The equipment used in the New Forest Observatory has changed quite a lot since the first Hyperstar images were produced back in November 2004.
In the Beginning
From November 2004 until August 2006 I used a lens attachment called a Hyperstar from Starizona on my Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS (purchased from David Hinds), together with a Starlight Xpress SXV-H9C one-shot colour CCD. The Hyperstar and CCD can be seen below.
The Hyperstar is a remarkable piece of optical engineering, and the original Fastar was an extremely brave move by the innovative Celestron. The Hyperstar lens takes the place of the secondary mirror on a Schmidt-Cassegrain type scope, and it converts the native f#10 11″ GPS into an extremely fast f#1.85 instrument. Not only does this make the imaging system very fast, it also gives a very nice wide field of view of one-degree by three-quarters of a degree with an SXV-H9C camera.
Other advantages of very fast imaging optics are very short sub-exposures. Short sub-exposures mean:
- Your mount tracking doesn’t have to be super great.
- You aren’t too upset when you lose a single sub to a plane, satellite, or bumping the scope.
- You can get a large number of subs in a single imaging session leading to a very low noise final image.
There are of course downsides.
- It is very difficult to get rid of all traces of coma, especially in the far corners of your image, when using a “fast” optical system.
- The depth of focus is only 7 microns, where the diameter of a human hair is roughly 80 microns. This not only makes focussing very difficult, it also means that your optics have to be precisely aligned to be able to get nice round stars in your final image, i.e. the collimation is tough.
It was the need to precisely align the Hyperstar that led me to taking a drill to my beloved scope and fitting these threaded adjuster bars that you see in the Figure below.
These adjusters allowed me to precisely position the Hyperstar in the corrector plate leading to very good optical collimation of the system.
Short focal length refractor imaging
From September 2006 – June 2008, I used a combination of a Takahashi Sky 90 f#4.5 refractor from True Technology and large format SXVF-M25C one-shot colour CCD from Starlight Xpress.
A reducer/corrector lens element fitted to the Sky 90 gives a very flat imaging field (necessary when using large format cameras) and nicely speeds the optics up to f#4.5, not as good as the Hyperstar by a long shot, but certainly adequate. The huge bonus you get moving to this type of imager is not only a big field of view, 3.33 by 2.22 degrees, but also pin sharp round stars from corner to corner.
The Sky 90/M25C combination is seen in the image at the top/left of this section. It sits piggy-back on top of the 11″ GPS reflector which is now used in the role of a guide scope!
Do I gain anything apart from high-quality stars across the field of view [FOV] with this imager? Yes, in fact I “win” over the old Hyperstar system. The Sky 90 at f#4.5 is 6 times “slower” than the ultra-fast f#1.85 Hyperstar – but – the Sky 90/M25C field of view is 10 times the area of the 11″ GPS/Hyperstar combination.
So taking both these factors into account, I actually do slightly better overall in my imaging, with the much smaller aperture Sky 90, which at first sight seems perverse.
I would of course do even better with a larger aperture, shorter focal length refractor like the Takahashi FSQ106 with its reducer/corrector giving an astonishing f#3.6. As you can imagine – one of these beauties is next on the list!
The Hyperstar returns to the New Forest Observatory
In June 2008 I went on a business trip to Arizona and whilst over there Dean of Starizona shipped me a Hyperstar III and electronic focuser to my hotel room in Phoenix – thank you Dean 🙂 So from June 2008 – present I have returned to the world of ultra fast imaging using the amazing Hyperstar lens assembly. It’s a joy to once again have the speed that only an f#2 ratio can give you on an 11″ aperture. The only downside I am encountering as I hunt for more difficult targets is the bad light pollution afforded by urban Brockenhurst – it has got progressively worse over the past 5 years 🙁 I cannot image the supernova remnant CTB1 in Cassiopeia from my current location and we are actively looking for a new house (with a bit more land) in an area with darker skies. Fortunately we don’t need to move too many miles away to find much darker skies.
The mini-WASP array
The next big project for the New Forest Observatory is the construction of a “mini-WASP” array, along the lines of the professional “super-WASP” arrays that are used for hunting exo-planets. The mini-WASP array will use Sky 90s and FSQ106 refractors together with SXVF-M25C one-shot colour CCDs and H35 large format mono CCDs. The mini-WASP will allow large-field, high(ish) resolution imaging, plus getting more image data (by parallel imaging the same object) in one imaging session. We get so few good imaging hours in the year that it is necessary to grab as much good data as we can get during these rare times – hence parallel imaging [c/f parallel processing].
