One of the purposes of the 2002 COAA visit was to attempt to image various double stars for inclusion in present and future talks I give, as double & multiple system images are few and far between. Bev at COAA suggested trying a Webcam for the project and here are some of the preliminary results put in the format I use in my talks. My thanks to both Bev Ewen-Smith at COAA and to Andrew Batters for the use of his laptop. Click on the following links to view the images. Note that these images are naturally lower resolution than the originals. Others will follow as I process the data.
| Theta Serpentis | 95 Herculis |
| Zeta Lyra | Beta Lyra |
My thanks to Bev Ewen-Smith at COAA for his help with some of these images.
The following are images I have taken with a modified Philips ToUCam Pro 740c Webcam and are all taken from home here at Horncastle.
Double and Multiple Stars
| Beta Cygnii (Albireo) | Beta Scorpiius |
| Alpha Librae | Polaris the Pole Star |
| Castor - Alpha Geminii |
New Image of Albireo - Beta Cygnii
|
Deep Sky Objects
My first Deep Sky Object -
M15 the Globular Cluster in Pegasus. Summed image (unknown number
of images used or exposure but estimate that the exposure was about 10 seconds
each. Taken with the 10" Newtonian
Reflector on September 7th 2003. 
The heart of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 showing the stellar like
nucleus. Again similar image info as the M15 image at left. This image was
taken on September 27th 2003. 
M57 the Ring Nebula in Lyra -best 5 images stacked to get this
view with the 10" Newtonian.
Getting better now! M13 the
wonderful Globular Cluster in Hercules taken using the 10" and the webcam with
approx 10 summed images. January
2005 saw several clear nights during the first couple of weeks so here are
the results of using differsnt camera lenses with the webcam whilst piggybacked
on the 10" scope as it tracked the sky.
Messier 38 Open Cluster in Auriga
taken with a 50mm lens and approx
10 5 second exposures.
The large Open Cluster Hyades - 2 summed images mosaiced together
(original images taken similar to M38). Note that 'Orange' Aldebaren - the brightest
Star in the view is so overexposed that it no longer looks orange!
M45 the Pleiades Open Star Cluster in Taurus - 50mm lens and
approx 10, 15 second exposure images summed. This is an extract from the original mosaic that
also showed Comet Machholz nearby on
January 8th 2005
This is an experiment whereby I used a 135mm lens to get more
magnification and is a sum of about 10 60 second exposures.
This image was also taken in January 8th using a 50 mm lens to
get the Sword of Orion plus the Orion Nebula. A sum of about 10, 10 second images
Mid January to early Feb I had the flu then a sore throat so
didn't get back to the sky until Feb 15th - this is the result though. Instead
of imaging wide field using camera lenses I took 40, 1 second exposures
through the 10" Newtonian of the heart of the Orion Nebula - M42 and am
so pleased with it the image is the March 2005 picture of the Month on our web site!