Taken last night (2nd Feb 2012) in -3C temperatures with a blazing Moon overhead.  Camera 1 on the mini-WASP, Dubhe, one of the two “pointer stars” in Ursa Major.  A nice orange coloured star and another one for the “single star image” portfolio.

I guess it must be obvious that the weather hasn’t been too good recently and there’s no new data to work on.  So I revisited the Double Cluster and Stock 2 data taken using the Sky 90s and M26Cs on the mini-WASP array and came up with this.  Quite happy with this one now

A reprocess of the Sky 90/M26C data with North to the right – cropped to a smaller field of view.

A reprocess taking the ugly spikes off the Double Cluster itself!

The Double Cluster and Stock 2 region in Perseus.  Grabbed the last bit of this data last night.  Also managed to get rain into the observatory as a solitary rain cloud passed over and chucked it down   All dried out this morning

When this is framed properly, and at least 3 hours worth of data taken, then this is going to look good

Managed to get half an hour on the Double Cluster with one camera before it all went pear-shaped with the weather last night.  The Double Cluster and Stock 2 is one image that the mini-WASP array was actually designed for   Just as well I did this “test shot” as it shows my framing is out and now I know where to place the clusters in the FOV for a much better image.  The second camera (with the Stock 2 image) didn’t have the same number of sub-exposures as camera 1 so the complete image doesn’t look so good.  Never mind – I am at least prepared now to do the thing properly next clear evening.  One thing is for sure – the mini-WASP array is going to be perfect for those BIG star fields

The earlier images of Bellatrix, Polaris and Pollux re-processed using a new process step.

This image is a single frame from the mini-WASP and comprises 12 subs at 10-minutes per sub, so a 2-hour total exposure time (again well short of the 8 hours needed).  The reason for only one frame is that due to hiccups I only got 5 subs for the upper frame and the data difference was just too big to match reasonably   Still, once again it shows me what is required for mini-WASP imaging, and I am now very glad that I resurrected the Hyperstar III as I may need to use this instrument to grab the faint data to paste into the mini-WASP bigger frame.  I reckon composites are going to be the order of the day at the New Forest Observatory.