The Great Hercules Cluster

Since the weather is a bit grot, I tried to find an AVI that I took on the 3rd June of The Great Hercules Cluster with my Skywatcher 130m. I didn't think it came out well on my first attempt at processing, but tonights attempt looks quite cool!

I wonder what it looks like with the Bradford Robotic thingy...think i'll submit a job!

Let's see what happens...

Technical Innovation Centre (T.I.C.)

Had a great time yesterday at the Bolton Technical Innovation Centre (T.I.C.) Took sixty children from school on a day out learning about 'Flight'. The children designed, built and tested rockets, gliders and paper helicopters. It was a great opportunity for children to learn 'hands-on' how things work!
One of the highlights was designing an aircraft in 3D on a computer using a program called Cinema 4D - a super piece of software!
We did'nt have time unfortunately to see the 3D Space Planetarium which you view with 3D glasses, when I saw this before it was superb! (Apparantly the only copy of the software for this in this country is installed in the centre!)

Some like it hot!

Brilliant weather!

It has been a great June so far. I went in the garden on the 7th June very late to capture some images. I got some great images of Jupiter...still very low down, but found that my tracking motor on the 130m was not tracking. Could this be the batteries? Polar alignment was fine, but no tracking!
Well, bought some more batteries but I need some clear nights now to test it. I must admit, the sky has been clear but also hazy, not much you can do really!

Here is an image of Jupiter and two moons taken on the 7th June.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Latest image returned to me from the Bradford Robotic Telescope...not bad eh!!
A bit under exposed, but fairly clear, this one is in grey scale. I want to image the Whirlpool with my own equipment, I know where it is, but just can't see it. Had a nice night in the garden on Friday night, took some images of the Ring Nebula and Hercules Cluster, stayed out till about 3.00am. Amazing...it never goes dark...by 2.45am the sky was light and the stars fading fast.
Here are the request details for the Bradford Scope:

Request ID 29456
Job ID 21033
Object Type MESSIER
Object ID 51
Object Name The Whirlpool Galaxy
Exposure Time 100000 ms
Filter Type Colour
Dark frame Instant
Site Name Tenerife
Telescope Type Name Galaxy
Telescope Name Galaxy Camera
Request Time 22:08 on Friday 2 June 2006 (21:08:33 UTC)
Completion Time 23:41 on Saturday 3 June 2006 (22:41:58 UTC)
Comments M51 Whirlpool
Status Complete

Bradford Telescope

A lovely day today! Sunshine all the way, it's clear outside at the moment, but still light and a bit hazy. Oh...and Melissa has Chicken Pox!!
I've seen some of the results of the robotic telescopes and they are really impressive. The Faulkes Telescope seems to be best, but I need to register our school so that we can use it. I have used the Bradford Telescopes for a while now, but can't seem to get the settings right. The jobs that come back are under or over exposed and usually fuzzy. I was really pleased when I captured this one of the Ring Nebula (M57), these are the settings and info:

Request ID 28903
Job ID 20564
Object Type MESSIER
Object ID 57
Object Name The Ring Nebula
Exposure Time 120000 ms
Filter Type Colour
Dark frame Instant
Site Name Tenerife
Telescope Type Name Galaxy
Telescope Name Galaxy Camera
Request Time 21:16 on Sunday 28 May 2006 (20:16:18 UTC)
Completion Time 05:14 on Thursday 1 June 2006 (04:14:37 UTC)
Comments
Status Complete

I have just submitted another job for The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), I still cannot see it with my own scopes.

Noah's Ark

Well, I think the weather is trying to rain for forty days and forty nights! My neighbour has started building an ark! It's Bank Holiday Weekend and guess what...it's raining again!!
Managed to take some images of Jupiter the other night, half the sky was crystal clear the other clouds drifting very slowly towards Jupiter. I couldn't polar align the scope as the Pole Star was completely hidden!
Surely the weather can only get better...

New EQ1 mount

Last week I splashed out and bought a new EQ1 mount for my Skywatcher ST-80. In this country EQ1's on it's own are not easy to find! So I went to www.telescope-service.de/ in Germany and ordered one from there. The mount arrived by courier in just 4 days - Great service!

The mount is just right for the scope and leaves my Skywatcher 130m with it's EQ2 mount without the extra weight. The next thing that I need is a Red Dot Finder for the ST-80 to replace the finder scope that came with it.

Managed to get a couple of images last week with the ST-80, although the weather has been nice it is either cloudy or hazy when it goes dark so had to stick with Moon images. Here is one from 5th May of just over half a Moon!

Full Moon at last!

I have waited for months to capture a full screen image of the Full Moon. Can't do that with my Skywatcher 130m as the image is just too big and the focal reducer don't work!. I know that it can be done with the new ST80 refractor with the focal reducer giving the whole of the Moon without making a mosaic.
Well, the Full Moon came late, about 12.00, but it only just cleared the roof tops, so I waited until I could get a clear shot. Then, guess what...clouds!!
Gave up in the end so had to pack up and go in. I really wanted an image of the Full Moon and at about 1.15am the sky cleared and I quickly set up and managed to capture the images that I wanted!

Great...Full Moon at last!

Clear sky at last!

As it went dark I began to set up my gear. It's Monday, 10th April, a lovely evening, the Moon high in the South East, bright and clear. The Moon waxing at 93% so I took some images first with my Skywatcher ST80 with the f0.6 reducer. Some brilliant images of a nearly full moon. Then I switched to the 130m and picked out some features to image. The best must be Tycho in both colour and grey-scale and Copernicus - loads of detail!
You can see these on my website.
Having some problems at the moment with tracking, maybe too much weight on the mount with both scopes. Sometimes the motor tracks fine then seems to stop - could do with another mount for the ST80 or maybe mount the scope differently?

Spring at last?

Well, tonight I managed to see some clear skies at last! The poor Dafodils have fought against all odds to bloom only to be bashed to bits by the torrential rain, hail and winds this weekend. Cold, but nice in the garden tonight, captured a few images of the Moon with and without the Focal Reducer. I now need a nice sunny day to balance and align the mount on my scopes.
Here is an image of tonight's Moon with the Focal Reducer on the ST80 telescope, looks really good in colour!

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.

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!

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.

Skywatcher ST80 Refractor

New telescope has arrived, I wanted short wide field refractor to suppliment my 130m. I opted for the Skywatcher ST80.
A brilliant little scope, I have mounted it on the same EQ2 mount as the Skywatcher 130m. Some great wide field views. I took a couple of images with the scope and am just getting used to using the scope. I find that my Toucam needs an extention tube to get back focus on the scope. For this I used two barlow lens cases with the lens unscrewed.

Listen to this space for more on the scope!

Saturn Night

Tonight's Image

After two weeks of cloud and gloom the sun came out and tonight was clear and looked GOOD!
The Moon was bright so I had a go at imaging Saturn again, tried to find the Eskimo Nebula but it was a bit close to the Moon, so no luck.

New Telescope

Took this pic of Saturn in January!

Well, i've took the plunge and ordered a new SkyWatcher ST80 Short Tube Refractor. I gave this a lot of thought and even tried to get one from E Bay. My SkyWatcher 130m is superb - I love it! At this time of year though I want to capture some images of objects that are just too big to fit on screen with the Toucam and 130m. My Focal Reducer does not work with the 130m so decided to add a ST80 to solve the problem.

Trouble is...supplier is out of stock, so I will have to wait a bit for it to arrive!

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