A nice long 7-minute pass of the space station tonight. It has been good all week with long passes – but it has also been mostly clouded out.
Another clear (but not Moonless) night last night – so it was perfect for setting up the array. Managed to get the 3 Sky90s aligned, focused, and sensors flattened – so the Sky90 array is now ready for some clear, … Continue reading
Yet another boring grey day with absolutely no chance of imaging. So to keep my hand in with the image processing I decided to have a go at the California nebula region using DSS2 data. I tell you how to … Continue reading
As I have both rigs (Hyperstar and MiniWASP array) now beautifully polar aligned, we have had nothing but cloud ever since setting them up – including right the way through the no Moon period. I know this is to be … Continue reading
In my opinion the Hyperstar 4 is a most amazing piece of kit, and it is beyond me why anyone entering astrophotography for the first time wouldn’t consider this as their route to entry. But there is a caveat. To … Continue reading
With regard to increasing global temperatures, I believe the planet is now in a state of positive feedback. Increasing temperatures, apart from melting the permafrost, also release huge quantities of Methane, a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. Increasing temperatures also … Continue reading
As I sit through gloomy days and gloomy nights waiting patiently for this season’s imaging to get underway, I remembered the very odd start I had to this hobby. I don’t think I’ve shared this one before, so maybe now … Continue reading
No not amphetamines speed, but f# speed, a poorly understood but absolutely critical optical system parameter. It has been a very difficult decision for me to make on how to tell this story. I have had clues about what’s been … Continue reading
Here is a an image of the Carbon star X Cancri which lies close to the Beehive cluster in the constellation Cancer.
Well, finally, we are starting to get a few hours of true darkness back again – hooray!! Both the Hyperstar III/814C in the south dome, and the mini-WASP array in the north dome are fully functional (makes a change, usually … Continue reading
