The Rosette nebula features in the June 2008 issue of Practical Astronomer

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Greg Parker

Great news!  Our definitive Rosette nebula image incorporating RGB, H-alpha and OIII data features on the cover, and centre-page spread of Eddie’s superb Practical Astronomer magazine.  Nice print job there Eddie 🙂

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Robofocus update

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Greg Parker

The Robofocus guys are getting a new website together and asked for photos of the Robofocus on customers’ systems.  This is how the Robofocus looks on my Tak Sky 90 which is piggy-backed on the Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS.

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The only modification I made was to beef up the supplied aluminium motor mount with a 2mm thick aluminium stiffener plate which runs along the top.  The whole mount is now extremely rigid allowing fast, fine focusing.

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Statrep NFO 16th May 2008

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Greg Parker

The high-resolution draft version of “Star Vistas” has now been electronically delivered to Springer.  Some suggestions for improvements in the text have been made, and Noel and I are working on these presently.

 There is a review of my “How to” book – “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky images” in the June 2008 issue of Astronomy Now written by Ed Sampson, and an interview with me on the following page in the same magazine.

Pop over to my Flickr site to see some hand held mosaics of Venice taken on a day trip this Wednesday.

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IC443 the Jellyfish nebula complete with extra H-alpha.

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Greg Parker

Noel completed Star Vistas late last night, and this was the final image to be prepared for publication.  This is IC443 the Jellyfish nebula, and IC444 is the large emission nebula (which also contains a reflection nebula and a very small planetary nebula) to its left, both are in Gemini.  This image comprises 3 hours of RGB, 9 hours and 40 minutes of H-alpha, and 3 hours and 40 minutes of SII.

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Star Vistas completed 10th May 2008

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Greg Parker

Noel Carboni has literally just completed the last fine adjustments on the new deep-sky coffee-table book – Star Vistas.  He is now assembling the high-resolution version ready to send off to Springer.  We are hoping for publication early 2009.  I am now going to crack open a bottle of Champagne 🙂  Well done Noel!

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Hampshire Astronomical Group seminar II

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Greg Parker

I had a great evening in Clanfield last night with the Hampshire Astronomical Group who made me [the wife and the dog] most welcome.  If you are invited along by HAG to give a talk, I can highly recommend you go – very friendly, and very interesting meeting 🙂

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Hampshire Astronomical Group seminar

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Greg Parker

I am giving a seminar to the Hampshire Astronomical Group at the Clanfield Memorial Hall tonight at 7.45 p.m.  You will be able to purchase signed copies of “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images” at a reduced rate.  See you there 🙂

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Do we live in a Matrix Universe? The endgame.

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Greg Parker

It is clear the way my time is going that I am never going to complete my book “Game Over” which describes the end of our computer generated “reality”. Continue reading →

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IC1805 the Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Greg Parker

Noel Carboni is putting the finishing touches to Star Vistas as this post goes out, and he created this deep-space masterpiece from a collection of old NFO data.  The appropriately named Heart Nebula is a favourite target for Northern-Hemisphere amateur astroimagers.

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Mercury and the crescent Moon II later in the evening

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Greg Parker

This image was taken later in the evening on the 6th May, just before Mercury got lost in the purple mush at the bottom of the picture.

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