Supposed to be an “easy” target for astrophotographers, M42 the Orion Nebula has somehow always passed me by. I set out to remedy that in February, and have just finished processing this shot. The dynamic range of the photo is huge. The central core is visible to the naked eye, with four stars “The Trapezium” … Continue reading
It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since my last really satisfying session of Astrophotography. Cumbria, in the north west of the England, only seems to get one or two evenings per month of clear sky with no Moon, and I have given up several of these to organising stargazing with the … Continue reading
A clear, cold night with excellent seeing was the forecast for Monday, 28th November, so I set up in the back yard for an overnight session. Messier 45 “The Pleiades” would clear the tree line at 21.33 (south-east, elevation 53°) and disappear behind the roof line at 02.29 (south-west, elevation 45°) the following morning. Perfect … Continue reading
For some reason I never thought I would be able to photograph this galaxy. Wasn’t it supposed to be too faint, wasn’t the surface brightness too low, wasn’t it a target for much better systems than mine? I’ve no idea why, but that barrier had stuck in my mind. Looking for targets on my Sky … Continue reading
On 9 May 2016, shortly after 12 noon, the planet Mercury passed across the face of the Sun and the whole transit, lasting over seven hours, was visible from the UK. Resistance is futile, and the prospect of the transit screamed “TIME LAPSE VIDEO!” even though Mercury would be only 9 pixels in diameter on the 12MP … Continue reading
Monday night was forecast to be clear until midnight, but Monday night was also this month’s meeting of the Eddington Astronomical Society, where I was scheduled to be a contributor. The second hour of the meeting was a presentation by another member and it would have been rude to cut and run, so I arrived at my dark … Continue reading
