new m31

galaxies m31 m32 m110 in andromeda
700d on 130pds    91x5min @ ISO800

Left this one going part of two consecutive nights. Some of the galaxies sucking each other's stars in evidence I think.

andromeda IV

Having convinced myself that there was a free lunch to be had and with dew, haze and high cloud not withstanding, I had to concede to the SGL members that more data was more betterer. So just to make absolutely sure I needed more snaps to add to the 36 or so from last time, out we go again. Same target, same telescope. Getting on for 2 hours now. Big thanks to Ivo at APT for the software to make this possible. His PointCraft plate solver got me to within 8 pixels of where I was before. The same set of flat frames served despite having fiddled with the camera in between times.

galaxies m31 m32 and m110 in andromeda
700d + ar80s 56 x 150s @ ISO800

pacman andromeda

Hey, it stopped raining, so it's back to late nights once again.

At one end of the spectrum the trusty Tair. At the other, the equally trusty -but monstrous- 10 incher. The sublime meets the ridiculous. On the same terrace.

Something far away...

spiral galaxy m31 in adnromeda
700d with tair3s    58x6min @ ISO800

...and something a bit closer...

emission nebula ngc281 pacman in cassiopeia
700d on 250p 62x5min @ ISO800

andomeda revisit

Not quite enough room to fit in the whole thing but there's something different about this year's Andromeda visit. Set the alarm for 0:55, 5 minutes before the meridian just to see if I could sleep and leave the mount to get on with it. Hopeless. I ended staring at the tablet in the bedroom all the time. No rest at all so will have to rethink that. Here's last year's effort compared to...

galaxy m31 in andromeda
700d + 130pds    26x180s + 30x240s @ ISO800

andromeda II

Yet more memories. Must have been in the sixties when I got this book.

Added more light frames: plate solved in APT and started again. Even included a meridian flip. Maybe I got too ambitious. The modest data set looks just as good if not better. Terrible framing caused by impatience and cold 10º gusts from the northwest left me having to crop 400 pixels from the top. Anyway...

galaxies M31 M32 and M110 in andromeda

canon 700d with sunagor 300mm f4.5 at f8 36 x 240s @ISO 800

andromeda

Another dream, more memories. October 1980. This time Andromeda and Clacton on Sea, Essex. There was no way I could afford the fast Nikkor 300, so I had to get second best, a Sunagor 300mm f4.5. No. I'd never heard of it either. My first teaching Job at Colbayn's High School. First pay cheque. Went to Covent Garden -some Frederick Ashton choreographed ballet- stopping for a pint of Bass at The Prince of Wales' Feathers on Warren Street, a walk across to Capital Cameras at Euston Tower and so ended up with my first Nikon: a black all manual fm with a nikkor 50mm f1.8.

I'm sure there's someone photographing us. I wonder what we look like from over there? 

galaxies m31 m32 and m110 in andromeda
canon 700d with 300mm lens at f8 12 x 240s @ ISO800

andromeda revisit 4

The previous visits have been with various telescopes of vastly varying quality. This year it was the turn of the €200 SkyWatcher 130p with the cheepo 0.9x coma corrector to give 585mm fl. Still not able to fit in the whole galaxy.

The other reto being to automatically get 72 frames with me doing something else other than sitting next to a telescope taking photos. All went well up until the meridian flip at 23:14. It flipped fine and began imaging. Alas, it didn't restart the guiding. So almost 72 frames without human intervention.

l to r galaxies m31, m32 and m110 in andromeda
700d on 130pds    72x300s @ ISO800

taming the 72ed i

Getting there slowly. Placed a filter in the light path hopefully absorbing uv-ir wavelengths. Forgot to extend the ff working distance. We're now somewhere between 129mm and 130mm, the direct light path being 128mm. 

This is at 128mm with some tailed stars in the corners. 

open clusters m39 left and ngc7082 in cygnus
700d on 72ed    29x3min @ ISO800    

galaxies l to r  m110 m31 and m32 in andromeda
700d on 72ed    54x5min @ ISO800

... and a rethink...

andromeda III

Despite the ridiculously bright coming-up-to-the-biggest-supermoon-ever moon, would it be third time lucky? This time sitting alongside the overworked 60mm f4 is a cute little 80mm f5 number.

m31 and friends in andromeda, again

canon 700d with opticstar ar80 35 x 150s @ ISO800