June 23rd 2016

Outraged of Oulton Broad Part3 

The Transit of Mercury 09 May 2016

Images taken from our Backyard in the afternoon of the 9 th of May 2016 using two telescopes and two cameras with home-made 'Baader Film' white light filters

Small black and white time-lapse animation showing Mercury moving across the Sun's Disc

Faint fuzzies in Coma Berenices

Galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. 127mm Apo Refractor, Canon 600d DSLR guided with a QHYL-11. 6x5 minute exposures at ISO800. Meteor or space debris bottom right corner.

Coma Berenices, Queen Berenices hair, is a constellation north of the constellation Virgo and east of Leo Major. The galaxy NGC 4477  marks the most northerly of a group of galaxies that run south into Virgo. These galaxies form the Virgo Cluster and run in a line known as Markarian's Chain. The galaxies in my image are over 55 million light years distant. A very long way away indeed!

First Glimpse of Mars in 2016

Mars approaching opposition 1st May 2016. 127mm Meade Refractor and QHY5v planetary camera.

This year Mars as viewed from the UK is very low and close to the horizon, so getting clear and shap images of the red planet will be quite problematic. This photo was taken as it appeared and disappeared between the two houses that adjoin our backyard.  Anyway, I was quite pleased to have captured the northern polar cap and some white cloud on the western limb.

Jupiter's swansong 2016

Jupiter  in the early hours of the first day of May2016. The Great Red Spot was more or less in the centre of Jupiter's disk and Io was about to be occulted by the planet's western limb. 127mm Meade Refractor and QHY 5v planetary camera.

 Jupiter is still visible in our northern hemisphere sky but as it moves away from Earth the apparent diameter of its disk reduces day by day. As its apparent size reduces, its apparent magnitude or brightness, reduces. This image of Jupiter will therefore be my last until next year. 2016 has not been great for planetary imaging. Unfortunately, the jet stream has been over the UK in general and our house in particular for about 3 months. The jet stream makes the atmosphere more turbulent and is a nightmare for planetary imagers. You can imagine how pleased I was when on the 1st of May it turned north over the Midlands and left the skies over East Anglia jet stream free!