Monthly Archives: August 2011

Second Light on the NFO mini-WASP array

Tom How spent a night over the Bank Holiday weekend at the NFO where he had a good play with the mini-WASP array – I was attempting (half satisfactorily) to polar align the Hyperstar III in the south dome.  Meanwhile … Continue reading

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Mini-WASP “First Light” party at the New Forest Observatory 21/08/2011

Here are a few pictures from the day – I still can’t believe how lucky we were with the weather.  Had a few drops of rain first thing in the morning just to put the scarers on us – then … Continue reading

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The asteroid Vesta leaving the constellation Leo near the bright star Algieba

Vesta is in the news recently and here is a New Forest Observatory image of the asteroid Vesta making its way out of Leo near the bright star Algieba.

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Starmus memories

As summer definitely starts retreating and autumn approaches a bit too rapidly – thoughts go back to a warmer time at the Starmus Festival on Tenerife – June 2011.  This is the sumptuous Abama Hotel where most of the Festival … Continue reading

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The IC1831 region in Cassiopeia

I revisited and reprocessed this data to see if I could find any of the nebulosity reported in the Sky 6.  There is some, but it is pretty faint throughout the region – you can see the very edge of … Continue reading

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Tankification of the Celestron wedge completed today

As you probably know, the Celestron “Heavy Duty” wedge has a fundamental design fault – a large open ended box section which flexes all over the place with a heavy scope like the C11 being cantilevered all over the sky.  … Continue reading

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New warm room for the mini-WASP?

Have I gone a bit too far with the new warm room for the mini-WASP?

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ISS pass 19/08/2011 10:06 p.m. local time

The beginning of this ISS pass is missing (the bit on the left) – why?  Because I was pointing in the wrong part of the sky when the action kicked off and it was only when my son said “it’s … Continue reading

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NGC6946 and NGC6939 in Cepheus

The fireworks galaxy NGC6946 and  open cluster NGC6939 in the constellation Cepheus.  23 sub-exposures at 5-minutes per sub using the Hyperstar III and M25C one-shot colour camera.

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NGC6883 and NGC6871 open clusters in Cygnus

This pair of open clusters has a Milky Way backdrop and they are surrounded by faint emission nebulosity.  They can be found in the constellation Cygnus lying just underneath the Crescent nebula region.  Image taken 19th August 2009 using the … Continue reading

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