New Forest Observatory» Hyperstar

The Belt region of Orion as never seen by the naked eye

Greg Parker — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:30:38 +0000

Here is the second marathon processing session by Noel. This time it’s the Belt region of Orion.This image is mostly data from the Sky 90 and comprises RGB, H-alpha and H-beta taken over two frames. There’s also a 3-frame Hyperstar I image of the Horsehead nebula thrown in for good measure

Definitive wide field image of the Cave nebula in Cepheus

Greg Parker — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:15:52 +0000

Taken over several years this image is a composite of Hyperstar I, Sky 90 and Hyperstar III data.

Comprising many hours of RGB and H-alpha exposure, as well as many hours in processing all this data in a consistent way, the Parker/Carboni imaging team bring you a very busy region in the Constellation Cepheus – centred on the well known Cave nebula. In this image you can see a lot of emission nebulosity, many dark nebulae, and dotted around the place several little reflection (blue) nebulae. I think enough data has now been taken of this region for me to tick this one off the list and to move on to something new.

Update: Not a new discovery but a pretty amazing object!

Greg Parker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:15:40 +0000

Panic over. It is not an alien race trying to get our attention (shame) – but an extremely variable, variable star! This little beauty is WY Cas lying just below the open cluster NGC7789 in Cassiopeia, and Noel created the animation from two separate images taken over a year apart.

It is extraordinary that by chance I imaged this one almost at the peak of its maximum and minimum about 18 months apart. I was saying recently that I don’t believe in coincidence – I’ve just changed my mind on that!

This star varies between something like magnitude 7 (brightest) and magnitude 14-15 (dimmest). I had absolutely no idea that stars varied over this enormous range – thank you Roger Pickard at the BAA for educating me

Click on the image below for a larger version showing the “flashing” variable star.

Stop Press!!! Stop Press!!! Possible discovery from the NFO!!!

Greg Parker — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:39:11 +0000

Noel has just processed a Sky 90/M25C image of an open cluster. We had already imaged the same cluster a couple of years earlier with the Hyperstar 1 and SXV-H9C. One very faint very red star of around magnitude 13 shows up as a bright orange magnitude 7 star in the latest data. We have identified the star as a variable which may undergo mag 2 variations – but a 6 mag change is a bit steep by anyone’s standards! We are looking into this a bit deeper and have sent the data to an expert at the BAA. Watch this space. New discovery? Quite possibly

Practical Astronomer Magazine (December 2007)

Greg Parker — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:23:26 +0000

In the December 2007 issue of Practical Astronomer the Editor (Eddie Guscott) interviews Greg Parker about his imaging from the New Forest Observatory and his collaboration with Noel Carboni via the Internet.

This is a 6-page interview and makes the magazine worth purchasing

Our thanks to Eddie and the rest of the team at Practical Astronomer for taking the time to interview us, it was a great experience.

The images below are the same as some of those in the article

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The Express (27th August 2007)

Greg Parker — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:01:16 +0000

If you are a reader of The Express then you might have seen a half page article on page 23 of Bank Holida Monday’s Express. Ok, so the picture doesn’t do me any favours [thanks for the suggestions about supporting garments Noel!].

Tom Price wrote the article and he suggested the highlights: it is amazing what you can achieve from your garden [and we are really pleased with the results we are getting] and anyone can do this with very basic kit and a bit of patience.

However, Tom obviously got some of the information from an earlier interview I did with the Daily Mail. The main problem I have with the article is that he mentions the amount of £10,000! Well, yeah, I probably have spent just under that amount over the last three years but that covers just about everything over that period.

The value of the equipment that I use is not particularily high. In fact, I think one of the most expensive items was the concrete base to bolt the telescope onto!

As most of you know, you can spend just about any amount you like on the equipment but in reality you can start getting great images with relatively low cost gear. We will be posting some “getting started” articles in the near future so make sure you keep an eye out for those. Also, we cover how to set up and take images like ours in the book “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images”.

The picture in the article is one of our images of M31 – The Andromeda Galaxy [shown here because it is a great picture!]

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Astronomy Now Magazine (May 2007 Issue)

Greg Parker — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:25:33 +0000

Our picture of M51 appears on page 48 under the article heading “Beginner’s Challenge: The spiral arms of M51. Our image of M13 and M101 also appear on the Messier Challenge Poster – these are all single frame Hyperstar/SXV-H9C images.

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Astronomy Now Magazine (April 2007 Issue)

Greg Parker — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 10:19:16 +0000

Astronomy Now are printing one of our images of M31 in “the night sky” on page 51. It is certainly a dramatic image and one of our favourites. This is just the central core region of M31 taken with the Hyperstar/SXV-H9C – BUT – it contains 311 sub-exposures!!

Hampshire Society Magazine (March 2007 Issue)

Greg Parker — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:06:05 +0000

Faith Eckersall has written an article titled “Shining Example” for the March issue of the Hampshire Society Magazine.

A lot of the article is about Greg’s background which you also can read on this site. The article has been published with one of our favourite images – the region between NGC1977 and M43 in Orion taken using the Hyperstar/SXV-H9C combination.

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Astronomy Now 2007 Yearbook

Greg Parker — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:16:27 +0000

We have three images in the 2007 yearbook :

Page 38 is the 4 frame Hyperstar image of M31 as one of the top 10 images of 2006

Page 72 is a Hyperstar image of M13 as a summer object

Page 97 has the Virgo Cluster as “deep sky delights”

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