Skip to main content

Here we go again

Here is the first of many, I hope. Of my newly updated BLOG.

The old one went the way of the Dodo, so I have been forced to create a new one. My older one. Pauls Deepsky Wanderings is still on here somewhere. But I can't access it so I can add to it.

The weather at the moment is rubbish isn't it. I'm typing this whilst suffering from a bad cold. But hey. What the heck. It's Spring, yesterday in-fact at 11am GMT. Though out side. The weather feels more like late November than March 21st. And to cap it all we have Snow on the way.

Now I am not pessimistic but.
We now have that long awaited comet C/2012 L4 PanStarrs visible from the Northern Hemisphere, and guess what. Coupled with a big fat Moon and the day length increasing rapidly. The skies are still CLOUDY.

Why does this always happen when, we have something interesting to look at? I have not been able to do any Astronomy now since the back end of last year. And like most off you. I am really sick and tired of it.

The winter constellations have now vanished into the Western sky, so once again I have missed imaging the Horses Head nebula in Orion and other Deep Sky treats. And I've missed visual observing in the Peak District too.

I only hope during Spring. Our British weather comes to it's senses and clears up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IC 1805

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. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

September

I've just notice that it's been eight months since I last posted anything in this blog. So I think it's time I made amends. I've not really been doing anything over the Summer month's, and what a Summer too. I have been able to study the Sun now I have another scope. I bought myself a nice little Acuter AZ mount and Skywatcher 102 Maksutov back in June. And surprisingly the weather didn't break. I brought the Mak for white light solar observing and imaging. And it is perfect for this. So when the Sun is visible, you'll find me at the end of my Canon EOS 1000D, merrily imaging. I typically shoot 1/1000 second at ISO 800. This helps to freeze the seeing. The images are then resized before stacking in Registax. Here is one example. I have been very busy with my local Astronomical Society too. I am the Observing Director for Macclesfield As, and I have recently been chosen to stand for committee at Octobers AGM. This is a great honour for me and I hope ...
Post a Comment
Read more

News and views

 Hello folks. Well I've not posted anything on here in a very long time. Truth is. I keep forgetting that I have this blog, so I don't think about writing articles or observing reports to post on here. I must try harder 😃 So What have I been up to? Apart from work getting the way, and the lousy weather- I've been busy imaging and observing our star with a Quark eyepiece and a dedicated 4 inch F5 Achromat.  The "Q" allows the user to view the Sun in glorious HA light, so you are seeing the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha, as it was 8 minutes ago. When I look at the Sun or see an image on the computer screen. I never tire of looking at what's going on in the Chromosphere of this mighty orb. The Sun is after all our life line and it is worth mentioning that it is the only star we can see up close, and study. And what a star! At the moment the Sun is very active and has many AR, active regions. Some of which are so active. They are "Burping" and sending out Coron...
Post a Comment
Read more