture - it's brill!)


My name is now digitally on it's way to the origin of the Solar System contained in a microchip aboard the Dawn Probe...cool!


The spacecraft will arrive at the asteroids Vesta and Cares sometime in 2011.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Harvest Moon

A beautiful Harvest Moon tonight!
The sky is perfectly clear with a real Autumn nip in the air, forecast tonight is frost as high pressure sits over the country. I wonder how many farmers are out in the fields bringing in the harvest in the moonlight?
It is certainly bright enough here!
Took this image from my front garden with the Canon 350D set up on a tripod.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Andromeda Galaxy


This beautiful galaxy has set me a quest - to take a beautiful image of it! I'm getting there slowly!

Now high in the East, Andromeda can be found easily even with binoculars, it is seen as a fuzzy blur. Trying to image it is a challenge as the object is large and the swirls and dust lanes are quite feint.

On the 14th September the sky was perfectly clear and I now have the leads for my camera to run dslr shutter. This means that I can set up the telescope, track my target and take multiple timed exposures with the camera. I decided to take about 100 x 30 second exposures of the Andromeda Galaxy. I set up the equipment and then left it to take the photos automatically controlled by my laptop. I set the format this time for RAW in the hope that I might get a better resolution than the normal JPG format.

Well, all kinds of things started to go wrong....clouds...battery went down in the camera...tracking motor stopped. In the end I managed about 70 exposures and then stacked them in Deepskystacker.

The result above is after hours of processing and stacking.

I have the images in FIT format as well and i'm sure the results will be super in a suitable FITs processor, but I can't seem to get one working! Still, something to play with later perhaps!

Friday, September 07, 2007

M81 and M82



These are known as 'Bodes Galaxy' and the 'Cigar Galaxy' they are in the constellation of Ursa Major. I have seen them before with my Skywatcher 130 reflector, but not easy to find.

On Tuesday the night sky was wonderful, so I set up the ST80 and SLS computerised mount to point at Ursa Major and try to image M81, M82, Whirlpool Galaxy and Pinwheel Galaxy.

Again, the SLT mount along with 'Starry Night' was superb! I managed to image all of these with the Canon 350D. The Pinwheel Galaxy and the Whirlpool Galaxy was a bit feint and needed more and maybe longer exposures, but i'm so pleased that I captured them!

I now need a lead for dslr shutter so that I can leave the computer to take continuous images for an hour without intervention.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

G4AQB Astro Wiki

Today I went to W.H. Smith to get a copy of this months Sky at Night Magazine. Guess what?
On page 75 under 'Super Sites' my Astro Wiki Site is listed with a screen capture of my site!
I'm really pleased, especially when I checked the traffic to the site. (Fame at last!) I wonder if Patrick Moore or Chris Lintott has looked at my sites? Click HERE for my Astro Wiki.
OK...what is a WIKI?
Well, you can add and edit pages on a WIKI (WIKIPEDIA) Quite a powerful medium for adding and building up information on a particular subject although there are a lot of sceptics as I found out when I posted on SPA!
I did know earlier when Sarah Reed from S@N sent me an e mail but I wasn't sure which month of the magazine it would be in.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

M52 Scorpion Cluster and M103



M103 (top) and M52 (lower)
Here are a couple more images taken on 7th August. Again, widefield views with the Canon 350D and ST80.

There is a nice piece of software called DSLR Shutter which allows the camera to take multiple exposures of any length. Problem is...it appears to work from an RS232 port which my laptop has not got. I'm trying to find a way of using a USB port, but if i'm also controlling the scope and i'm not sure if another USB - RS232 converter will work.

Well, Summer continues to be anything but! Now we have winds from the North, clouds and cool...and I mean COOL. Last weekend it rained non-stop...and i'm getting a bit fed up!

Bank Holiday Weekend coming up, you know what Bank Holiday weather is like!

I wonder if for once it could be nice?

Friday, August 17, 2007

Quite a crop!



Above is the Coathanger Cluster, M15 Pegasus Cluster and my best image yet of the huge M31 Andromeda Galaxy with M110 and M32 along with it.
These images taken on the 7th August 2007 with my Canon 350D and ST80 Telescope. I think I could have carried on imaging some of the less known objects as the telescope was controlled by my laptop with the 'Starry Night' software. All I had to do was point and click and the telescope and camera would do the rest.
Since that night things have gone downhill weather wise. For the last few nights I have waited to be able to image the ISS with the Space Shuttle 'Endeavour' attached to it, but at the the time of the pass nothing but clouds and rain!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

A grand night out!



