Monthly Archives: December 2009

Just 4 days to go! The pinhole camera Solstice project

On Sunday 20th December 2009 I will open up the two pinhole cameras on my south-facing wall, remove the exposed film, and replace with two new sheets of film.  I will then leave the cameras open from 21st December 2009 … Continue reading

Posted in News, Projects | 1 Comment

Be warned! ATI Radeon HD5770 graphics card.

Terry Pratchett only had 6 monitors fitted to his computer as he couldn’t get 8 on his desk 🙂  O.K. well I didn’t want 8 or even 6 monitors – I only wanted 3.  Looking at the graphics cards offered … Continue reading

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Geminids from the New Forest Observatory – 13th December 2009

Poor weather conditions (high cloud/fog/mist) sub-zero temperatures and a very unimpressive display of Geminids this year – even though we were blessed with NO MOON!!!  Set up the Canon 40D with a 17-55mm zoom lens set to 30mm, 2-minute subs, … Continue reading

Posted in News | Leave a comment

A Festive deep-sky image for IYA2009

With Christmas rapidly approaching, and the International Year of Astronomy rapidly drawing to an end,  I thought it appropriate to post a Festive deep-sky image.  This is the Christmas Tree cluster (NGC 2264, 2,500 light years away in the constellation … Continue reading

Posted in Hyperstar and SXVF-M25C, News | Leave a comment

Geminids tonight!

There’s plenty of clouds at the moment 🙁 but I’m hoping for just a few gaps in the cloud tonight.  No Moon – and it should be the peak in the Geminid meteor shower (13th – 14th December 2009).  Went … Continue reading

Posted in Equipment, News | Leave a comment

M34 and planetary nebula Abell 4 in the constellation Perseus

Unbelievably I managed to get some imaging done on the night of Thursday December 10th 2009 – the last image I took was on October 25th 2009!  Got 4-hours worth of 4-minute subs on the nice little open cluster in … Continue reading

Posted in CCD Images, Hyperstar and SXVF-M25C | Leave a comment

Inner space – again!

Well as the weather is not allowing me to take outer-space images, it’s back to some inner space work again.  This time an opalescent beetle leg gets photomicrographed using a 23-frame focus stack put together using the Helicon Focus software. … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Projects | Leave a comment

The Golden Ratio and living systems:

The Golden Ratio (and the closely associated Fibonacci series) makes many appearances in the “living world” – here’s my question – not including Mathematics and man-made objects, does the Golden Ratio appear naturally in any inorganic systems?  There is a … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, News | Leave a comment

The Golden Solid Angle – has anyone seen this, anywhere?

It will not have been mentioned before in this blog, but I like certain aspects of pure mathematics as much as I like deep-sky imaging.  I think most people will have heard of the Golden-Section, or the Golden-Ratio, and how … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, News | Leave a comment

The Butterfly nebula in Orion

Clear last night (although with a nearly full Moon) and managed to get a very seldom imaged iridescent reflection nebula appropriately named “The Butterfly nebula” in Orion. O.K. it’s a picture of the Morpho Rhetenor butterfly wing (structural colour) but … Continue reading

Posted in Articles | Leave a comment