Author Archives: james

Over (and under) the rainbow

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

It’s the first time I’ve seen one of these thought it appears they’re not that rare. A rainbow, photographed from our garden: But it’s a double — there’s a second rainbow above it, just visible in this photo (most easily … Continue reading →

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Another M27 attempt

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

Still unguided, this is seventy minutes worth of RGB exposures of 45 seconds each. I’m not displeased with it, but the outer reaches of the nebulae definitely show that much longer exposures are required.

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Interesting cloud formation

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

I’ve not noticed anything like this before. To me it looks like lots of little knots bunched up together. There was more of the same in thicker cloud nearby, but being lit from behind by the Sun makes the details … Continue reading →

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Dumbbell? Apple core?

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

Neither really does it for me, but this is an amazing object. Another planetary nebula, and one with so much to see. It looks small, but in fact it’s huge, dwarfing our entire solar system to the point where I … Continue reading →

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One ring to rule them all

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

I didn’t really believe it would be possible to image this with my setup as it is, but I decided I’d give it a go anyhow. Planetary nebulae are such fascinating objects. Perhaps what lies in wait for our own … Continue reading →

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My last M13 (for a while), honest

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

I think I’ve about done this to death now. I’ve decided that to get better results than this I firstly need to get very good polar alignment which really means a pier, which probably means an observatory. That should allow … Continue reading →

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Collimation cap for 127 Mak

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

I was asked about my collimation cap recently, having referred to it a couple of times. It’s really very basic, but I just happened to find that it fitted over the rear thread of the baffle tube on my Mak … Continue reading →

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Frog Rescue

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

These tiny little chaps appear to be all over the place in our garden. I assume they’ve left one of the nearby ponds and are looking for new homes. We’ve had to rescue quite a few from the patio to … Continue reading →

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M13 Reloaded

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

It’s taken me a while to get used to all the new software for controlling my HEQ5, the new imaging applications, filter wheel control and so on, but here’s my first attempt at an RGB image of M13 using the … Continue reading →

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Solar prominences

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

A revisit of one of my earlier images, but enhanced to show the prominences. In some ways they don’t look like much, until you consider that they dwarf our entire planet.

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