The mini-WASP array will need a professional quality mount, almost certainly the Paramount ME, a new observatory dome [the current Pulsar 7 foot dome won’t accommodate the array] and a rigid framework to hold the refractor array. A local precision engineering firm NTE Poole has fabricated the all-aluminium framework for the array, they also made an earlier all-aluminium alt-az mode pier for me as well. NTE Poole are rare experts in precision aluminium welding work, something that they put to good use in creating large UHV systems for the semiconductor industry.
It is November 2013 and the mini-WASP array has been fully functional for a year now. The whole philosophy behind constructing the array was to get down 3x as much data in the same time a single imager grabs its data. In that respect the array has fully met all expectations. With a typical 4-hour imaging session in a single evening I now get 12-hours worth of data. A very good quality image requires around 8-hours of good data, so instead of taking up two evening’s worth of imaging time to get a high quality image – I can now get it all done in a single evening – which was the whole point of the project. We get so few good clear Moonless evenings in the U.K. that I simply couldn’t afford to use two (or even 3) of them up just to capture a single object – it was too inefficient. In that respect the array has revolutionised my deep-sky imaging. The array however is “slow” compared to the Hyperstar III, so although the array is perfect for stars and star fields, it requires a long total imaging time to grab the faint nebulosity. However, as the Hyperstar III is better for that job it makes sense to grab the starfield data relatively quickly with the mini-WASP array, and then fill in any faint detail with the Hyperstar III. I have done this with a few images and it seems to work extremely well.
Read about the progress of the mini-WASP Array:
- Open Cluster NGC1817 in Taurus, December 2nd, 2023
- Mighty Merak Reprocess, December 1st, 2023
- A Very Deep Image of the Pleiades, November 18th, 2023
- The 32 Cygni Region of Cygnus, November 15th, 2023
- The Heart Nebula, November 13th, 2023
- Carbon Star Y Tauri (SAO77516), November 13th, 2023
- Delta Persei a Very Blue Star, November 12th, 2023
- A Halloween Witch's Broom, October 28th, 2023
- Veil Nebula - All the Data I Have, October 20th, 2023
- Carbon Star - T Cancri, October 13th, 2023
- M31 - The Andromeda galaxy, October 13th, 2023
- The Veil nebula in Cygnus, October 9th, 2023
- The Sadr Region of Cygnus, September 10th, 2023
- From M42 to M78, March 31st, 2023
- Stunning Sirius, February 27th, 2023
- 29-hours of IC410/IC405 Data, February 25th, 2023
- Rosette nebula with the 200mm Canon lenses, February 20th, 2023
- Heart Nebula - Complete Reprocess, February 16th, 2023
- Yet Another Pleiades Reprocess, February 2nd, 2023
- Pleiades reprocess, February 1st, 2023
- SAO 132035 an S-Type star (s 4,1) Just East of Rigel, January 31st, 2023
- Reprocess of all Hyperstar on all Sky90 Data - Median Mix in Registar, January 30th, 2023
- Arcturus - the Eye of the Bull - from 2013, January 29th, 2023
- Sirius - The Brightest Star in the Sky, January 28th, 2023
- Star Reduced Deep Pleiades, January 27th, 2023
- Composite IC410/IC405 Nebulae in Auriga, January 24th, 2023
- Composite California Nebula, January 24th, 2023
- The Rosette Nebula - A Work in Progress, January 22nd, 2023
- IC410 & IC405 as You Might Not Have Seen Them Before, January 22nd, 2023
- Now 6-hours on the IC410/IC405 Region, January 21st, 2023
- The California nebula, January 20th, 2023
- Update on the Configuration of the Sky90 Array, January 18th, 2023
- Composite IC410 IC405, January 4th, 2023
- Composite Rosette nebula, January 3rd, 2023
- The Heart of the Rose, January 3rd, 2023
- The Sadr Region in Cygnus, December 27th, 2022
- Star Reduced Sadr Region With the 200mm Lenses, December 25th, 2022
- Altair Region with Star Reduction, December 23rd, 2022
- North America nebula region, December 13th, 2022
- Mu Cephei - the Garnet Star, December 12th, 2022
- Star Reduced California Nebula, November 26th, 2022
- The Whole of Delphinus, November 21st, 2022
- Composite IC410/IC405 using Sky90 and 200mm lens data, November 15th, 2022
