2nd January 2009 M38
Open Cluster in Auriga 6" reflector, 40x30 seconds, no
guiding
M42 Great Nebula in Orion 6"
reflector, 35x30 seconds, no guiding
Alnitak The left hand star of Orion's
belt. 6" reflector, 35x30 seconds, no guiding Below Alnitak is
the Flame Nebula. The Horsehead Nebula is barely visible - 30 seconds exposures
are not enough to bring it out. The arrows show its location.
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3rd January 2009
Hazy sky so nebulae and galaxies not easy to image. Try a
few stars instead. |
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Betelgeuse in Orion
The 'right
shoulder'.
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Bellatrix
in Orion
The 'left shoulder'. Haze in the sky accentuates the blue
colour.
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6th January 2009 Moon Best 50 of 180 images, 1/1000second , 6"
reflector
9th January 2009 Moon Best 25 of 60 images, 1/1000second , 10"
reflector
13th January 2009 Horsehead and Flame Nebulae 14x30seconds, 6"
reflector
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This is the first image
with the modified Canon 350D and the CLS filter.
The red Hydrogen alpha
light is very much brighter than in any previous images.
Polar alignment
was poor, no guiding, and only 14 images before clouds rolled in.
The
image is consequently noisy, but it shows that the modification is working
(compare with image on 2nd January)
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The following two
images show the same region of sky at 30 seconds exposure. (The star is
Alnitak) The left image shows the amount of light pollution present. The
right image is with the Astronomik CLS filter in the camera. The light
pollution is reduced by an amazing amount, and the Horsehead nebula can be
glimpsed in a single 30 second frame. |
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The
left image is a single 30 second frame of M42. The right is a 30 second frame
with modified camera and CLS filter. |
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M42 Great Nebula
in Orion 6" reflector, 15x30 seconds, no guiding Modified
camera and CLS filter |
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M42 A
reworked image using frames from 2nd January (no modification, no filter)
combined with frames from tonight. |
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18th January 2009
M1 Crab Nebula 9x60seconds, 500mm
telephoto |
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M45 Pleiades 10x60seconds,
500mm telephoto |
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M42, M43 and NGC
1977 22x60 seconds, 500mm
telephoto NGC1977 is the 'Running Man' nebula at the left. M42 is
the Orion Nebula and M43 is a small attachment to it.
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23rd January 2009
M1 Crab Nebula 44x60seconds, 6"
reflector
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Reprocessed...
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NGC2244 - Rosette Nebula 38x30seconds, 6"
reflector NGC 2244 is the cluster of stars at the centre of the nebula.
This image shows only a part of the nebula.
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25th January 2009Venus and International
Space Station While checking the NASA website for ISS predictions I
noticed that on 25/01/09 there would be a close encounter between the ISS and
Venus. Amazingly the clouds parted and I was able to take some images. It was
still far too bright (5:18pm) to leave the shutter open to record a trail, so I
took 1/6th second exposures. Visually I missed the early stages because the
sky was so bright and I only saw the ISS when it had actually passed Venus
(position 2), but an earlier test image showed the ISS at position
1).
The above picture is 4 frames superimposed with
Photoshop. (There is a little bit of cheating - the ISS was so faint that I
placed a white dot at each position to make it more visible).
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26th January 2009Alnitak, Horsehead and
Flame nebula 36x46seconds, 6"reflector
Processing pushed to the limit. To
remove the noise from the image Photoshop has been used in a way that
removes all scientific value from the image - but
it makes a pretty picture!
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