The Great Hercules Cluster M13, Dumbell Nebula M27 and Owl Cluster NGC 475.

Last week on August 7th the night was perfect! Warm, still and perfectly clear...the best for months! I set up my Skywatcher ST80 with the SLT mount and Canon 350D camera at prime focus. Tracking was perfect and the laptop was used to control the slew and position of the mount. Camera was controlled and monitored by the laptop so that I could get perfect focus.
The wide field images that I captured blew by cotton socks off!
The scope slew perfectly from one object to another, had to wait 5min or so before imaging to let the scope settle. Here are the objects that I managed to capture:
Coathanger Cluster, Great Hercules Cluster, M15 Cluster in Pegasus, M103, Owl Cluster NGC 457, M52 Scorpion, Andromeda Galaxy, Wide angle views of Cygnus.
A grand night out!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Star trails in Cygnus

Took this picture last week of NGC 7000, The North America Nebula (centre) I was trying to capture this in detail by using a long exposure with the Canon 350D and wide angle lense. The camera was attached to the Celestron SLT mount so that it could be tracked. You can see that the centre is spot on, but then other stars appear to be rotating around the centre. This is because the SLT mount is actually an Alt - Az device, which means that on very long exposures like this, the tracking stays on course but the rotation will be obvious.
Exposure time was about 6min. This is a problem with an SLT mount, you can only take images without the rotation up to about 1min.
This makes a lovely image of part of the Milky Way! The colours of the stars in the region are amazing!
I have sent this image to 'Sky at Night' Magazine...fingers crossed!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Phoenix Lander heads for Mars


At 5:26 EDT the Delta II Rocket carrying the Phoenix Mars Lander lifted off from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
In less than 90 minutes the spacecraft had left Earth's orbit headed for the Red Planet. This marks the beginning of Phoenix's 10 month cruise to Mars.
Phoenix will land on the northern plains of Mars and will dig into the soil and water-ice looking for evidence of past habitability.

A quarter million names -- including those of all Planetary Society members -- and many of the greatest works of Martian literature, are headed off to Mars. Remember this is not a standard DVD -- its an archival quality silica glass mini-DVD designed to last for hundreds of years in Mars' hostile environment.
The mini-DVD hardware heritage goes back to a design for the cancelled 2001 Mars lander. A few years later, with the LEGO Company, we flew a similar DVD on the landers for both Mars Exploration Rovers. And, now, our DVD is flying on the very spacecraft base for which it was originally designed, as Phoenix is the rebirth of the 2001 Mars lander—risen from the ashes and improved.


I'm also on my way to Mars, along with my Dad and Melissa engraved on the DVD!

Links:

Friday, August 03, 2007

Jupiter and Moons

Jupiter and 6 Moons!

Jupiter is very low in the Southern sky at the moment, but very bright. It is actually between the bushes above my fence, which makes it difficult to image. This was taken about 10.30pm on the 1st August between the leaves of my bushes! If you look carefully (click image to enlarge) you can see Six of Jupiter's Moons. Look carefully for one very close just to the left of Jupiter itself.

Again, taken with the ST80 and Canon 350D attached. Single exposure of 20s @ iso 800.

Widefield M27



Another image captured the other night, M27 - Dumbell Nebula. (bottom right) better if you click the image to make it bigger.

This one is really hard to find, but with the SLT mount controlled by my laptop I was able to simply point and click on screen and the scope with the Canon 350D fitted slewed straight to the object. I discovered that it takes about 5 minutes or so for the mount to properly settle before capturing the images. A couple of weeks ago I bought a 'bulb' for the 350D (remote exposure switch) came from China and cost about £2! This has been great for long exposures of over 30s. I also used the Canon capture software to take single exposures and then check the focus, problem is that the images are saved to the desktop in .TIFF format, so a lot of messing about converting the files was needed as my version of PSP will not accept .TIFF files.

Anyhow..here is the final cropped image of M27, stacked 5 subs at 30s each, iso 1600, processed in Photoshop.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Summer at last!


The last few days have actually brought SUNSHINE and even some clear nights. After what is officially the wettest June and July on record we now move into August. I'm now looking forward to a great Indian Summer!

The last couple of nights I went out in the garden and managed to image NGC 7000, the North American Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. I've always wanted to capture some good images of this, particularly in wide field. My first attempt was taken with the Canon EOS 350 and the Skywatcher ST80. 6 frames of 30 seconds stacked with Deep Space Stacker.