- Star reduced IC410/IC405, November 15th, 2022
- Composite IC2087, October 2nd, 2022
- The Sadr Region in Cygnus, September 30th, 2022
- The Coathanger Cluster Asterism, September 28th, 2022
- Sadr Region Through Thin High Cloud, September 24th, 2022
- The Dust Really is All Stars, September 22nd, 2022
- Alshain, Altair, Tarazed & Barnard's "E", September 21st, 2022
- The Whole of Canis Minor, September 20th, 2022
- M31 Zoomed-Out & Zoomed-In, September 20th, 2022
- The Whole of the Virgo/Coma Galaxy Supercluster, September 13th, 2022
- Sulafat & Sheliak, September 13th, 2022
- From the Butterfly, Through the Crescent, to the Tulip, September 12th, 2022
- North America & Pelican Nebulae, September 12th, 2022
- Aldebaran, the Hyades and NGC1647, September 10th, 2022
- The Caph & Ruchbah Regions of Cassiopeia, September 9th, 2022
- The Twins in Gemini - Castor & Pollux, September 8th, 2022
- M44 the Beehive Cluster Within the Stargate, September 7th, 2022
- The Cocoon Nebula and Associated Dark Nebula, September 6th, 2022
- Composite North America/Pelican Nebula Region, September 6th, 2022
- The Whole of Central Lyra Featuring Vega, September 4th, 2022
- The Perseus Double Cluster & Stock 2, September 3rd, 2022
- The Sadr Region and the North America and Pelican Nebulae in Cygnus, September 2nd, 2022
- The IC2087 Region of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, August 24th, 2022
- Star SAO76573 in the Taurus Molecular Cloud, August 23rd, 2022
- Procyon and Gomeisa - Canis Minor, August 23rd, 2022
- Arcturus reprocess, August 23rd, 2022
- Tarazed and Barnard's "E", August 19th, 2022
- M31 - The Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda, August 4th, 2022
- Arcturus 2013, July 15th, 2022
- NGC1817, July 1st, 2022
- Carbon Star SAO77516 - Y Tauri, July 1st, 2022
- Mu Cephei - the Garnet Star, July 1st, 2022
- M44 the Beehive Cluster, June 27th, 2022
- M106 and Friends, June 27th, 2022
- Coddington's Nebula, June 21st, 2022
- V509 Cassiopeiae, June 21st, 2022
- The Merak Region in Ursa Major, June 21st, 2022
- Rho Leonis, June 21st, 2022
- Aldebaran with Ring Flare, June 5th, 2022
- Spica - The Brightest Bluest Star in the Sky, June 5th, 2022
- Arcturus and Napoleon's Hat, June 5th, 2022
- Epsilon Cassiopeiae and Greg's Lambda, June 5th, 2022
- Kemble's Cascade, June 3rd, 2022
- Aldebaran - the Eye of the Bull, June 2nd, 2022
- Rosette Nebula Reprocess, May 31st, 2022
- Carbon Star T Cancri, May 31st, 2022
- Bright Blue Star Delta Persei, May 30th, 2022
- Carbon Stars U Cygni (Left) and SV Cygni (Right), May 30th, 2022
- Bright Star Caph in Cassiopeia, May 30th, 2022
- Cadwell 3 - a Barred Spiral Galaxy in Draco, May 30th, 2022
- NGC3842 Galaxy Cluster Region in Leo, May 30th, 2022
- The Mighty Merak in Ursa Major, May 30th, 2022
- The Heart Nebula - reprocess, May 26th, 2022
- NGC6914 - A Tiny Patch of Blue in a Sea of Red, May 23rd, 2022
- M45 - The Pleiades - 27-hours of data on the Sky90 array, May 19th, 2022
- 10 and a half hours on IC348 with the Sky90 array, May 18th, 2022
- 21-hours of 40 and 20-minute subs on M45 - The Pleiades, May 18th, 2022
- U Cygni (SAO49477) Carbon Star, May 18th, 2022
- Gomeisa (3-Beta Canis Minoris), May 18th, 2022
- Mizar & Alcor in Ursa Major, May 18th, 2022
- Hind's Variable nebula - uncropped, May 16th, 2022
- Messier 105 Region in Leo, May 15th, 2022
- Bright Blue Star Delta Persei, May 15th, 2022
- Hind's Variable Nebula, May 15th, 2022
- The Broken Engagement Ring in Ursa Major, May 15th, 2022
- The Sky90 array is now fully operational, May 6th, 2022
- MiniWASP major upgrade 17/02/2022, February 17th, 2022
- Struve's Lost Nebula, December 24th, 2021
- V1331 in Cygnus captured by the Sky90 array., November 18th, 2021
- The Milky Way up Close and Personal: The Stars Like Dust, November 10th, 2021
- Out until 3:00 a.m. last night - the joy of astrophotography., November 5th, 2021
- The Double Cluster in perspective, March 27th, 2020
- The Perseus Double Cluster - YET AGAIN!!, March 25th, 2020
- NGC 7822, March 25th, 2020
- M101 in perspective, March 25th, 2020
- That was a bit unexpected!, January 18th, 2020
- Just a reminder, January 15th, 2020
- Coddington's nebula, March 28th, 2019
