I didn’t notice a bad stitch in the original data. This is a 4-pane mosaic using the Canon 200mm prime lenses and Trius M26C OSC CCDs.
A late Spring Quartet over the New Forest Observatory
An unusual grouping had me out last night with the Canon 5D MkII and 15mm Canon fisheye lens. It was 10:30 p.m. and still fairly light outside (darkness doesn’t start until Midnight!). Vega, Arcturus, Spica and Jupiter provided the Quartet, and as Ursa Major was directly overhead – I grabbed that one as well. 10-second (bulb) exposure at f#4.0 and ISO 400.
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A dense galaxy cluster just south east of Arcturus
This is last night’s data taken between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. on the Sky 90 array. 18 x 10-minute subs, and a star has been labelled for reference. One bright asteroid in the FOV only clear in the averaged data.
Thank you Tom How of the Curdridge observatory for identifying the mystery asteroid at far right-centre as 729 Watsonia.
Posted in mini-WASP Array, Sky 90 and SXVF-M26C
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The North & South domes have just had their annual Spring clean
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Hyperstar III and SX 814C captures M87
Another clear night last night, so I moved a bit downwards in the Virgo cluster to get the M87 region. No sign of the jet as far as I can see with 14 x 5-minute subs.
M100 using the Hyperstar III and Trius 814C OSC CCD from last night.
Beautiful clear night last night, and a non-intrusive Moon for imaging in the Leo region. 12 x 5-minutes subs on the M100 region and the speed of the Hyperstar really shows through. Need more data on this for a quality image, but this result is pretty acceptable for just one hour’s worth of imaging.
Posted in Hyperstar III and Trius SX-814C
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Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) number 99 published today
Today (19/03/2018) saw the publication of EPOD number 99 for me.
A big 2-frame panorama of the Bellatrix region with a large galaxy cluster on the right hand side of the frame.
Look out for EPOD number 100 next month.
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The New Forest Observatory after a day of snow (and it’s still snowing).
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Ceres
Clear until 9:00 p.m. last night with a very intrusive Moon. Saw that Ceres was well-placed in Cancer so put the Sky 90 array on the region.
Ended up with 18 x 15-minute subs. Can even see Ceres in the SDMask stacked colour image as it is moving so slowly and is so bright (when I first saw it on the subs I thought it was a star as it was actually brighter than all the surrounding stars). For orientation that is SAO61102 in the centre (guide star).
In the B&W image you can see there is another asteroid below Ceres (that isn’t on the Sky 6). And it is also worth noting that Ceres is shown in the wrong position on the Sky 6 – call up the live Ephemeris on Ceres to get its actual position if you want to image it.
Posted in mini-WASP Array, Sky 90 and SXVF-M26C
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Alcor & Mizar
From last night, 21 x 10-minute subs on the Sky 90 array. Blazing half Moon causing trouble but as it was a beautiful clear (bitterly cold) night I imaged anyway. Couldn’t be bothered to process out the plane trail.
Posted in mini-WASP Array, Sky 90 and SXVF-M26C
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