Times Up

I knew the time was looming fast. We move in 3 weeks now and I have to work a nine day stretch. So I have spent this evening Stripping out cables and power supplies. So Saham observatory has seen its last photon. It has served me well. Never once leaked or failed to operate as it was designed. A testament to my over engineering me thinks. There own trumpet blown. So goodbye and thank you for the service you provided. However I shall utilise as much as I can into the new Hills Observatory opening ???????. Just missed out a 2.1m dome too 24 hours too late (gutted). So it will be a while before any new pics posted but I will be posting the new build project, In whatever form it may take. Cheers everyone and keep looking in from time to time.Clear skies to you all while I am out of action.

M13

We have been graced recently with some great clear nights. 5 in a row at last count but tonight was the 1st without the wind. So on goes the canon. I have said now a couple of times this may be the last pic for a while as I am moving, but the clear skies just keep on coming!!!

Anyway onto the good stuff. This is a slightly cropped and DDP processed image of 20 x 300 second exposures at ISO400.

It never fails to amaze me the sensitivity of the cameras just seems to get better. We can now image detail in the nearby 12th mag ngc6207. No longer just a fuzzy blob next to it.

About 124 light years in diameter M13 contains a few hundred thousand stars.

M3

I was not going to give up on the chance of was last imaging run before we move and be without a working observatory over the summer months.

A few outside lights left on by my soon to be ex neighbour caused a few issues so I reduced the ISO to 400 and let off a few 5 minute exposures. This image was a total of 1 hour 20 minutes with a DDP stretch and star spikes. I am quite pleased with result despite the fact it is not the perect focus I have achieved before.

Last Light

Sad news fellow bloggers from Saham Observatory. Last light from my observatory maybe anyday now. For four years I have viewed the heavens from what is a reasonable, dark sky. Equipment has performed almost flawlessly giving me some wonderful images I have posted here. But alas all good things come to an end.

Now for some good news. We have a new house, bigger than the last one for our expanding family. and a better view of the southern sky from which to observe. No more trying to observe Orion from behind our roof. No more searching for a cosmic clouds of smoke, but  instead imaging smoke from the neighbours wood burner at two in the morning.

So it is back to the drawing board for me to come up with a new design for the new Hills Observatory. Bigger better, and for heavens sake Malcolm remember the the difference between external wall and internal wall measurements!!!!!!!

So a moving date of the first of june is on the cards. Whether I can get something built before the winter is another thing.

I will keep you all posted as to progress and will be sure to have a detailed photo blog to see the progress throughout construction.

M84 & M86

This was the last of the imaging runs last friday. I wanted to feature markarians chain. A slight error on my part was to angle the camera in the wrong orientation thus imaged only part of the chain. I was still amazed at this composite of 57 x 2 minute exposures at ISO 800. I have managed to capture 35+ galaxies down to mag 16 the deepest yet for me and the 90mm refractor. If you can spot any more let me know!!!

Earthshine

The same image as below this time with a 1/2 second exposure to capture the earthshine. I didn't want to go to overboard with the exposure.

The Moon

mThursday the 7th April saw the first of a few good but rare nights. To set up the camera and achieve a good focus I saw this bright thing in the sky and took a few pics. Iso 200 @ 1/25 The best of the buch I think.

The cosmic shiner

The last few nights has seen some lovely clear skies, despite light pollution from the local town of Watton approx 3 miles away and  a 30% illuminated moon. I thought I would have a go at M64 The Blackeye Galaxy


This cosmic punchbag of a galaxy has taken a recent pounding well about a billion years ago as experts believe, a small galaxy collision has left its mark. Messier added it to his collection despite it's discovery a year earlier. Resting a mere 24 million light years away. This is a combination of 1 hour 40 minutes of exposures @ ISO 1600. A final crop just show the bruise.

Partial Solar Eclipse

Good morning everyone. My last day before I return to taining. Haven't done a great deal of astronomy since November. I had the chance to go to our club observatory at Great Ellingham last night as we are hosting open evening's for Stargazing Live. A good turn out considering the cloud cover was 100%. Still visitors had the chance to see scopes set up on our astro pad and some visitors even bought their own scopes and asked for help in getting the best from them. A tour of the control room and gallery before we went upstairs to see the monster 20". Earlier that evening jupiter was visible so we had the webcam set up and showing a live view through a laptop. That was until the visitors and the clouds arrived. Anyway everyone I met was impressed with our set up and already looks like we may have a few new members from the first night.

I was tasked with a small errand this morningas Kate left for work. Looking east was again clouded out but I took the camera with me just in case of a break as it was already 08.30 as the partial eclipse was well under way. I had just returned and parked up when I saw a gap in the clouds. I dumped everything on the lawn and fired up the camera. Just enough time to take a couple of images before we were clouded out again.

Taken with the 40D Iso 100 1/160 sec for both images. Hope you like them

Sorry Everyone

Hello everyone,

I start a new job role in the middle of Jan and I am required by Her Majesty The Queen to be suitable trained and proficeint in which to excecute my duties. I will be away for 8 weeks of gruelling training and exams. Only coming home at the weekends to be with my family. I dont think astronomy will be very high on my list I am afraid. So I will miss imaging most of those winter delights. However if I can get into my suitcase I will tuck away the 20 x 50's and a few mags (space porn as Katie calls it) although not holding a great deal of hope for mag 6 clear skies over the Isle of Sheppey like here in Norfolk.

I have loaded the hard drive with lots of Master frames to re process and play with between revision breaks.

So please bear with me and enjoy / comment on my current posts and hope to be imaging again in the spring.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas to all my visitors from all over the globe.

Clear skies and wish me luck

Malcolm

The Moon

Well this is the first clear night in the first 12 days of my holiday, so I thought I would have a go at the moon. I thought I might take 100 shots crop them in Images plus and Registax them together.
Just a small reduction in brightness and an increase in contrast.

Result 76 frames. Images taken ISO 100. 1/160 sec each. At a mean distance of 236.305 Miles