Big Brother in Space

Here I am with Vernon Kay!

Following the 50th Aniversary of Sky at Night it seems that the BBC need to jazz up their production of S@N , bring in a few celebrities and compete with Daytime TV

It seems that the only way these days to get early slots are reality programmes, soaps, auctions, gardening and houses!How about some suggestions:

Sky Force - Nominate someone for Alan and Charlie to come round while you are out to build and set up your dream observatory!

Big Brother in Space - Send Chris Linnott, Brian May John Culshaw, Mylene Klass and Jade to the International Space Station and we all watch it on reality TV with a focus on the cosmos! Sir Patrick could stay on Earth and stand in for Davina McColl!

Cash in the Observatory - Sell your old stuff through a specialist astro auction house to gain cash for a dream astro project!

Constellation Street - Weekly events of life in the cosmos, presented by Kate Ford.

M Farm - Dingles approach to Deep Sky Imaging!

50 years of Sky at Night!

An incredible aniversary when you consider the changes in technology! Started before the launch of Sputnik then through the Space Race years, Moon Landings, Hubble Telescope, International Space Station and Mars Landers it's pretty incredible.

Here is a quote from the BBC:

Sir Patrick Moore has presented the 650th episode of BBC One's astronomy programme The Sky at Night, nearly 50 years after the show first aired.
Sir Patrick presented the first show, when he was asked to do three programmes on astronomy in 1957.
At 83, he is British television's longest serving presenter, and still continues his own astronomy work.

The 50th aniversary programme was a real change from the norm. Featuring Brian May (Queen Guitarist) and Jon Culshaw who played a brilliant part as Sir Patrick 50 years ago! I really enjoyed the light hearted approach to Space and Science shown on the programme so I sent my own views to the S@N forum:

As a Primary School Teacher I would like to congratulate yourself, Sir Patrick, Brian, Jon Culshaw and everyone else involved in last night's programme. To traditional S@N watchers the aniversary programme was 'different' and maybe not as expected, but for young children with an interest in space and astronomy i'm sure that they will love it! It brought to life, in an entertaining way, how technology has progressed over the last 50 years and looked ahead to the next 50 years. This gives younger children something really positive to think about and gives a real stimulus for Science or Writing Projects. OK...the original programme was a bit late for younger children, but I will certainly be showing it to my class who are keen on learning about space. I think that you have produced a super resource that could encourage children to take more interest apart from 'Play Station' virtual space

Well Done Sir Patrick!

Spring at last!

Tonight's Sunset with image taken with my Canon 350D.

Spring at last...today the Sun shone and temperature reached 17 degrees, beautiful day! I even took my children on the field at school to play cricket this afternoon...gorgeous!

On Sunday I went out into the garden with my Skywatcher ST80 and SLT mount. After aligning the GoTo scope I connected my new copy of Starry Night Pro 5 with the RS232 Interface in the hope of getting the software to connect, find and guide objects in Starry Night. I must admit...I was astounded...it worked perfectly! I can point and slew to any Deep Sky Object in the Starry Night database with pinpoint accuracy!

Did a bit of housekeeping work over the weekend, tightened the SLT mount to stop my camera from moving the scope and got the power supply working with the mount. I can now control the telescope from both the handset and the Laptop. I'm not sure whether to add an electronic focus unit to ST80...still working on that one!

Spring Moon!

A lovely image of tonight's Cresent Moon and Earthshine.

The Moon was quite low in the Western sky, so it was difficult to take a picture using my Skywatcher ST80. Instead, I used my Canon 350D DSLR with a 200mm zoom lens fitted. It was a bit hard keeping the image perfectly still, even with a small tripod.

It's the first day of Spring tomorrow! (Spring has sprung?) The weather is bitterly cold, clear and crisp, temperature tonight dropping to -4 degrees! Yesterday it snowed, this happened last year and we had the hottest Summer on record, could this happen again?

Venus and Cresent Moon!

A beautiful sight - Venus and the Cresent Moon low in the Western sky.

The 'Earthshine' which is the part of the Moon not lit by the Sun, but from our Earth, can be seen plainly. I think tonight saw the best Earthshine ever and I wanted to capture this by using my DSLR Camera. It took a bit of patience and experimenting, but managed to take some great images!

This week I invested in a huge 320GB External Hard Drive so that I can store and catalogue my AVI's and Photos. I have astro stuff all over the place, including CD ROMs of early AVI's and particularly those of Mars which can be re-processed using new techniques and software. So I am now working on moving my images onto the new hard drive which can be accessed from both my desktop computer and Laptop.

