The best of 2006!

Well, here we are at the end of another year. I've been trying out astro-imaging now for about two years and built up quite an array of telescopes and equipment. As I look back to 2006, March and April seems to have been the best months. Captured some nice images of Saturn and Jupiter and some nice Deep Space Objects with my Skywatcher ST80 during this time. Summer was long and hot, in fact the hottest Summer on record! Although I tried to capture some DSO's at this time I did'nt have much success, mainly because I simply could not find them.

I feel a bit frustrated because I want to try to image new objects, but my knowledge of the skies are a bit limited. It's great to see colourful star maps in magazines and even using a computer map to find objects, but when i'm in the garden with hazy skies and light pollution it's challenge to find objects.

My decision to go computerised and try out the Celestron Nexstar system will be interesting. Theoretically, I should be able to find even faint objects easily...I hope so!

So what was the highlight of 2006? I have to say capturing images of the Swan 2006 Comet! It was wonderful to see the comet so easily and track it during late October and November! So here it is again...