Monthly quick link:
| January/February |
March |
April |
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| May |
June |
July |
August |
| September |
October |
November |
December |
The Double Cluster h & Chi Perseus. Taken with the canon 300D plus 500mm F8 lens piggybacked on the 10" Newtonian. Stack of ~10, 30 second images. |
Messier 46, Open Cluster plus Planetary Nebula NGC 2438. Click here for close up of the Planetary Nebula. 10" Newtonian plus Canon 300D - stack of 8 20 second exposures |
Merope Nebula in the Pleiades (M45) Open Cluster. 10" Newtonian plus Canon 300D - stack of 5 20 second exposures plus image enhancement. Click here to see the small patch of nebulosity close in to Merope on a less over processed image that may be IC 349 |
Double Star Epsilon Gemini captured with a Phillips ToUCam II and the 10" Newtonian Reflector |
Messier 76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula. 10" F5 Newtonian Reflector + Canon 300D. Stack of 8, 1 minute exposures at 1600ISO and cropped. |
Messier 77, Spiral Galaxy in Cetus 10" F5 Newtonian Reflector + Canon 300D. Stack of 10, 1 minute exposures at 1600ISO and cropped. |
The almost Full Moon lies above Saturn on February 2nd 2007 at 22:23GMT 5" F9.5 Refractor - montage of two images of Moon and Saturn Click here for a close up showing Saturn better |
Venus and to its lower right Mercury taken on February 7th 2007 at 18:14GMT with the Canon 300D, 55mm lens, ISO 800, 5 second exposure. Uranus is also on the image but see next image |
Venus in conjunction with Uranus on February 7th 2007 at ~ 18:18GMT taken using a 50mmlens + 2 X converter and a stack of 5 images. The image has been enhanced to show Uranus ('star' at 2 o'clock from Venus). Star at lower right is Lambda Aquarius |
Double Star Gamma Andromeda captured with a Phillips ToUCam II and the 10" Newtonian Reflector plus 2X Barlow lens |
Double Star Alpha Gemini Castor captured with a Phillips ToUCam II and the 10" Newtonian Reflector plus 2X Barlow lens |
The Eskimo Nebula - a Planetary Nebula in Gemini. Taken with the 10" Newtonian, modified webcam and 2X Barlow. Stack of 33, 20 second images. |
March 2007
Not much done due to Flu and Sinus problems :-(
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Lunar Eclipse of March 3rd-4th 2007. This view
taken at 23:38 GMT with 20 minutes left of totality. More images to follow.
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A sequence showing the progression of the eclipse from start at
upper right to end at lower left. |
| A day before the Lunar Eclipse the Moon occulted the planet Saturn as seen from my location here in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The following is my montage using the avi's I took and putting them together to show the ingress and egress. | |
Ingress |
Egress |
April 2007
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M65 and M66 in Leo taken with the 10" Newtonian from Horncastle |
M99 taken with the 10" Newtonian from Horncastle |
Saturn montage taken using the 5" F9.5 Refractor and the webcam plus the Canon 300D prime focus to show outlying moons. Note when clicking to see the larger view it is larger than normal to see the fainter moons. |
| COAA 2007 The following are some of the images taken using mainly a 12" Reflector at COAA during mid to late April. |
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Animation of Satellites Iridium 72 and 73 with flare of 73 reaching
approx mag -3 just below Coma Cluster on April 17th at 21:43:42GST.
Iridium 72 had a small unpredicted flare followed shortly after with the brighter flare of Iridium 73 |
Overlay of both satellites on one image. Note the time difference
between both shots was 6.5 seconds with each exposure lasting 25 seconds
long. These images were taken with the Canon 300D and it's standard lens.. |
My best image of M4 |
...and my best image of M5! |
Messier 82 - the Cigar Galaxy |
M 83 spiral galaxy in Hydra |
Messier 104 the Sombrero Galaxy |
M108 in UMa |
May 2007
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M81, Bode's Nebula. Taken on May 15th with the 10" Newtonian and the Canon 300D.
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M109, galaxy in UMa. Taken on May 15th with the 10" Newtonian and the Canon 300D. Note
a couple of fainter galaxies at left and right. Left side galaxy is UGC 6923
(mag 14) and the right hand galaxy is UGC 6969 at mag 15.3. |
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M108, galaxy in UMa. Taken on May 15th with the 10" Newtonian and the Canon 300D.
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Nearby to M108 lies the wonderful 'Owl Nebula' - M97 - also taken on May 15th.
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The
crescent moon and Venus on May 19th. This is a montage of several images
as the gap between them was just too wide for my Equinox 80!
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June 2007
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A close up view using the 55mm lens and a 5 second exposure at ISO 100 |
| Mpeg movie of the upper right hand view taken over 16 images from 02:52 to 02:59 BST (note 8mb download) |
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| Mpeg movie of motion of Jupiters Moons - images taken with the Canon 300D
plus - 1st image with the Omni XLT 127 mak, rest taken with the 5" Refractor
(note 8mb download) |
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July 2007
Comet C/2006 VZ13 Linear imaged with the 10" F5 Newtonian - a sum
of 43, 1 min exposures taken in the early hours of July 18th. Canon 300D
iso 1600. |
Comet C/2006 VZ13 Linear imaged with the 10" F5 Newtonian - a sum of 7, 1 min exposures. Note the green colour of this comet.
This view taken in the early hours of July 13th. Note the small tail extending upwards. |
Comet C/2006 VZ13 Linear images with the Equinox 80ED on the EQ5
Synscan - a sum of 9, 1 min exposures. Note the green colour of this comet.