- Greg's "3" asterism in Leo, March 23rd, 2019
- M44 region with the Canon 200mm prime lenses from last night, February 28th, 2019
- January 2019 - Image of the Month, January 2nd, 2019
- Pleiades - superdeep, December 17th, 2018
- Procyon and Gomeisa, December 17th, 2018
- Sky90 array image of M31 the Andromeda galaxy, December 17th, 2018
- Vega plus two Carbon stars, December 17th, 2018
- The Double Cluster and Stock 2 in wide-field, December 17th, 2018
- The CTB1 region in Cassiopeia, December 17th, 2018
- The Caph region in Cassiopeia, December 17th, 2018
- Astronomy Picture of the Day APOD, December 17th, 2018
- The Veil nebula in wide-field, December 17th, 2018
- NGC 7209 in Lacerta, December 17th, 2018
- MiniWASP article, July 14th, 2018
- Cocoon nebula region, July 3rd, 2018
- The NGC6914 reflection nebula region in Cygnus, June 14th, 2018
- The IC2087 region in Taurus showing the Taurus molecular clouds, June 4th, 2018
- A dense galaxy cluster just south east of Arcturus, May 8th, 2018
- Ceres, February 24th, 2018
- Alcor & Mizar, February 23rd, 2018
- Gomeisa or Beta Canis Majoris, February 16th, 2018
- A nice imaging run with the Sky 90 array last night., February 14th, 2018
- Bubble nebula region from last night, February 10th, 2018
- Asteroid 8 Flora plus an unknown, January 20th, 2018
- The Belt of Orion, January 10th, 2018
- NGC1999 region from 15/12/2017, December 16th, 2017
- First "proper" image of the season - IC348 in Perseus, December 12th, 2017
- A Mega-Deep M45 Image, September 26th, 2017
- Taurus Molecular Clouds, June 13th, 2017
- Arcturus, June 13th, 2017
- Asteroid JO25 2014 captured on the miniWASP 200mm Canon prime lenses, April 24th, 2017
- Asteroid JO25 2014, April 20th, 2017
- Asteroids in Leo from last night, March 26th, 2017
- Widefield Gomeisa region with the 200mm lenses, March 25th, 2017
- Procyon & Gomeisa, March 25th, 2017
- Gomeisa from 23rd February 2017, March 23rd, 2017
- Procyon region from 22/03/2017, March 23rd, 2017
- The Current Status of the Mini-WASP Array at the New Forest Observatory, January 24th, 2017
- M45 - Noel Carboni process, January 22nd, 2017
- Composited M45, January 21st, 2017
- Deeeeeep M45, January 21st, 2017
- Hind's Variable nebula, January 20th, 2017
- Taurus molecular cloud 2-framer, December 31st, 2016
- Taurus molecular clouds, December 31st, 2016
- Aldebaran and the Hyades, December 3rd, 2016
- The Full Monty, December 2nd, 2016
- Composite of the IC2087 region, December 1st, 2016
- December 2016 Deep-Sky Image of the Month, December 1st, 2016
- 17 hours on the NGC6914 region in Cygnus, November 9th, 2016
- The Double Cluster - yet again, November 8th, 2016
- The NGC6914 region in Cygnus, November 5th, 2016
- Sadr one and a half framer, November 4th, 2016
- New Forest Observatory - Image of the Month, November 4th, 2016
- Oriented and re-processed NA/Pelican, October 23rd, 2016
- Sadr region with the Canon 200mm array, October 23rd, 2016
- Last night's effort with the Canon 200mm lens array, October 23rd, 2016
- Image of the Month, October 4th, 2016
- From the Gamma Cass nebula to PacMan, August 31st, 2016
- The Canon 200mm prime lens does the Perseus Double Cluster, August 31st, 2016
- Central Lyra with the Canon 200mm prime lenses, August 27th, 2016
- A rich star field in Lacerta - with a bonus object, August 9th, 2016
- Test shot on the Sky 90 array, August 8th, 2016
- Noel Carboni process of the California nebula data, July 23rd, 2016
- The California nebula, June 30th, 2016
- The Caldwell 3 region in Draco, May 5th, 2016
- Pazmino's Cluster, April 11th, 2016
- La Superba, April 11th, 2016
- Kemble's Cascade - Akira Fujii-effect version, April 11th, 2016
- NGC3842 region in Leo, April 11th, 2016
- Rho Leonis - a very blue star, March 18th, 2016
- Mighty Merak, March 18th, 2016
- Stargate, March 15th, 2016
- Carbon star T Cancri with the mini-WASP array, March 15th, 2016
- La Superba Akira Fujii effect only, March 15th, 2016
- La Superba region with the 200mm Canon prime lenses, March 14th, 2016
- The Carbon stars of Kemble's Cascade, March 12th, 2016
- M44 - The Beehive cluster - in perspective, March 8th, 2016
- Polaris and the Integrated Flux Nebula, February 27th, 2016
