Pulled up EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day) a couple of minutes ago and unexpectedly found the NFO image of NGC1333 looking back at me. It really is a stunning region of space and the eerie-looking dust clouds gives the image a really sinister appearance. Thank you Jim for putting this one up today – I think it is one of our very best so far.
Managed to get today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day [APOD] with the wide field (sparkly colour) image of Kemble’s Cascade. I like this image so much it is one of the permanent “wallpapers” on my home computer. The little open cluster sitting on the left hand edge of the cascade makes this image perfect IMO
Noel has just told me that he did a lot of his StarSpikes Pro development work using this image of Kemble’s Cascade as a “test piece”. I think it certainly paid off. If you are into processing astronomical images and want full control over the software-based spikes and where they go – take a look at Noel’s StarSpikes Pro software – great value for money!
Got today’s EPOD with a shadow self-portrait taken at mid-day near the winter solstice over the New Forest. Thank you Jim for continuing to show my work
Yesterday, following publication of our Gamma Cass and friends image on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) – the New Forest Observatory (NFO) site got 4,341 visits!! Usual daily visit rate is around 150. Such is the power of APOD
And to follow on from yesterday’s EPOD, Noel & I managed to get today’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). This time it’s the Gamma Cassiopeia nebulosity and Gamma Cas itself in a wide field image taken using the C11/Hyperstar III/SXVF-M25C combination. A rather nice Christmas Eve present for 2009 – thank you Rob & Jerry
Great news! Noel & I managed to get today’s EPOD with a festive Christmas Tree cluster and cone nebula shot (EPOD have the picture upside down at the moment – but I’ve told Jim so it might turn up the right way later on today). Thank you Jim for continuing to show our work to your huge audience
Managed to get 4-hours of imaging on little NGC1333 in Perseus last night in sub-zero conditions. I think there was some high lying mist/fog but hopefully the image turned out o.k.
Just had two new publications for 2010 come through the post this morning – the Astronomy Now 2010 Yearbook & Patrick Moore’s 2010 Yearbook of Astronomy. Why? Because Noel & I managed to get an “Astronomy Now readers’ pictures of the year” with our February 2009 comet Lulin image and I wrote an article for Patrick’s 2010 Yearbook called “Hyperstar imaging at the New Forest Observatory” which includes Noel/Greg images both from the Hyperstar III and from the Sky 90/M25C. I would also like to thank Keith Cooper for including Star Vistas in the “Books of the Year” section of the Astronomy Now 2010 Yearbook – thank you Keith
Well it was very nice to receive the above and get a little lift from this absolutely foul weather we’ve been suffering. Monsoons and gales means I haven’t taken an image for a very long time now – the last one was a frame for the Heart nebula – and that was on Sunday 25th October 2009 – and I still need to try and get two more frames for that one Suffering withdrawal symptoms, but that’s not too unusual for November, very often I’ve found November with all its promise of long evenings is actually a poor imaging month purely due to the weather. Let’s hope these gales blow the clouds away and we get a couple of imaging evenings (at least) before we enter the final month of the year.
Managed to get today’s EPOD with a shot with a tiny little Canon IXUS camera – a view of central Athens from the Acropolis with Lykavittos hill as the main subject.
We had a week of sub-zero temperatures at the beginning of 2009 which led to hoar-frost covered spider webs and grass as well as “crystalline copses” – trees glittering from the ice in the early morning winter sunshine. It was also a very hard time for the forest animals and farmers brought out feed for the cattle for sevaeral weeks – the first time I had seen this done locally.
A picture of the frost covered spider webs made today’s EPOD
Suffering withdrawal symptoms, but that’s not too unusual for November, very often I’ve found November with all its promise of long evenings is actually a poor imaging month purely due to the weather. Let’s hope these gales blow the clouds away and we get a couple of imaging evenings (at least) before we enter the final month of the year.
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