Monthly Archives: October 2014

First light for the 3 x Sky 90 mini-WASP imaging array

On the evening of the 27th October 2014 I spent the first two hours of darkness aligning the 3 Sky 90s to look at the same region of sky, and then focus training Sky 90(2) and Sky 90(3). After the … Continue reading

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Giant Sunspot AR12192 taken on 21/10/2014

The missus kindly held up a piece of A4 paper this lunch time outside in a howling gale so I could project an image of the Sun onto it. An 80mm refractor with a 5X Barlow was used.  Yes the … Continue reading

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The California nebula – work in progress

On the evening of the 19th October I got a couple of clear hours before it clouded over.  Enough time to set up the Hyperstar and get an hour (4 x 15-minute subs) on the California nebula.  I had forgotten … Continue reading

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Altair and Barnard’s E – EPOD number 62 today

Got today’s EPOD http://epod.usra.edu/ with the huge wide field of Altair and Barnard’s “E”. Thank you Jim for continuing to publish our work 🙂  

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More jam tomorrow – I’m getting a bit sick of this rubbish now

You have GOT to laugh at our present pathetic Tory government here in the UK – well either laugh or cry buckets – it’s up to you. I have just this minute seen on the TV a promise of putting … Continue reading

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Statrep on the mini-WASP array

The 3rd (and final) Sky 90 has been fitted to the mini-WASP array 🙂 I will now be able to get 12-hours of data at f#4.5 in a typical 4-hour imaging session. Provided that I get 4-hours of clear Moonless … Continue reading

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Collimating the Hyperstar III

It is possible to get perfect stars right across the diagonal of an APS-size chip such as the Starlight Xpress M25C or M26C – but only if your Hyperstar imaging system is in very good collimation.  Getting good collimation is … Continue reading

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The Hyperstar III is back on-line

I have completed the initial experiments with the Canon 200mm lens piggy-backed on the C11, so yesterday I removed the kludge on the back of the C11 and re-instated the Hyperstar III – just in time for all the winter … Continue reading

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UY Andromedae a Carbon star in Andromeda

There are 5 very nice Carbon stars in Andromeda that I would like to bag this month and this is the first I’ve caught – UY Andromedae with some nice faint fuzzies, and a couple of not so faint fuzzies. … Continue reading

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Gamma Cassiopeiae and Navi region

The mini-WASP array was again put into commission taking half hour subs of the Navi region of Cassiopeia – Navi is the central star in this image.  Nearby lies Gamma Cassiopeiae and its associated nebulosity.

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