The images are amazing individually, Cygnus is in the Milky Way belt and the number of stars are breathtaking (even from my back garden!)

More to come soon!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Noyes Fludde


Did I mention Global Warming back in April?
It has rained now every day for the last six weeks, torrential rain, summer storms, drizzle, constant showers and cats and dogs!!

Forecast for the next week is the same! Will it ever stop?

The wettest June in 150 years and July looks the same....what has happened to Summer this year? Could it be Global Warming or did Noah get it right?
I'm still not convinced!
It can only get better...surely!!
My poor telescopes have lay dormant and apart from one night this week for about half an hour, there has not been a clear night in six weeks.
Update:
Worst Floods in History (since Noah!)
"Flood ravaged areas of England are being warned that more heavy rain is set to sweep across the country.
Hundreds of families are still unable to return to their homes as floods continue to affect parts of Yorkshire and the Midlands."
Following this floods in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire left towns and villages near to the River Avon and Severn underwater. Tewksbury, Gloucester, Evesham and even the M5!
Unbelievable!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Apollo 11

Well, eight days to go and our school is shutting down and moving to a new building.
A lot of memories here...
Last week we celebrated the opening of our school in 1960 with a 60's week so that children today could experience life in the 1960's. The picture above is a large display made by the kids and myself to celebrate Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon during July 1969.
It was great listening to 60's music and re-living that day on the 20th July 1969.
I've been here at St. Andrew's now for 15 years, strange that my school closes on 20th July 2007 ... the same day that man walked on the moon and a date I will never forget!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Space Shuttle Landing

This is an amazing still picture of the touchdown of Atlantis at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Space Shuttle Missions get very little coverage on the BBC or any other media for that matter unless of course it blows up!

NASA Television is a superb site for watching live and recorded pictures of the missions. I watched Atlantis STS-117 take off live and tonight watched the landing live. The mission is a bit special because I was able to 'see' in the sky the ISS and watch the launch live on it's journey to the ISS. It became very 'real' so I was able to follow the mission. I began to feel a little bit like the Apollo 11 days where you realise that technology is wonderful and children need to be aware of what is happening out there in space.


I watched Mission Control bring down this Space Craft from a speed of 17,000mph in half an hour to glide gracefully to a standstill in a desert in California and it's not on a PSP2!
Here are some statistics: 22/6/07

Official Landing Times Main gear touchdown:20:49:38 p.m. BST


Nose gear touchdown:20:49:49 p.m.


EDT Wheels stop: 20:50:48 p.m.


EDT Total miles: 5.8 million


Wednesday, June 20, 2007

New look ISS

ISS trail from my back garden at the time of the Space Shuttle launch.


Yesterday the Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station in preparation for return to Earth. The photos of the ISS taken from the Space Shuttle are stunning! The ISS is now bigger than ever and will no doubt reflect more light to the Earth as it passes over my back garden. Weather is not good at the moment...and getting worse!

I'm looking forward to seeing the ISS pass overhead again with it's new look. Let's hope I can take a good image of it.

The other night I downloaded a satellite tracking programme that will find and track the ISS with a telescope. I'm hoping that my Celestron SLT is supported by this programme, so I want to test it next time we have clear skies and the ISS in view.

Later today the Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Close up ISS



Close up image of the ISS taken during the second pass on Friday Night. I have tried to bring out some detail, and if you look carefully you can tell that it has a vague 'space station' shape. I have just seen some incredible images if the ISS docked with the Space Shuttle taken last night by others with telescopes.

(How can you track the ISS with a telescope and image it at the same time? It moves pretty fast!!)






Saturday, June 09, 2007

The ISS Trail

The Space Shuttle Atlantis 45 minutes after taking the picture below.
Click the image above it's brill!


The first attempt at imaging the International Space Station about 90 minutes earlier hand-held was not successful, so I tried again on the second pass. This time I mounted my Canon 350D onto a tripod and waited for the ISS to appear. The image above was taken with a 20 second exposure set to wide field. This was about 45 minutes before the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis with a mission to dock with the ISS and build - on to the station.

I watched the launch live from NASA TV and this was amazing! The image above is from the launch.

To think that I have just taken images of the ISS over my own back garden then watched the Space Shuttle live heading for the ISS gives me a wonderful feeling!


