More great news!!  Today we got the Jellyfish nebula (IC443) and its companion IC444 published as an Earth Science Picture of the Day.  This image was taken using the Sky 90 at f#4.5 and as well as full colour there was also H-alpha and Sulphur-II narrowband data added.  This image also shows a recently discovered planetary nebula that emits strongly in the infrared.  Thank you Jim at EPOD for continuing to show an interest in our work.

Today’s EPOD is the Canon 40D image of the crescent Moon and Mercury taken a while back.

The sky played ball for a change giving a very atmospheric image.  This one image has by far the greatest number of viewing hits on my Flickr site!  Thank you once again Jim for publishing work from the NFO on your site.

Great news yet again!!!  I managed to get an EPOD image published today. (more…)

Woke up to a very pleasant surprise this morning :)  The Parker/Carboni definitive M31 image made today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day [EPOD]!!  Thank you Jim for taking an interest in our work.

Good news!  Our OIII-enhanced version of the Rosette nebula [RGB, OIII, H-alpha] image made today’s EPOD

Wow! We have had our image of the Holmes Comet selected for the Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD)!  Here is what they say about the image:

The photo above shows an emerald glow surrounding the nucleus of Comet Homes, as photographed on October 30 in the constellation of Perseus. It was taken from the New Forest Observatory in England. This peculiar comet suddenly increased in brightness from a magnitude 12 (telescopic target only) to a magnitude of almost 2 (easily visible with the unaided eye, even in urban areas). Astronomers believe it exploded as it moved away from the Sun, but if so, it’s not known exactly what triggered the explosion. At its brightest, Comet Holmes was almost as bright as the brightest stars in Perseus

We’ve posted about this before but I’ll repost the imaging data because Noel has produced a great result with this image:

The Sky 90 at f#4.5 with the SXVF-M25C one-shot colour camera was used to capture 130 subs at 1-minute per sub.  But the data was stacked in two different ways! 

Because the comet moves at a slightly different rate to the stars, one data set was stacked with the comet as the reference point (giving a stationary comet and trailing stars) and the other data set was stacked with reference to the stars (giving stationary stars and a blurred comet). 

The two data sets were then combined to give the stationary comet sitting in a stationary star field.

We didn’t even know about this!  Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) have chosen our image of the reflection nebulosity within the emission nebula in Cygnus.  Here is what EPOD have to say:

The constellation of Cygnus the Swan, also referred to as the Northern Cross, is now nearly overhead for viewers in the Northern Hemisphere around 8:00 p.m. The stars composing Cygnus reside along the spine of our galaxy — the Milky Way. Surrounding the central star in Cygnus, Sadr (upper left center), is the massive emission nebula IC1318 (in red), also called the Gamma Cygni nebulosity. A sea of just the color red can be boring to the eye, but here notable blue gems, including the reflection nebula NGC6914, add substantially to the beauty of this image

This is a Sky 90 image taken using the old SXV-H9C camera.  This image represents approximately 4 hours of RGB data using 3 minute subs and 4 hours of H-alpha using 6 minute subs.  Just one tiny mistake in the description - Sadr isn’t in the image

We are on a roll, Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) have chosen our negative image of the Coma Berenices Galaxy Cluster as their picture today.

Spring is definitely galaxy season for astronomers and we take advantage of it (weather permitting). (more…)

Great News!  Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) have selected one of our pictures - the Wide Field Image of the Horsehead nebula as picture of day today.  If you haven’t bookmarked the EPOD site then do it now!

The wide field image of the Horsehead region near the bright star Alnitak in the belt of Orion was taken using the Sky 90/SXVF-M25C combination by Greg at the New Forest Observatory and processed by Noel in Florida, U.S.A.   You can see the Horsehead Nebula at the center of the image.   (more…)

Fantastic! Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) have chosen our extremely deep image of the Pleiades open star cluster taken on the Sky 90/SXVF-M25C as today’s picture.

This is the famous Pleiades open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, also known as Messier object 45 (M45). The arrival of this familiar star cluster in the evening sky is a precursor of winter. (more…)