Thursday, 19 November 2009

Commissioning of Sirius 3.5m Dome


The meeting on Thursday 26 November will be at Austerfield to look at the New Sirius 3.5m Dome which is now fully operational. The dome has electrically driven shutters as well as the dome itself which electronically tracks the direction of the telescope. This is the "School" model and is designed for a tutor and eight adults in comfort.

There will NOT be a meeting at our normal venue of St Georges Church House.

The commissioning of the New Dome will be celebrated by a tour and a night's observing!

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy


The Great Andromeda galaxy obtained on the evening of the 15th, there's a bit more detail in this than on the previous attempt I've made.


Constellation: Andromeda. Distance 2.5 million light years.
Imaging scope - Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor at Prime focus
Camera - Modified Canon 40D
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Autoguiding - TMB 80 mm f6 refractor, Starlight Express Lodestar camera, EQ6 Pro mount and PHD software, dithered.
Exposure - 27 x 300 and 10 x 120 seconds of subexposures.
Dark frames, Bad Pixel Map and Flats used.
Software - Nebulosity for focus, acquisition, aligning and stacking. Photoshop CS3 with Noel's Actions and Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator.


Temperature 9° Celsius

Saturday, 14 November 2009

M39 An open Open Cluster at the top end of Cygnus


Taken on the 9th of November 09 on a cloudless night at 6pm. I didn't have much time before the forecasted clouds came over (do I believe the forecasters?). Fog was already rolling in across the road as I entered the village. I used the 80ED with the WO AFR4 as I'd just taken a series of SAO68943 Chi Cygnii for John Cox to follow. and use the same kit for that.
The sky remained clear throughout. I'd modified the balance system on the big Meade and that seems to have eased the guiding problems I'd been having.
I used 20x120sec subs to try to retain colour of the stars. AstroArt4 was used to acquire and preprocess the frames and only flats were used to calibrate. I usually get a very blue result if I use bias frames with flats, must be doing something wrong there. Processing finished off in Photoshop CS2 with Noel's Actions to help smooth the background. No sharpening done and the whole cropped only to cut out the stacking edges.
The cluster is a bit straggly but all its stars are a pleasing blue. If you look towards the top left, you should be able to pick out the small redish planetary nebula PLN 93- 2.1.
Brian

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

What light polution


Taken Monday about 9.00 pm looking North towards the observatory a single frame of 5 seconds at iso 1600

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Scouting and Astronomy - Thursday 12 October
















The talk will be given at 7-30 pm in The Old Vickerage
( Church House) . We will be going through the Scouts
Syllabus for Astronomy

Church House is easy to find in the
grounds of Doncaster Minster with free parking adjacent to Church House.





Sunday, 8 November 2009

Mars is Coming

I keep being asked by the local kids when they can come around to see
Mars through a telescope. They do not do pre-dawn!

Currently it is rising at 10 p.m. from Doncaster, (after bed time)
and is already a bright, naked eye object (mag. 0.4)
It will be closest to earth on 27 th January, rising at 4:25 pm (before bed time)

Although it does not come as close to Earth as last time ,
at 15.9 arc.sec, it is still a reasonable size at 14.1 arc.sec.diam
This picture was taken in December 2007 on the last visit by Mars .

It was taken by Musta Tryharder using a Meade 14" a TV 2x Barlow
and a Toucam Pro webcam.
We do not hear much from this member and I trust that the observing group will obtain even better pictures this time around.

Saturday, 7 November 2009

Sparkling New Dome


Dome shows spark of interest at last after internet connection.
Picture by Paul.

M1

Thursday, 5 November 2009

Fitting Out of New Dome


See the Observatory Log for more detail, but this is a picture of the arrangement in the new dome, taken this afternoon. I'm hoping I can attach the monitor to the pier so it leaves the table top and cupboard top clear.
We will be able to use the table for laptops when we work there, and will be able to drive the monitor from laptops too.
The marks on the table are fillings prior to repainting.
Brian