The Sun track pinhole camera image made it into the Daily Mail online   Not exactly an accurate representation of what went on but I am rather used to it by now

Gave a talk on “The Magic of Photography” yesterday to the Rhinefield Probus Group.  Nice turn out and some very good questions!

You will see a new Page Heading above, namely APODS/EPODS where I have listed all the APODS/EPODS published since I started submitting images in 2007.

Also on this Valentine’s Day – you can hear the Radio Solent interview where I discuss the pinhole camera photograph of the Sun’s tracks over a 6-month period.  Tune in to Radio Solent at 4:55 p.m. to listen in

Well – a very nice and totally unexpected surprise this morning (thank you Jim!) when I opened the EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day) page and saw my pinhole camera image of the Sun’s path across the sky.  Taken using a beer can as the pinhole camera (long axis vertical!) the image shows the Sun’s path across my southern horizon over a period of 6-months from the Summer Solstice (June 21st 2010) to the Winter Solstice (December 21st 2010).  The light coloured object in the lower foreground is the fibreglass dome of the New Forest Observatory, and the light (banana-shaped) object in front of that is the cedar garden table which is actually oval in shape.  The reason for using a beer can as the pinhole camera is that it is the perfect size to take the 5 x 7 inch Ilford  photographic paper that records the image – you curl the paper around the inside of the beer can and there is a 5mm gap where you place the pinhole).  Do not sand off the burr of the pinhole, you need to be able to feel it on the inside of the can when you load the paper (in the dark of course) so that you don’t accidentally cover the pinhole with the paper!  What is amazing about this process (Justin Quinnell gives full details on his web site) is that you don’t need to develop the photographic paper.  The pinhole image “burns” itself into the paper over the 6-months of exposure time and all you need to do when removing the photographic paper from the pinhole camera is to quickly get it into a digital scanner to “lift” the image off the paper.

I have two more pinhole cameras currently imaging my southern horizon – but these are made from tin tea caddies (also a perfect size for the 5 x 7 inch photographic paper).  The main difference with these cameras is that this time the photographic paper is FLAT within the camera rather than curled round as it is in the beer can.  This means I will get an undistorted view of the Sun’s path across the sky this time – just have 5-months to go before I can see the result

Simon Parkin showed the New Forest Observatory “37″ cluster image on his Meridian Weather slot last night.  The 37 cluster is an amazing asterism in the constellation Orion which is now crossing our southern horizon during the evening.  Thank you Simon for once again choosing an NFO image for your weather slot

See the video here.

Copyright Meridian News & Weather.

Simon Parkin used a New Forest Observatory image of the Orion nebula on last night’s Meridian Weather programme.  As you will know, Orion is crossing the southern horizon now and is due south around 9:00 p.m.  It won’t be too long before it has disappeared into the West for another year – and I haven’t had much chance of imaging in this region this year due to the atrocious weather   Lucky we U.K. deep-sky imagers have almost infinite patience!

See the video here:

Video footage Copyright Meridian News & Weather.

Today’s EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day) is a 16-frame mosaic of St. Nicholas’ church in Brockenhurst taken during the recent snow fall.  This mosaic was stitched together using the amazing PTGui software package which does a great job of assembling (and blending) large mosaics (including deep-sky mosaics).  Camera used was the Canon 5D MkII full frame DSLR and the amazingly sharp 50mm prime lens (possibly the cheapest and sharpest lens in the Canon range!).  I was lucky enough to capture this image just a day or two before scaffolding was erected all around the church.  Why scaffolding?  Because some extremely low-life form decided that in order to fund this Christmas they would steal the lead off the church roof.  Is nothing sacred?  Apparently not in U.K. 2010.  Thank you Jim for continuing to publish my work

You can see a short Video from last night’s Meridian Weather on here - copyright Meridian ITV – after a bit of experimentation I managed to get the video properly rendered

The 6-month pinhole camera image shown below made an appearance on last night’s Meridian Weather with Simon Parkin.  Actually came out well on the TV – congratulations to the technical team there at Meridian – and thank you Simon

Got today’s EPOD with a panoramic (4-frame) view of Hurst Spit, the Isle of Wight, Hurst castle and Hurst lighthouse – plus Keyhaven salt marshes and the Solent.  There’s lots to see in this image   Thank you Jim for continuing to show interest in my work.