Friday, June 08, 2007

International Space Station Pass

For the first time I have just watched the ISS from my garden! An amazing sight...it is 10.25 and still light, but the ISS is very bright and is easily seen. I took some photos with my 350D, but I couldn't hold the camera still enough, all I can see are random trails from the ISS.
What is even more amazing is that in 2 hours time the Space Shuttle Atlantis is about to launch from Cape Canaveral to dock with the ISS and add on new parts. I really wish I could take a decent image of the station...even better with the Space Shuttle attached!
The next pass is at 23.56pm travelling West to East. I will try again to capture some images...fingers crossed!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The Elusive Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)


The Whirlpool Galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Plough) is more or less at zenith (straight up!) My computerised mount won't cope with this as it is outside it's limits for tracking so I have tried to find this elusive galaxy with my Skywatcher 130M.

I know where to look, but I just can't find it! If I could at least see a fuzzy object, I could point the camera and take some long exposure images and maybe see something.

So...I called on the BRT to try to take an image for me...and here it is!

This would be a super object to capture with my own equipment...maybe one day?

Here are the settings of the BRT in Tenerife:

Request ID
49535
Job ID
35899
Object Type
MESSIER
Object ID
51
Object Name
The Whirlpool Galaxy
Exposure Time
120000 ms
Filter Type
Colour
Dark frame
Instant
Site Name
Tenerife
Telescope Type Name
Galaxy
Telescope Name
Galaxy Camera
Request Time
22:59 on Friday 25 May 2007 (21:59:51 UTC)
Completion Time
04:22 on Monday 28 May 2007 (03:22:33 UTC)
Comments
Whirlpool Galaxy
Status
Complete

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt!



All Aboard the Dawn Spacecraft!

During the “Send Your Name to the Asteroid Belt” campaign, at NASA's JPL site:
more than 360,000 people signed up to participate in a virtual voyage to the asteroid belt. The computer chip holding all the participants’ names has now been installed on the Dawn spacecraft in preparation for flight in June.

I managed to add most of my family names to the 'chip' for it's journey to Vesta and Ceres and who knows beyond...

I think that it is amazing that we are being digitally transported to Deep Space and to Mars! Even if the spacecraft doesn't make it that 'chip' will float around space until eternity...makes you think a bit doesn't it!!

The Vesta Asteroid can be be seen at the moment near to Jupiter with binoculars but gets brighter in about a weeks time. The surface of Vesta has a high reflective surface and will in fact make it visible with a naked eye as long as you know where to look!

I'm going to try to find it next time the sky is clear...watch this space!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Phoenix Spacecraft to Mars


This e-mail came out of the blue!

Dear Stephen Macdonald,

Thank you for participating in The Planetary Society's Messages from Earth project!
Your name is now one step closer to Mars. The silica glass mini-DVD with a quarter million names on it -- including yours -- has been installed on the Phoenix spacecraft, and is ready to go to Mars!
The spacecraft has just successfully been flown to Cape Canaveral, and now will begin final testing and preparation for launch. Phoenix will arrive and land in the northern near-polar regions in late May or early June 2008 (exact date dependent upon launch date). We’ll keep you
updated on the mission as it progresses towards launch, and of course, update you on its launch and landing.

Sincerely,

Bruce BettsDirector of Project
The Planetary Society

WoW!! I'm going to Mars!

Last year during the window where you could add your name to the spaceship database so I added some names to travel to Mars!

Out of this world!!

Jodrell Bank



On the North West side of Bolton, there lies a hill called Winter Hill. The views from the side of the hill to the South on a clear day are superb! You can see the town of Bolton, the city of Manchester and as far as the Cheshire Plains and even the mountains of North Wales.

When the sun sets, and the telescope is pointing roughly North, the Jodrell Bank Telescope catches the sun and can be seen easily from Winter Hill.Here was the view tonight which shows some of the old mills in Bolton, Trafford Park (an industrial area in Manchester) and the Cheshire Plain where Jodrell Bank is located. Jodrell Bank is about 40 miles away (as the crow flies!)

On the right of the image, just further down and right from Jodrell Bank is a huge mill called Swan Mill. This was once the largest Cotton Mill in the area and it's now a listed building because of it's stunning architecture. Some of the mills that now survive in Bolton are being converted into expensive 5 star apartments. It must be great if you are an astronomer...you could set up an observatory on the roof of a 10 story mill away from the Light Pollution!!

Hope you enjoy the image, taken with my Canon 350D and 200mm zoom lens from Scout Rd.