- The Canon 200mm lenses and M26C OSC CCDs do the Twins, February 11th, 2016
- The Definitive Rosette nebula from the MegaWASP array, February 6th, 2016
- Caph region - brighter version, January 23rd, 2016
- The Caph region in Cassiopeia, January 23rd, 2016
- The Ruchbah region with the Canon 200mm lenses, January 20th, 2016
- IC2087 region, January 15th, 2016
- Twin Domes at the New Forest Observatory, January 9th, 2016
- Aldebaran, the Hyades & NGC1647, January 4th, 2016
- Unknown object near Aldebaran, December 12th, 2015
- Aldebaran 2-framer, December 9th, 2015
- Sulafat & Sheliak in Lyra, October 3rd, 2015
- V1331 Cygni region second dataset, October 2nd, 2015
- V1331 Cygni region, October 1st, 2015
- The MegaWASP array does a Kemble's Cascade 4-framer, September 23rd, 2015
- The Sky 90 array does the M57 region, September 22nd, 2015
- Deep-Sky Image of the Month for September 2015, September 16th, 2015
- Carbon star W Cassiopeiae, September 12th, 2015
- Epsilon Cassiopeiae region, September 12th, 2015
- The Mega-WASP array does Barnard's "E", September 7th, 2015
- The Double Cluster & Stock 2 with the Canon 200mm prime lens, August 28th, 2015
- The megaWASP array does Kemble's Cascade, August 16th, 2015
- The North America and Pelican nebulae Mega-WASPed, August 9th, 2015
- The MegaWASP array does the Crescent region in Cygnus, July 10th, 2015
- North America nebula region with the Canon 200mm lens, June 19th, 2015
- Astronomical Images on Flickr, June 14th, 2015
- The megaWASP array does Arcturus, June 5th, 2015
- CCDInspector result, May 27th, 2015
- R Coronae Borealis, May 27th, 2015
- Almost set up, May 21st, 2015
- The latest incarnation of "The Beast", May 7th, 2015
- X Cancri - Carbon star, May 6th, 2015
- The New Forest Observatory 05/05/2015 at 2:00 p.m., May 5th, 2015
- The mega-WASP upgrade has been completed, May 1st, 2015
- The mini-WASP array has now morphed into the mega-WASP array, April 29th, 2015
- Pac Man nebula reloaded, April 26th, 2015
- Polaris with the mini-WASP array, April 20th, 2015
- 13 Messier objects in one image, April 15th, 2015
- Work in progress - the whole of the Virgo/Coma galaxy cluster, April 13th, 2015
- Dyson Sphere around Polaris, April 13th, 2015
- The Virgo/Coma galaxy cluster region with the Canon 200mm f#1.8 lens, March 27th, 2015
- La Superba from 22/03/2015, March 23rd, 2015
- The Merak region in Ursa Major, March 9th, 2015
- Coddington's nebula & V Y Ursae Majoris, February 27th, 2015
- Gemini central, February 24th, 2015
- And here's the M106 image from last night's session, February 17th, 2015
- An extremely rare clear Moonless night last night 🙂, February 17th, 2015
- Carbon star SAO 77516, January 25th, 2015
- C W Leonis with insert, January 25th, 2015
- C W Leonis or IRC +10216, January 23rd, 2015
- Astronomy Now article on the mini-WASP array, January 21st, 2015
- Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2, January 19th, 2015
- NGC 1817 an open cluster in Taurus, January 19th, 2015
- 200mm NAN 30.12.2014, December 31st, 2014
- Canon 200mm lens images the Rose, December 30th, 2014
- Mini-WASP test shot on the Rosette nebula, December 30th, 2014
- The mini-WASP array does the T Tauri region, December 29th, 2014
- The mini-WASP array does the California nebula, December 28th, 2014
- The mini-WASP array does Aldebaran and the Hyades region, December 28th, 2014
- The mini-WASP array does the Northern Cone region, December 21st, 2014
- 5 hours imaging with the mini-WASP array, December 15th, 2014
- Carbon star VX Andromedae, November 25th, 2014
- The mini-WASP does the business on 23/11/2014, November 24th, 2014
- Mirach and "Ghost" in Andromeda from the mini-WASP array, November 21st, 2014
- The latest incarnation of the mini-WASP array 2014, November 19th, 2014
- Second light for the mini-WASP array, November 1st, 2014
- First light for the 3 x Sky 90 mini-WASP imaging array, October 29th, 2014
- Statrep on the mini-WASP array, October 12th, 2014
- UY Andromedae a Carbon star in Andromeda, October 6th, 2014
- Gamma Cassiopeiae and Navi region , October 6th, 2014
- The mini-WASP array does the PacMan nebula and Schedar, October 6th, 2014
- Another mini-WASP upgrade, October 1st, 2014
- Comet Jacques c/2014 E2 from 22/08/2014, August 25th, 2014