This view taken in the early hours of July 12th. |
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August 2007
The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS 118) crosses the sky on August 9th from 22:30 to 22:37BST Click on the image to see the flash animatiion of them. Note all times are approximate. |
 Messier
17 images with the Equinox 80 ED, EQ5 Synscan and Canon 300D on the night
of Aug 3rd. Sum of 10, 1 min exposures at 200ISO using K3CCD toolswith further
processing with PSP10. South is at top. |
Apollo 11 landing site in Mare Tranquillitatis imaged in the early
hours of Aug 3rd with the 5" F9.5 Achromatic Refractor on the EQ5 Synscan and using a ToUCam webcam. Click here for a close up view taken with a 2x barlow and click here to see that image annotated. |
September 2007
Not much activity this month!
Messier
33 taken with the Equinox 80ED a sum of 6, 5 minute exposures at ISO
400 taken on September 6th in the early hours. |
The planet Uranus and it's Moons taken on September 11th at about 22:48BST. Modified webcam and 10" Newtonian reflector. Moons identified using Guide 8 and positions are shown in the upper right inset. |
Uranus taken a couple of hours later using a Philips ToUCam II , 10" Newtonian with 2, 2x barlows. |
October 2007
Stop Press: Comet Holmes in super outburst! Normally extremely
faint it has reached naked eye brightness in Perseus. Click image to go to
a dedicated page for images and finder chart. |
Animation of the motion of the Dwarf Planet Ceres moving
during October. 3 dates are covered: 5th, 19th & 20th. Each frame last
3 seconds and then is repeated with the date and position shown.. |
Mars below M35 taken on Oct 6th with the Equinox 80ED. Stack of 11, 1 min, ISO 400 exposures. |
Close up of the above image showing M35 and the nearby cluster NGC 2158 |
Venus dazzles the morning sky on Oct 19th at 05:13 BST with Saturn
the next brightest star above it and a backdrop of Leo rising in the east. |
Messier 1 cropped from the original image taken on Oct 19th with the Equinox 80ED. Stack of 5, 2 min ISO 800 exposures |
Comet C /2007 F1 Loneos taken in evening twilight conditions on
Oct 20th using the Equinox 80ED, stack of 12, ISO 200 exposures. |
M34 taken on Oct 20th with the Equinox 80 ED. Stack of 5, 5 min ISO 200 exposures |
M76, Little Dumbbell, taken on Oct 21st with the Equinox 80 ED. Stack of 5, 5min ISO 200 exposures |
Messier 45, Pleiades, Seven Sisters Cluster taken on Oct 20th with the Equinox 80 ED. Stack of 5, 5 min ISO 400 exposures and the best M45 taken by me so far :-) . |
November 2007
| Images from the recent Northern Lights flights by Omega Holidays can be found from this link. |
Mars taken with the 10" F5 Newtonian, 3, x2 barlows and Phillips ToUCam webcam on Nov 17th in the early hours of the morning. |
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More Comet Holmes images added so check out the page mentioned in the October notes. |
Mars taken with the 10" F5 Newtonian, 2, x2 barlows and Phillips ToUCam webcam on Nov 5th despite lots of fireworks! |
December 2007
Last object imaged in 2007: The Double Cluster taken with the Equinox
80ED, Dec 30th at 02:16, stack of 5, 2 minutes exposures at ISO 200. |
Comet Holmes on Dec 30th around 01:09UT taken with the Equinox 80ED, stack of 7, 2 minute, ISO 800 exposures. |
Comet 8P Tuttle on Dec 30th around 00:44UT taken with the Equinox
80ED, stack of 5, 2 minute, ISO 800 exposures. More images would have been
taken but it set behind the house! |
Mars - taken at 23:46 UT on Dec 13th using the 10" reflector and
2, 2x barlow lenses to increase the disk size. Stack of 216 images processed
using registax 4 |
Comet Holmes continues to remain naked eye (just) and was captured
in the early hours of Dec 8th with the Equinox 80ED, stack of 10, 2minutes
ISO 800 exposures. |
Messier 78 in Orion taken on Dec 8th in the early hours with the 10" F5 Newtonian, stack of 9, 2 minute exposures at ISO 800.
Note NGC 2071 lies above (it surrounds the lower of the upper two bright
stars) and that I reckon M78 looks like Casper the Ghost! |
Messier
65, 66 and NGC 3628 taken with the Equinox 80ED, stack of 4, 2 minutes
ISO 800 images taken in the arly hours of Dec 8th. The brightest star to
their right is 73 Leonis. |
In Nightscenes 2007 for December I pointed out that Saturn would lie reasonably close to where the other Messier
Galaxies in Leo reside, M95/96 and M105 and this is a montage of two images
overlapping to show the real thing. Equinox 80ED, each initial image is a
stack of 3, 2 minute exposures at ISO 800 then carefully aligned to show
the whole area with the galaxies. Interestingly the two other NGC galaxies
close to M105 can also be seen so see this annotated
version for details of what is shown on the main image. Without initially
realising it, on inspection two of Saturns Moons, Titan and Iapetus, can
also be seen and these are also marked on the annotated version. |
Messier 110 taken on Dec 3rd using the 10" F5 Newtonian, stack of 10, 2 minute exposures at ISO 800 |
And now the next possible bright Comet starts to make an appearance
- Comet 8P Tuttle taken on Dec 4th with the 10" F5 Newtonian, stack of 10,
2 minute exposures at ISO 1600 |
