Astronomy Log

What to Image in September

Posted on: September 17, 2012 /

Categories: Astrophotography Calendar

This is an imaging list for myself to follow. The reason it does not include all objects may be due to my surrounding garden views or that some distant objects are just too small for my telescopes. NGC6888 Crescent Nebula NGC6946 Firework Galaxy NGC6960 Witches Broom NGC6992 Network Nebula (Eastern Loop) NGC7000 North American Nebula

Deep Sky Imaging Talk at CAA

Posted on: July 19, 2012 /

Categories: Astronomy Talks

Last night I did my first talk at the CAA on Deep Sky Imaging with a live demo in Maxim and Photoshop with M42. Amazingly I managed to fit my talk into 30 minutes, although I did feel like a horse galloping at the Grand National. I think I must have spoken quite quickly. For

Concrete Delivery for the Pier Base

Posted on: May 14, 2012 /

Categories: Observatory Build No 2

Today the concrete was delivered by Gemmix. This time the concrete was not delivered pre-mixed but actually mixed on site, as you need it. This is a brilliant way to go as you only pay for what you need. I asked for a C35 mix again, but an equivalent mix called a P340 was used.

Digging the hole for the pier base

Posted on: May 7, 2012 /

Categories: Observatory Build No 2

As I have just moved to a new house, it was now time again to build the shed observatory. I did all this about 3 years ago, so it does not seem that long ago, plus this time it should be a lot easier as the shed is in pieces, with the pent shed observatory

Photoshop Astronomy Book Review

Posted on: May 1, 2012 /

Categories: Astronomy Books

Photoshop can be a hard program to get used to when it comes to preparing your astronomy images. Plus there are so many shortcuts and ‘black box’ type actions that imagers must use to make the kind of ‘woweee’ type images. But where do you learn all the tips and tricks, there certainly are not

How To Add a Skywatcher Auto Focuser to a Skywatcher Equinox 66 Telescope

Posted on: March 4, 2012 /

Categories: How To

In the past I have attached the Skywatcher Auto Focusers to my Skywatcher ED120 and ED80 DS-Pro models, so as soon as I purchased a new Skywatcher Equinox 66 I immediately went out and purchased another Skywatcher Auto Focuser and set to work attaching it to my Equinox 66. These simple jobs rarely are simple

H-Alpha Image with DMK21-AU618

Posted on: February 26, 2012 /

Categories: The Sun

Received my new Imaging Source DMK21-AU618 camera the other day, today was my first chance to use it. There was a lot of cloud about today and I did not start imaging until 3pm which was a bit late in the day, but I am happy with the images I took. One thing I did

QHY IMG132E Camera Images and Review

Posted on: February 2, 2012 /

Categories: Equipment Reviews

My good friend Mick Jenkins has just purchased a new QHY IMG132E camera from Modern Astronomy, and he has had a really good first night with the QHY IMG132E camera. Mick has a Meade LX200 8″ telescope and was previously using a Celestron NexImage for lunar and planetary imaging. Mick was stated as saying “I

Cambridge Star Atlas

Posted on: January 6, 2012 /

Categories: Astronomy Books

If you are looking for an easy to use star atlas then this is the only one you will need. It is so clearly laid out and easy to use it’s incredible. I can’t rate it highly enough. Some people may prefer laminated pages, so they can be wiped clean, these are not. But this

M31 Andromeda Galaxy Image

Posted on: December 22, 2011 /

Categories: Deep Sky Objects

This image of M31 the Andromeda Galaxy is usually seen as quite an easy target to image, especially for beginners like me. The main problem with it, is that it has a very bright core, but using DPP in Maxim soon sorted this out. M31, Andromeda Galaxy was imaged using my Skywatcher 80mm ED-Pro telescope