- Mini-WASP upgrade number 2 for June 2014, June 28th, 2014
- Upgrade of the week for the mini-WASP array, June 25th, 2014
- Statrep for the second Canon 200mm prime lens, May 16th, 2014
- What a clever chap!!, May 13th, 2014
- Mini-WASP array statrep May 2014, May 5th, 2014
- The new autofocuser for the Canon 200mm prime lens, May 4th, 2014
- New goodies from Tom How arrived today, May 1st, 2014
- Carbon star V623 Cassiopeiae, April 30th, 2014
- The current status of the mini-WASP array, January 28th, 2014
- The big 3, December 3rd, 2013
- Carbon star SAO 21002 NW of Caph and emission nebula SH2-168, September 5th, 2013
- Last night's mini-WASP imaging session, September 3rd, 2013
- It's a clear Moonless night, September 3rd, 2013
- The story so far - SAO 84015, August 11th, 2013
- The mini-WASP array captures globular cluster M10 in Ophiucus on 09/07/2013, July 20th, 2013
- The mini-WASP array captures the NGC663 region in Cassiopeia, July 20th, 2013
- Made in Heaven, July 19th, 2013
- Two Carbon stars in Sagitta, July 19th, 2013
- M11 in the Scutum star cloud all 3 data sets, July 10th, 2013
- The mini-WASP arrays grabs Carbon star V Aquilae, July 9th, 2013
- Hyperstar III deep 2-framer of the Tulip nebula region in Cygnus, July 8th, 2013
- The mini-WASP array grabs M11 in the Scutum star cloud, July 8th, 2013
- The Stars Like Dust, July 7th, 2013
- The NGC 6871 region of Cygnus with the Sky 90 and M26C, July 6th, 2013
- Clear night - no Moon, July 5th, 2013
- 2 Carbon stars and nebulosity in Cygnus, June 14th, 2013
- NGC 6791 and Carbon star U Lyrae in the constellation Lyra, June 7th, 2013
- A beautiful pair of Carbon stars in Lyra, June 6th, 2013
- The Navigator's companion, April 27th, 2013
- Greg's "3" asterism in Leo , April 13th, 2013
- The Coathanger Cluster, March 29th, 2013
- You will be assimilated, March 12th, 2013
- Tania Australis image - Noel Carboni process, March 7th, 2013
- Tania Australis and NGC3184 in Ursa Major, March 5th, 2013
- Abell 1377 in Ursa Major, February 21st, 2013
- The mini-WASP configuration 17/02/2013, February 17th, 2013
- Mini-WASP array bolt on goody, February 17th, 2013
- Asteroid 2012 DA14, February 16th, 2013
- The Meissa region in the head of Orion, February 12th, 2013
- Carbon star 4-Omicron 1 Orionis, February 12th, 2013
- Orion finder/guider scope fitted to the mini-WASP array, February 10th, 2013
- A tad annoying, February 10th, 2013
- The mini-WASP array does Meissa, February 8th, 2013
- Vega (Alpha Lyrae) - brightest star in Lyra, February 1st, 2013
- A Ring between two Diamonds, February 1st, 2013
- This afternoon I fixed a fault with the Paramount ME myself., January 22nd, 2013
- Hind's Crimson Star, January 20th, 2013
- New Forest Observatory this morning, January 18th, 2013
- Robofocus units fitted to the TS 80mm triplet APOs, January 15th, 2013
- Beautiful blue Bellatrix, January 9th, 2013
- A New Year's Day treat - Sirius 2-framer, January 3rd, 2013
- Saiph in Orion, December 12th, 2012
- The brightest star in the Sky - SIRIUS, December 12th, 2012
- The mini-WASP array roars!, December 6th, 2012
- Noel Carboni process of the Mu Cephei mini-WASP dataset, December 5th, 2012
- Mu Cephei - the Garnet star in Cepheus., December 4th, 2012
- The mini-WASP array is fully functional 🙂, November 30th, 2012
- The Coathanger cluster in Vulpecula courtesy of the mini-WASP array, November 16th, 2012
- The Double Cluster and the Stock 2 open cluster in Perseus, November 12th, 2012
- Star field in Perseus, November 10th, 2012
- Flattening the M26C APS-sized chip with a Takahashi collimator, October 29th, 2012
- Greg's Charm Bracelet - the Double Cluster in Perseus is the "charm", October 22nd, 2012
- Hyperstar III and mini-WASP array images from the same night., October 21st, 2012
- The latest images from the mini-WASP array, October 16th, 2012
- A clear night 🙂, October 15th, 2012
- The mini-WASP is up and running - of course it is a full Moon tonight!, September 29th, 2012
- I call it Plug City, September 20th, 2012
- mini-WASP now fully populated and ready to go 🙂, September 17th, 2012
- Ruchbah region with the TS 80mm triplet APO and a Sky 90 refractor, September 16th, 2012
- Ruchbah region with the TS 80 and no hot pixels, September 15th, 2012
