Mars

Its been a while since I tried Mars, and its usually been unsuccessful, anyway I thought I'd try again as it was somewhere useful.

I tried first with a standard setup, but wasn't seeing much, and it was really cold, and I couldn't get the focussing right. Anyway, I thought I'd have one more go with a 2x barlow lens in the mix with the webcam, and although the results didn't look much on the screen at the time, I was quite impressed with the results.

See what you think.

Venus again

So this time, I lugged my telescope upstairs onto the balcony and took some shots of Venus. At last I managed to get more than a rather blobby shaped blob. In fact you can clearly see it is showing phases like the moon here. All this while trying to supervise my son writing thank you letters and juggling USB cables. Taken and stacked using a webcam and registax, but taken over the roof of the house across the street - not the best for avoiding heat haze!

Anyway - at last a good shot of venus.

Venus and the moon

It was my sons birthday today (8) and he wanted to go out to Pizza Express. Just as I got home though, I could see Venus and the moon for the first time for days. So I got the camera and tripod out whilst the rest of the family were deciding what time to go out, and what to eat.
With my new USB extension cable, I could actually connect the computer up to the camera directly, and download results straight away, which for small objects means you can check on focus and stuff.
Actually it was light enough for the camera to autofocus on the moon initially, so I got it to do that, then flipped the lens to manual.
I took a whole range of exposures and zoom levels over the next 1/2 an hour or so at intervals, and sorted through them to pick out the ones I liked.


Venus and the moon, with a bit of earthlight showing the shadowy side.


Showing it in relation to everything else, and then a closeup of venus

which isn't very photogenic. I couldn't be bothered to set up the telescope and imager, as due to its location it means dragging the whole lot upstaris and onto the balcony, where the neighbours give me strange looks, and also the pizza was calling!

Another venus

Another go at venus. Well it was sitting there in the almost daylight allowing much easier telescope setup, so I thought I'd have a quick go. By the time it was all set and focused, it was pretty dark, and I got a few shots before is sank below next doors roof. This is probably the best of them.

Venus and Jupiter

I missed the transition of the moon and Venus recently - clouds and, well I forgot/had to ferry the children around at the time I could have seen it. Anyway, last night I did see Venus and Jupiter although they had moved away from the moon. However this called for some quick photography as they started to set behind the opposite house roof and getting set up in time always takes longer when you are in a hurry - plugs just won't fit into holes, especially in the dark. So I expect the focusing isn't as good as it could be.


Shows up the street light glow rather well dontcha think?

A bit of a mix

Going home last night I spotted Jupiter on the horizon from the bypass. Not that unusual its been there for a while, but wait, there is a companion with it today - Venus.
I rushed home and got out the camera, but the position was not very good - both were sinking fast and there was a number of things in the way. In the end the only way I could get them both in the frame was to straddle a tree!


As the sky was very clear, I had a go at a couple of other items too - the pleiades again.

I also tried M42 but haven't finished processing that one yet.

Deep sky

After buying some more stuff (mostly batteries and USB leads - so relatively cheap) I had another go at some deep sky stuff. I've never really seen the andromeda galaxy, but tonight I did see it, and photographed it too! However the photographs will need some work I think, but here are some preliminary pictures.

This one shows it rather overenhanced, but you can also see the small galaxy just above it.