New Forest Observatory ®

As promised on 24th June 2024 – here is an image that took me 10-years in the making. This is the whole of Corona Borealis, with the inverse-nova Carbon star R Coronae Borealis putting in a VERY bright appearance. Imaging at this time of year means imaging in astronomical twilight as we have no hours of darkness, and this brings its own problems. However, in the early hours of 24th June 2024 I managed to get the 3rd and final frame of this 3-frame mosaic. Each frame was 20 x 10-minute subs meaning this was a 10-hour image in total. Imaging carried out with the 2 x Canon 200mm prime lenses (Canon don’t make this lens anymore!) and the 2 x ASI 2600MC Pro CMOS cameras with UV/IR cut filters.

So pleased this project has finally come to an end, and very pleased with the final result as well.

I can now concentrate on getting the other small constellations I want to capture with the 200mm lenses.

This week it is one of my “single star” images, where the main subject is a bright star in the centre of the frame. This is a recently taken image, but I like it so much it is Picture of the Week, even though it is only 12 x 5-minute subs! Taken with the Canon 200mm prime lenses and ASI 2600MC Pro OSC CMOS cameras, Spica is the brightest, bluest, star in the sky – a true celestial sapphire.

This week we feature the beautiful star Tarazed and the accompanying dark nebula known as Barnard’s “E”.

This is MANY hours of 10 and 15-minute subs taken with the Sky90 array and M26C OSC CCDs on the MiniWASP array. This is most definitely in the region of diminishing returns and won’t be revisited.

The Belt Stars of Orion is this week’s Picture of the Week. Untold hours (in excess of 8 for sure) went into this one using a single Sky90 refractor and M25C OSC CCD. Alnitak (bottom left), Alnilam (centre) and Mintaka (top right) form the famous 3 “Belt Stars” asterism in Orion.

Although I don’t think I can improve much on this image at this resolution, I do want to get a bigger field of view of this region with the 200mm lenses, the ASI 2600MC Pro OSC CMOS cameras, and the Optolong L-Enhance filters. Yet again this was an object I was hoping to get last season, and yes, the weather had other ideas. This is a thankless hobby for sure.