- The mini-WASP array spaghetti junction, September 12th, 2012
- Ruchbah region test shot with the TS 80, September 10th, 2012
- TS 80mm triplet APO refractor - first impressions, September 10th, 2012
- Robofocus - unbelievable service!, September 3rd, 2012
- Images for fully-populated mini-WASP array, August 30th, 2012
- The third and final (?) imaging system has been fitted to the mini-WASP array, August 30th, 2012
- Update on Tom How's superb synchronisation program (ssp), August 28th, 2012
- Hyperstar reunited with the M25C, August 28th, 2012
- A third imaging system for the mini-WASP array is being prepared, August 27th, 2012
- The mini-WASP continues to fight back - this is now getting personal!, August 20th, 2012
- See and hear the mini-WASP in action, August 14th, 2012
- Vega region - 3.26 x 4.24 degrees, both M26C cameras - mini-WASP array, August 4th, 2012
- Kappa Cassiopeia with NGC 146 and NGC 133, July 30th, 2012
- Further adventures with the mini-WASP array, July 29th, 2012
- Downloaded PEMPro from CCDWare for 60-day free evaluation, June 13th, 2012
- Little steps, June 4th, 2012
- Vega - mini-WASP test shot, May 30th, 2012
- Re-collimation of second imaging Sky 90 successful 🙂, May 30th, 2012
- Deneb region using one scope and camera on the mini-WASP array, May 29th, 2012
- Statrep mini-WASP array, May 29th, 2012
- M57 region camera 2 mini-WASP array 26/05/2012, May 27th, 2012
- The New Forest Observatory control room, May 27th, 2012
- Mini-WASP statrep 23/05/2012, May 23rd, 2012
- Vega from the mini-WASP array, May 17th, 2012
- mini-WASP pier extender fitted, April 24th, 2012
- The never ending collimation problem, April 16th, 2012
- Sky 90 collimation statrep, April 15th, 2012
- Takahashi collimator delivered - mini-WASP fine-tuning good to go, April 14th, 2012
- Flaming Star nebula - composite image, March 13th, 2012
- The ED-100 quintuplet refractor does the Flaming Star nebula in Auriga, March 13th, 2012
- First Light for the Sky-Watcher Esprit ED-100 quintuplet refractor, March 12th, 2012
- The Sky-Watcher Esprit ED-100 quintuplet is loaded and ready to go!, March 11th, 2012
- Pointer Star Dubhe in the constellation Ursa Major, February 3rd, 2012
- Reprocess and crop to the Double Cluster and Stock 2, January 29th, 2012
- Double cluster and Stock 2 reprocess, January 29th, 2012
- Double Cluster sans spikes, January 5th, 2012
- This is precisely the sort of image the mini-WASP array was designed to capture!, January 4th, 2012
- Some earlier Stock 2 data added to the mini-WASP Double Cluster image, January 3rd, 2012
- Double Cluster from the mini-WASP array just before grabbing the lunar halo image, January 3rd, 2012
- Bellatrix, Polaris and Pollux re-loaded, January 2nd, 2012
- California nebula reprocess, December 30th, 2011
- The Cone nebula - a mini-WASP single framer, December 29th, 2011
- The mini-WASP imager is now fully operational, December 29th, 2011
- Pollux, December 24th, 2011
- Polaris, December 24th, 2011
- Bellatrix, December 24th, 2011
- Getting there - very, very slowly!, December 23rd, 2011
- Robofocus brackets completed, December 6th, 2011
- New Robofocus brackets, December 5th, 2011
- Aldebaran - correct orientation, November 23rd, 2011
- The eye of the Bull, November 23rd, 2011
- Icy Dock 8Tb storage solution for the mini-WASP data, October 26th, 2011
- Ruchbah and M103 in Cassiopeia - the forgotten data, October 3rd, 2011
- NGC7000 - the North America nebula - definitive issue!, October 2nd, 2011
- No added contrast or saturation, September 30th, 2011
- NGC7000 reprocessed, September 30th, 2011
- Well even with one wonky scope the mini-WASP can sure deliver the goods 🙂, September 30th, 2011
- The mini-WASP array - one step forward and three steps back., September 30th, 2011
- Momentous day today - the first (almost proper) 2-framer to come out of the mini-WASP array 🙂, September 29th, 2011
- It's 1:30 a.m. and I've finally set up the mini-WASP array 🙂, September 29th, 2011
- Parallel imaging - what the new mini-WASP array was originally designed for., September 6th, 2011
- Second Light on the NFO mini-WASP array, August 31st, 2011
- Mini-WASP "First Light" party at the New Forest Observatory 21/08/2011, August 27th, 2011
