Still chucking it down!!!

The rain looks like its set in for good, I am giving up - better luck next time!

Pleiades Moon Occultation

Its 00.47 Tuesday 7th waited up to take some images of the Occultation, weather looked promising at 23.30 but its now chucking it down!!

Milky Way wide field

Took this image the other night (first for a while!) It shows the Mily Way, Andromeda Galaxy is also visible.

New website up and running!!!

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The Moon glides past The Beehive Cluster

One of my students took this the other night when the moon past M44 Praesepe 'The Beehive' star cluster taken with a 400 mm lens on a Canon 10D.

Moon Venus Conjunction 19 May 2007

These images were taken by one of my students during tonights conjunction.

M45 and Venus

Taken one of the images of last night and added a few notes.

Venus has a date with The Pleiades

This image illustrates the light pollution over the Liverpool area probably about 40 or 50 miles away!

Canon 300d 18mm lens 60secs AV5 ISO800 - location Great Orme Llandudno, N Wales. Really nice view tonight of the coming together of two heavenly icons!

Wide view shot of Saturdays Eclipse

March 3rd 2007 Total Lunar Eclipse

Montage of images taken using a 300d at prime focus 200mm SCT and a 10D with a 400 mm telephoto lens

More M42 shots

Various interpretations using CS2 photoshop Noels Actions and Deepskystacker. Stack of 10 exposures ranging from 30 to 60 seconds ISO 600 to 1600 Canon EOS 300D and 200mm SCT at prime focus.

Finally got an image of M42 the great Orion Nebula. Picture was taken at prime focus using a Canon EOS 300D on a Meade LX10 f10 SCT 200mm. 12second exposure at 1600 ISO. Could have made a better job of polar alignment but was worried about an approaching fog bank!

Also got some pics of the Moon.

Got some images - finally!!!

Managed to get some images after previous failed attempt! Pictures were taken with an EOS 300D working at ISO 800 using a 200mm zoom lens exposure times were various. It was amazing to note how long the dust trail extended even through the veil of thin clouded and the scattered sunlight of twilight - no sign of an ion trail though, probably not dark enough.

A new bright comet!! - C/2006 P1 McNaught

Tried last night but failed due to cloud in the wrong place. Thought I would try tonight even though there was more cloud around, went to west shore in Llandudno so I had a clear view to the west. I was about to give up on a clear spot when on one of my scans I spotted it - wow!! This was the first time i had used my lidl bargain 10X50 bressers in battle and what an amazing sight a nice clear head and a lovely tail possibly both ion and dust visible - by the time I had got the tripod and camera set up it had been covered in cloud! - will keep trying until it shoots behind the sun. I will post an image as soon as/if I get one!

Moon Phase Montage Phase 1 - to be continued!

Had a play with some moon images from my collection (including one of the images from Thursday 28th) might try and get a montage of all the phases of the moon.

Total eclipse 2006

Just thought I would try to combine one of my shots of totality with an image from SOHO taken at approximately the same time. Note how the inner corona detail and flares match up.

Moon tonight

Managed to get out to do some more imaging at last!! been very busy.
Moon was great tonight despite some very high clouds/haze, it was also quite windy which played havoc with my mount - must get that observatory built!!

Anyway down to the techie stuff it was taken with an EOS300D coupled at prime focus to a Meade LX10 20cm (8") SCT which works at f10, exposure time for this on e was 1/125 sec with the camera working at ISO 800.

Partial Lunar Eclipse

Photo of partial lunar eclipse shortly after moonrise, taken near the summit of The Great Orme next to the cable car station at approx 220m altitude - Camera EOS 300D with std 18 -55 lens.

Partial Lunar Eclipse

What a fantastic eclipse. It had been cloudy most of the day but an hour or two before the eclipse was due to start the clouds cleared. I was worried about the haze over the Liverpool and Chester area but this proved not to be a problem.
The image was taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 coupled to a 25mm eyepiece and an ET70 refractor. This is one of many images and has had no processing applied to it yet. I will post further results as and when I manage to do them.

Sun Dogs

Took this picture of a Sun dog last week whilst kayak fishing just off the North Wales coast. Took the pic with my Nokia 5140i phone as I forgot my waterproof camera!

What is a sundog?

A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion) is a relatively common atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with the reflection/refraction of sunlight by the numerous small ice crystals that make up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Sundogs typically appear as a bright and sometimes colorful spot in the sky at a position 22 degrees to the left and/or right of the sun. They are closely related to, and sometimes appear together with, a halo. Less common associated phenomena, collectively called "ice halos," are the circumzenithal arc, upper tangental arc, parhelic circle, and lower tangental arc. There are 14 other named ice halo phenomena that could be seen given optimal conditions.