Last nights Saturn image 20130430.

Captured on my Microsoft Lifecam webcam at 10 frames a second through my 4 inch Meade Etx.
I preprocessed the 1200 images in PIPP before stacking in Registax using the best 840 images.

I'm no expert in "seeing conditions" but to me the view through the scope looked horrendous. The rejected frames were amazingly distorted. The dark Cassini Division is still not visible and I'm not sure if it is possible to resolve it with my scope on a really dark still sky so I will just have to keep trying.

A very partial lunar eclipse 25/04/2013

A lunar eclipse is caused by the Earth passing between the Moon and Sun. In this case the Earths shadow just clips the top of the Moon.

Copernicus Crater taken 20/04/2012

This is a stacked image of Copernicus Crater on  the Moon. I always think of it as the big one in the middle. It was taken using 352 images @ 15 frames per second using my £28 Microsoft HD Lifecam from ebay afocal on my Meade Etx 105. I used Registax to do the stacking.

Copernicus is 57 miles in diameter and its crater rays spead out for nearly 500 miles. Named after Nicolaus Copernicus it is estimated to be about 800 million years old.

ISS close up.

This is my second attempt at capturing the International Space Station as it flew by.

My first attempt was a disaster as I couldn't get it in the field of view at all.
Its quite difficult as although its nearly as big as two football pitches, its a long way away and travelling at around 17500 miles an hour. When it first appears low down in the sky its around 907 miles away and within 3 minutes and 21 seconds it is nearly overhead and just 260 miles away. I used a 10 frames per second afocal webcam and my Meade Etx105pe. I pre focussed it on a star as there is no time to focus on the ISS.
During this time the shape and angle of its image changes, so stacking too many images won't work.  In fact my aim was so bad that this image is made from just two images out of 2,305. I think I can do a lot better next time as this image is overexposed and blurred possibly from camera shake. I am going to try a moon filter as it was so bright and reuse the machine gun approach guided by my red dot finder but position the scope in front of its path so it passes through the frame. I hope this approach will allow the vibration to settle before capturing the image. I will hopefully post the results soon.

International Space Station 20130413

Last nights International Space Station pass, very bright at -3.3. Taken with a Canon 40d and 17mm lens @ 2.8 using 23x10 sec stacked images 2 secs apart. Jupiter is in Taurus & the Pleiades can be seen above the Moon.

M65 & M66 in Leo

This is my first attempt at deep space Galaxies. Part of the Leo triplet these two galaxies are 35 million light years away. Taken through orange light polluted sky, I was quite pleased with this image as I could hardly see them at all through the scope. I used only 16 x 20sec images at ISO 3200 plus darks, flats and bias frames stacked in DSS. Due to blustery conditions, only 16 out of 80 images had round stars. I hope to do much better with good seeing and calmer weather in future.