- New warm room for the mini-WASP?, August 20th, 2011
- Michael Hattey of Starlight Xpress brings the tested M26C down to the NFO - with Maglev fans for both cameras, August 10th, 2011
- The usual superbly efficient customer service from Starlight Xpress, August 9th, 2011
- First Light for the mini-WASP project - the Gamma Cygni region, August 7th, 2011
- First Light for the mini-WASP array Saturday night and Sunday morning:, August 7th, 2011
- Tom How's Patented dome rotation system 🙂, August 6th, 2011
- Blistering hot day here at the NFOs, August 3rd, 2011
- Cable mis-management, July 31st, 2011
- Thank you Tom How 🙂, July 29th, 2011
- View from the top - mini-WASP statrep 22/07/2011, July 22nd, 2011
- Statrep - mini-WASP array build, July 21st, 2011
- The mini-WASP array - over 4 years now and still counting, July 18th, 2011
- Twin Kecks at the New Forest Observatory, July 17th, 2011
- The mini-WASP array is now domed 🙂, July 16th, 2011
- Further progress today, July 15th, 2011
- mini-WASP observatory flooring completed today, July 14th, 2011
- The full Monty, July 12th, 2011
- The new Pulsar Observatories dome has just been installed 🙂, July 12th, 2011
- The mini-WASP array with three Sky 90s attached, July 11th, 2011
- Demi-Mini-WASP dry-run in the study, July 10th, 2011
- Computer networking masterclass courtesy of Tom How, July 9th, 2011
- The Starlight Xpress goodie bag arrived today!, July 7th, 2011
- The mini-WASP decking has been treated - dome due for delivery next week 🙂, June 30th, 2011
- The New Forest Observatory "Keck" facility, June 10th, 2011
- The all Aluminium pier is fitted, June 10th, 2011
- The decking is completed - now awaiting the Pulsar Observatories dome 🙂, June 8th, 2011
- It begins! The octagonal decking for the mini-WASP observatory goes down today 🙂, June 8th, 2011
- mini-WASP array project - the deck build, May 23rd, 2011
- Starlight Xpress Ltd sponsors the mini-WASP array, May 6th, 2011
- The Baader narrowband filter sets, April 30th, 2011
- Ian King Imaging sponsors the mini-WASP project 🙂, April 30th, 2011
- Concrete pillar support completed - with a lot of help from Tom How, April 16th, 2011
- The mixer and all the goodies arrived this morning 🙂, April 15th, 2011
- Kieron sponsors the mini-WASP array - again 🙂, April 12th, 2011
- The never ending hole digging saga continuums, April 9th, 2011
- It always begins with digging a hole 🙂, April 7th, 2011
- mini-WASP array - project sponsors, February 14th, 2011
- The mini-WASP array 2011, February 12th, 2011
- A video clip of the Paramount ME in action., November 9th, 2010
- Now the Paramount is in the study as well as the pier., November 9th, 2010
- The all-Aluminium pier for the Paramount and mini-WASP array, November 8th, 2010
- First video diary entry for the new mini-WASP imaging array, November 6th, 2010
- Slight change of plan, October 16th, 2010
- Another component for next year's mini-WASP array launch, October 15th, 2010
- mini-WASP, the latest, September 7th, 2010
- Not been able to set up the repaired M25C, August 21st, 2010
- The mini-WASP array - one step closer, April 3rd, 2010
- mini-WASP update, March 19th, 2010
- mini-WASP array and Brian May's new book, November 29th, 2009
- O.K. so I couldn't wait until tomorrow:, November 27th, 2009
- Current status of the mini-WASP array November 2009, November 27th, 2009
- The mini-WASP array project - statrep, November 21st, 2009
- Computational solution?, November 13th, 2009
- mini-WASP array - computational matters, November 7th, 2009
- It's now 2:30 p.m. and the Paramount is unpacked!, November 3rd, 2009
- It's 1:30 p.m. and the Paramount arrives at the NFO!!!, November 3rd, 2009
- A brand new Paramount ME is on its way to the New Forest Observatory, October 29th, 2009
- Statrep on the mini-WASP deep-sky imaging array, October 22nd, 2009
- Update on the mini-WASP deep-sky imaging array, December 23rd, 2008
- The mini-WASP array morphs into the NIP, November 6th, 2008
- mini-WASP Array Project - Part 3 - The Framework , December 8th, 2007
- mini-WASP Array Project - Part 2 - A Likely Solution, August 7th, 2007
- mini-WASP Array Project - Part 1 - The Problem, August 2nd, 2007
- mini-WASP Array Project, July 10th, 2007