NGC6992 - the Face and Pickering's Triangle



Taken on 27.5.12 from Austerfield, with the M25C in the WO98, under a cloudless though hazy sky.  The guiding was difficult to set up till I remembered I'd been photographing the Moon earlier and had set the mount speed to Lunar and not re-set it to Sidereal.
It was acquired and pre-processed in Astroart and finalised in Photoshop without sharpening. The exposure was 13x600sec, but as always more time would have been better.

NGC 7000 - the Water Buffalo



Another clear night last night, 26.5.12, though very summer short. Anything later than 2:30am was spoiled by dawn, and I lost 3 frames for that last night.
The usual kit was used, the WO98 telescope and the M25C camera. Very pleased with the camera, but I'd like smaller pixels.
The time on this photograph totalled 13x300 = 65 mins, not at all enough for the subject, but better than cloud cover. I could repeat the exercise another night to increase the total time, but I think I'd rather try another subject if it's clear again tomorrow night. Always that dilemma. So much to do, so little time.
Astroart5 was used to acquire and pre-process the photograph, and Photoshop CS2 to do the rest, which is always more with shorter overall exposure time.
The Vixen VMC260L and H9C were used to guide with Astroart. I keep meaning to try PHD but haven't got round to it yet.

The Sun in H-alpha

Taken on 22.5.12, from Austerfield using the DMK 31 camera and the PST, mounted on the Vixen on the AP 900GTO mount.
The processing was done in Registax 6. The sky was clear and hot, after a month of terrible weather, but there wasn't much wobble as could be expected on such a hot day.

NGC 6888 - the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus

This is an addition of two nights' work, the first on the 23 June 09, and the second, last night 25 May 12. both taken with the same kit of course, the WO 98 with FR carrying the M25C, guided by the H9C in the Vixen VMC260L. Both taken under cloudless skies, though last night's sky was hazy and a bit too close to dawn, in fact I lost 5 frames to the rising dawn.
Pre-processing was done in Astroart as was the matching and averaging of both sets of frames. The final tweaking was done in Photoshop CS2, without sharpening.

There is an abundance of glowing hydrogen all over the frame, several dark areas, dust clouds, and stars too. Just above the nebula is a couple of bright stars, the red SAO69636, a Carbon star, and the blue SAO69635 above it. Not sure if they are related. At the lower left is a small Open Cluster NGC 4996. All this is located on the spine of the Swan, just below the cross of the wings, with the Milky Way running through it.

The Sun - 12.05.12

Taken by Eddie Marris, using a William 132, with his DSLR set at ISO 800 and 3200th of a sec. Processed in Photoshop.


Eddie's photograph is a good celebration of the end (hopefully) of a month of cloud and rain.

4.5.12 - Friday

We are in what the enlightened ones have officially pronounced a drought, so, of course, the rains poured down for days on end, to the effect that we've recorded the greatest rainfall for April almost since records began. Rivers overflowing and floods everywhere, but it's still officially a drought.
All this means that there haven't been any clear nights for astrophotography.
I'm beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms, and fear I'll have forgotten how to do it all when the skies clear.