The Cheshire Astronomer

Good evening "Skywatchers" Well, what do you know? We have had three evenings with clear skies and know Moon. Surely this has to be a record for British Skies and Astronomers. Last night I wanted to say farewell to our old friend Orion. So- I spent the evening imaging the area surrounding the three belt stars and Messier 42. The camera was my trusty Canon 1000D and the lens, my new Tamron zoom. I had that set to 140mm at F9. Here then are 34x3 minute exposures Un-guided.

How sad I am now my dear old dad and mentor has " Changed his Cosmic Adress " It was on 22nd January 2018 that he made his ascent to his celestial home in the sky. By now he is no doubt wondering through the heavens watching his home planet, with all the troubles it has. And shaking his head in dismay. I like to think he was able to have a word about the weather up there. Because. For part of the evening on, 02-02-18 the skies in East Cheshire cleared and we had 4 hours of a clear Winter sky. Thanks, Dad 😁 This allowed me to get out and go into my control room that is "Whirlpool Observatory" And collect some ancient light. On this evening. I decided to keep it all low tech and image Messier 35 with a camera and lens on my Losmandy G11. The camera. Canon 1000D and the lens. Tamron AF 70-300 F4-5.6 Di I now use APT for digital imaging. I think this program is excellent and does everything I want. How do you focus your camera lens, I hear you ask! W

The skies on Thursday evening were for the second time. Very clear. This allowed me to use my Canon 1000D and 200mm telephoto lens, on the Heart Nebula. I shot 24 x 5-minute exposures for this nebula, through an Optilong UHC filter. The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) is an emission nebula located at an approximate distance of about 7,500 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is also known as Sharpless 2-190 (Sh2-190) or the Running Dog Nebula because, when seen through a telescope, it looks a bit like a running dog.  I have not seen or heard this name before. The nebula has an apparent magnitude of 18.3 and an absolute magnitude of 6.5. It is 150 arcminutes in size and known for its intensely red glowing gas and dark dust lanes forming a shape that resembles a heart symbol. The Heart Nebula forms a famous complex known as the Heart and Soul with its smaller neighbour Westerhout 5, also known as the Soul Nebula, which lies just 2.5 degrees to the southeast. Thes

We had a cold frosty, and very clear. Early Winter sky on 2017- 12 -11 It was very welcome too. I was itching to finally capture some more ancient light, from the Whirlpool control room here in   Cheshire. Because of the poor weather. I have not been outside since my last post. When I imaged the Cocoon nebula. How long ago was that! It seems the British Weather is not getting better. I well remember times when, as a kid. We had cold frosty day's that lasted all day and into the night. That was the 1970s and 1980s. How I long for a cold front to pass, with a lovely "High" that can bring frosty nights. For CCD imaging. Onto NGC 383 Here is a picture of a very unfamiliar (to me) chain of Galaxies. This is a chain of 12.5 magnitude galaxies in the constellation of the Northern Fish or "Pisces" I made a mental note to image this small group. After seeing other pictures, and finding reference to t

This is the first blog entry since August. The weather hasn't been brilliant for astronomy, and imaging has suffered. But I did manage to save some photons last week. When I together with hundreds of other keen astronomers. Attended the Norfolk Equinox Sky Camp at Kelling Heath. The skies there are very dark when compared to my milky suburban sky. One night we had m+5.6 skies.  If you have never been to the EQSP. I would strongly recommend it. This evening. I am sitting in the Whirlpool Comand Centre imaging the Cocoon Nebula. IC5146 is an object that, I have wanted to image since last week. When I took a CCD image of it from Kelling Heath. I am imaging this large reflection nebula using the Atik 428 and my new Atik EWF2. I have a Baader 7nm Ha filter selected to show the Ha emission. The telescope is of cause - my lovely Altair Wave 115 EDT. Which is now my only imaging telescope. IC 5146 is a large nebula that is visible between the Summer constellations

During yesterday evening, and into Sunday night. I together with friends from my local AS. Held an observing session, at our local dark sky observing site. Teggs Nose CP near Macclesfield. Skies were very clear with very good seeing. The jet stream must have taken the evening off. I was using my Altair Astro Wave series, 115 EDT on an IOptron Mini Tower 2. Eyepieces used varied, between Baader Hyperion 13mm (x60) Celestron 35mm Ultima (x 23) and TV 24mm Panoptic (x33) Filters. Optolong 2" UHC. Baader Neodymium. DSO data. Interstellarum. M 27 UHC 2" with 13mm Very large and very bright nebula. Elongated. I never tire of looking at the Northern skies biggest and best, planetary nebula. And tonight was no exception. This object was very easy in the deepening twilight sky. Once the skies were fully dark. M27 was a delightful object to study. NGC 6826 UHC 2" 13mm Really difficult to see, through the eyepiece and 2" UHC filter. I think I will invest in a