I have also bought a copy of Starry Night Pro 5 which was on offer from Pulsar Optical. It arrived today so I am hoping that I will be able to control my SLR go-to mount from Starry Night. I think I may have to download some updates, but these should be free...watch this space!

Nice Night!

A wonderful night on the 12th and 13th March. Venus shining brightly and the sky clear. Orion looking spectacular in the Western Sky!

My target on the 12th March was Saturn with my Skywatcher ST80 and Toucam Pro II with IR (Infra-Red) block filter fitted. The image was taken with an Antares 3x Barlow lens, which took quite a while to set up! When the image was processed I used a stacked reference frame. The best 50 frames were stacked in Registax and then used this as a reference to align and stack the rest of the frames. Works really well!

Blood Red Moon!

Here is the latest processed image of the Moon in totality (completely eclipsed in shadow)

A beautiful blood red colour which lasted during the time that the Moon was in shadow.
Again, this was taken with the webcam and ST80 Telescope.
Enjoy!!

Lunar Eclipse with the webcam

The top image shows the beginning of the eclipse, the bottom image shows the Moon in totality.


Captured lots of still images of the lunar eclipse with the DSLR camera, but at the same time I was also capturing AVI's with my webcam fitted to the Skywatcher ST80 with focal reducer. With this I was able to track the moon manually and shoot during cloud breaks.

I spent most of yesterday processing these images using PaintShop Pro and Registax. I'm really pleased with the results!

The lunar eclipse has caused quite a stir, probably because the sky was so clear and gave the best views of a total lunar eclipse for many years. Even the BBC showed it on the news!

Lunar Eclipse

Last night was brilliant, Total Lunar Eclipse probobly the best for years. From about 7.30 to 9.30 the skies were clear and the Moon was full - a wonderfull sight! Took my Canon 350D out to set up the camera and take some images of the full moon, set up the Skywatcher ST80 telescope and Toucam Pro II webcam. Managed to get everything set up and ready for the eclipse.

A lovely night, cold but calm.

As soon as the eclipse started in came the clouds...would you believe it? Well...I managed to take images between the clouds and got some nice results.
When the Moon reached totality the skies cleared and revealed a wonderful sight of the Red Moon!

Certainly worth waiting for!

More with the 350D

Here are some more pictures taken with the Canon EOS 350D. These images of orion were taken with 200mm zoom lens, manual settings and 10 second exposure. The camera was mounted on a small tripod.

I have now sent for an adaptor to fit the camera to a telescope and some more info about using the camera.

New Camera!

Venus at Sunset with the Canon EOS 350D

Guess what? I didn't need much persuading...the Canon EOS 350D is a superb DSLR Camera! So I took the plunge and bought myself a complete kit with 18 - 55mm lens and additional 55 - 200mm zoom lens, 1Gb CF memory card and bag.

Visit to Jessops on Monday gave me chance to find out more and handle the camera, they have a good deal at the moment where the Tamron AF55 - 200m zoom lens comes at half price with the camera, well worthwhile. So after sleeping on it, I returned on Tuesday and bought it!

My first photos trying out the camera are impressive!

On Thursday the skies cleared at sunset so I tried some wide field shots of Venus, Orion and the Moon. Some hand held and others with a small tripod, the results were astounding (to me at least!) I was able to take 10 second exposures of Orion and Pleaides in darkness with just the zoom lens. Wide field shots of star fields are brill!

I'm going to have some fun with this camera.... anyone want to buy my old Pentax MV SLR and a couple of films?

Digital Rebel!

The Canon EOS 350D 'Digital Rebel'

Decisions, decisions...

I keep looking at the Canon EOS 350D camera with a view to harnessing the latest technology and trying some imaging with one of these. Some of the best Astro-Images are with this camera or similar but they cost a lot!!

Can I justify buying one of these?
Will I be opening a Pandora's Box of new techniques in imaging?
Will it cost me in in add-ons and adaptors?

Super Saturn

Even more pleased with this one!!

This the same image as the last post, but I processed the image a different way. This time I processed and stacked 50 frames in Registax then used it as a reference to stack the main 1500 frames.

I've only just found out that this can be done...WoW...I will try this with some of my other images, especially the Mars images from last year.

Saturn

I'm really pleased with this image!

A crisp and frosty night, just right for having a go at Saturn.

Last night I attempted to fit my Skywatcher 130 tube to the SLT mount by changing the fittings. My biggest problem was getting the dovetail to tighten up in the SLT clamp, when I had finally managed this I tried to align the computerised mount with three stars. What a mess! Kept refusing to acknowledge the settings...it seems that the batteries are going. So not really a successful night!

