Picture of the Week

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Greg Parker

Lunar_Halo_Jupiter_POW

This week we feature a Lunar Halo captured one cold evening at the New Forest Observatory, with Jupiter making a cameo appearance.

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Picture of the Week

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Greg Parker
Buzzards_POW

Pictures of the Week beginning January 4th 2026 will include ALL images captured at the New Forest Observatory – not just astronomy images.

In this image we have a pair of Buzzards soaring over the New Forest Observatory in a thermal they’ve picked up on this lovely sunny morning.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you get at least a few cloudless, Moonless nights to continue the hobby.

 

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MiniWASP Array all OK!

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Greg Parker

Got out a couple of nights back to fire up the 200mm lenses and the 2600MC Pro CMOS cameras. If you remember in the last outing it looked like there might be water vapour in the optical system. So in the intervening time I was a lot more diligent in keeping the dehumidifier up and running and empty of water. I also took the opportunity to remove the UV/IR cut filters and replace them with the Optolong L-Enhance filters. I fired the system up and was amazed that the water vapour had disappeared – YAY!!!! However, as always happens with a filter change, I now have to re-collimate both systems. Plenty of up and coming Moonlit nights to be getting on with that so long as it is clear.

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Picture of the Week

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Greg Parker
1_sirius_22subs_2mins_Forums

For the Christmas week we feature my favourite Christmas period star. The mighty Sirius!!!

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Picture of the Week

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Greg Parker
1_sirius_22subs_2mins_Forums

For the Christmas week we feature my favourite Christmas star. The mighty Sirius!!

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Picture of the Week

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Greg Parker
ArcturusGalaxies_18subs_10mins_Forums

This week we feature a large galaxy cluster that can be found near Arcturus. All the faint brown fuzzies that can be seen in the centre of this image are all galaxies. A star is tagged so that you can orient this image on a planetarium program. This is 3-hours of 10-minute subs taken on the Sky90 array.

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Picture of the Week

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Greg Parker
IC410_405_SX_NFO

This week we feature the IC410/405 region of Auriga with an image captured using the 200mm Canon prime lenses together with the Optolong filters and the ASI 2600 MC Pro CMOS cameras.

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236 hours and 30 minutes later

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Greg Parker
IMG_0542

And here’s the result of very nearly TEN DAYS continous, uniterrupted, flawless printing on the incredible ELEGOO Neptune 4 plus 3D printer. An incredible feat for such a low-priced large-volume printer. I don’t know how they do it – BUT – BRAVO ELEGOO you’ve done a fantastic job on this machine!!!!!

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Picture of the Week

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Greg Parker
Definitive_SAO39053_POW

This week we feature a bright blue magnitude 3 star in Perseus, SAO39053, 39 Delta Persei. The image comprises 72 x 450-second subs, that is 540-minutes or NINE HOURS on the Sky90 array with the M26C OSC CCDs. I have absolutely no idea why I used a whole 3 hours (of actual imaging time) on a single star shot.

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Pinhole Camera Repaired

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Greg Parker

I have repaired the damaged pinhole of the drain-pipe pinhole camera ready for this Winter’s Solstice. The original pinhole itself was a pinhole in a disc-shaped piece of Aluminium foil. For some unknown reason, some unknown species of bird, took it upon themselves to peck through the Aluminium foil pinhole thus ruining the Solargraph. What’s even more annoying they didn’t do this once, but TWICE, thus ruining a whole year’s Solargraphy.

OK I’ll sort you out whoever you are. The Aluminium foil disc has now been replaced by an Aluminium disc cut from a drinks can. See if you can peck through that you blighters!!! Now just need to load the photographic paper and mount the pinhole camera on the side of the house again. Don’t think I will wait until December 20th to put the camera out this year, will probably set up a few days early in the hope that I don’t completely forget.

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