m45 pleiades

6" reflector,1973

I never thought I'd go this far back, but the lure of 6"of aperture that didn't weigh over 10 kilos brought another round of nostalgia, this time from the early 70s when I got my first serious telescope. Second hand from a swap-shop in the even then, seen-better-days part of Sheffield;  Attercliffe. It was a Charles Frank 6" reflector. I saw the rings of Saturn and the subject of this post for the first time; hooked. It had an equatorial mount set at an always freezing cold 52ºN. 45 years later, but with a warmer 38ºN, here's the 6" reflector revisited. Still the same nightmare to align the mirrors, but oh the memories...

open cluster m45 the pleiades in taurus

bresser 150/750  10 x 120s @ ISO800

6" reflector 2016

 

ngc884 and ngc869 the double cluster in perseus
canon 700d with 150nt 5 x 90s @ ISO 800

Then a gap of 10 cloudy nights when I adjusted abused the focuser. Managed only 5 snaps on 1st. December before the clouds rolled in. Again. Seems to have worked though.

¡Feliz Navidad!