Tonight, I re-mounted the 130 again and bought new batteries for the mount in an attempt to image Saturn. The alignment was a bit out, even though the computer locked onto the settings, but I was able to image Saturn with the SLT mount. Once the mount had locked, tracking was very good, even with the 2x Barlow. Tonight I went to Maplin to buy a mains PSU for the mount, but it not work??? (why??) I will investigate this further.

The image above is 2000 frames @ 10fps of AVI with the Toucam Pro II, processed in Registax 4. I think I should have tried this with the 3x Barlow, but it was freezing outside and I wanted to go in.

Venus with Mercury again!

Another super sunset! This time I took pictures with the Sony Camera (as before) but with a small tripod fitted. You can clearly see Venus and Mercury together.

Full Moon with Saturn

What a night! First seeing Venus and Mercury for the first time and then the Moon and Saturn in conjunction.
The sky is clear and the air is crisp, so I set up my ST80 and SLT mount in the garden. At first I tried to image M42, but the SLT would not recognise the alignment stars, tried 3 or 4 times but no lock! Why is this? I thought...could it be the time settigs? It was! The time setting for the SLT was way out, I don't know why...I reset...and away it went! By this time M42 had disappeared behind a tree, the Full Moon had appeared above the rooftops, so I decided to try to image the Full Moon and that 'star' that was nearby. The tracking on the SLT mount is great, while imaging with the Toucam Pro II the Moon never moved!

After imaging a few Moon avi's I tried to capture the Moon and 'star'... when I did I could clearly see Saturn and the Moon.

WoW!

The full Moon is very bright, so in my images of Saturn and the Moon, the Moon is over exposed. The picture above is made up of two images taken at the same time of the Moon and Saturn and merged together...COOL!!

Venus and Mercury

Today was lovely! Cold and sunny!

Sunset was a beautiful sight, the sky turning red and orange, there in it's glory is Venus, by far the brightest object in the sky. Too low to see in a telescope from the ground, but from the window upstairs a wonderful sight. I waited scanning the sky for a second object to appear, Mercury, I have never seen Mercury in my life so tonight I was hopeful!

Around 5.30pm out popped Mercury! Sightly lower and West of Venus, but clear and bright. I tried to image the wonderful sight of a red sky with Venus and Mercury together with my Sony DSC-P73, the image does not really do justice to what I saw, but it captured the moment!

After this I brought in the Celestron 60mm scope tube and balance it on the windowsill to look at Mercury and Venus closer.
I'm really pleased with what I saw, Mercury...for the very first time!

Clear night at last!

At last...the rain has cleared and left a clear and frosty night!
Orion was in it's glory tonight, so a chance to take some images of the Orion Nebula and maybe the Running Man Nebula.

Took a while to align the SLT because I kept pressing the wrong buttons on the handset in the dark, but no problem once the skyalign found it's alignment stars. This mount is brilliant, aligns not only into the eyepiece, but also on screen on the laptop with the webcam. Tracking is great and rotation when imaging is not a problem any more with Registax 4 with the multi-align function.
Managed to image the Running Man Nebula, but not enough detail to show the nebula itself, can see the star cluster clearly though.

The image above of the Orion Nebula is 15 frames stacked, 30s per frame, processed in Registax 4.

Storm Force Winds!

Yesterday brought the worst storms since the famous 'hurricane' in 1990. By lunchtime the winds had reached 90mph and causing an awful lot of damage. At school we brought the children inside at lunch time because it was so dangerous out on the playground. The Winter Hill Transmitter recorded wind speeds of 99mph!

Today the wind is still strong, far too strong to attempt taking a scope outside, but the forecast looks good...it's getting cold...crisp, starry nights? Thats what I want really want!

First attempt with the SLT mount

Image of the spiral galaxy NGC 2776 taken by the JMU Robotic Telescope. The telescope took this picture for me last month. Cool!!


Today the sun shone brightly!

The first day that it hasn't rained for weeks!

Tonight was clear, so I took out my Celestron SLT mount with the Skywatcher ST80 fitted to the mount. I thought alignment might be tricky, but it wasn't, I set up the mount at the back of the garden and did a three star alignment. I just chose three bright stars and away it went!
From my handset list I chose the Orion Nebula, pressed ENTER and there it was in the eyepiece! Tried a few others in the list to check the slew on the scope...it worked fine! Tracking perfect!

A nice piece of kit...i'm really pleased. I now want to link the SLT to my Laptop so that I can select targets from the computer and hopefully be able to image some of the objects listed.