Monthly Archives: February 2015

Spock is dead :(

In the days of TOS, Scotty was an inspiration for engineers, today I believe the inspirational figure is Tony Stark – and I must agree, he is a very worthy successor to Scotty. Spock was my inspiration in following a … Continue reading

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Coddington’s nebula & V Y Ursae Majoris

Last night I managed to get another 11 x 20-minute subs on this region to go with the 7 x 20-minute subs I got a few days ago.  This shows Coddington’s nebula – which is actually an irregular galaxy – … Continue reading

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Gemini central

With the 200mm/M26C Trius combo in portrait mode I managed to grab 10 x 4-minutes of the Castor/Pollux region after 3-hours of setting up (focus mainly) in the freezing cold.  The chip turned out to be not flat for this … Continue reading

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Moon Venus and Mars close encounter

Should have done this one Friday night when the Moon was a little closer to the planets but didn’t manage it.  Using the Canon 5D MkII and a 50mm prime lens I managed this shot, ISO100, 10-seconds, f#5.6 This image … Continue reading

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Mars One – are we missing a great opportunity here?

The one-way trip to Mars known as Mars One seems to be unfolding as it fails miserably under close scrutiny.  This is a great shame, and potentially a missed opportunity.  We should embrace this ground-breaking idea and support it with … Continue reading

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And here’s the M106 image from last night’s session

Not a lot of colour in M106 itself 🙁  But plenty in the stars 🙂  The Sky 90s always seem to be able to grab star colour very nicely. 24 x 20-minute subs using the mini-WASP array.  And yes – … Continue reading

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An extremely rare clear Moonless night last night :)

The cloud didn’t finally shift until 9:00 p.m. last night – but when it did we were left with a pitch black, clear, Moonless night like I haven’t seen for about a year. After a couple of stalls where the … Continue reading

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And our own Government is not exactly blameless either!

Never forget Dr. David Kelly: I won’t forget!  

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Aaron Swartz

Last night I was very disturbed by a one and a half hour documentary on BBC4 about a young man I had never heard of before – Aaron Swartz. For those of you in the American Government Departments responsible for … Continue reading

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