Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 18th Jan 2015

This comet is turning into a gem.
Each night it climbs higher in the sky, first passing Orion then the Pleiades. I snatched this image just before the January clouds rolled in.

Taken using my barndoor tracker with and 70mm skywatcher refractor with a focal length of 500mm gives a reasonable wide field at f7.1 My trusty canon 40D was attached in prime focus.
Deep Sky Stacker was used to stack 11 X 30 second images but it was not easy. I had 31 images but DSS seemed to work better with less. I am really pleased with this image and  am sure I could do better as its the first time I have used the comet stacking feature in DSS and I used a very cheap second hand refractor (£28 from ebay).

Sunrise 7th Jan 2015 using a 10 stop ND filter

My first time using a 10 stop ND filter. I just missed the sunrise but I still like this shot. The water is silky smooth. I think the filter actually is more like an 11 stopper as I had to increase the exposure time to 3 minutes for this shot. The camera was set at ISO 100 @ f14.

C/2014 Q2 Comet Lovejoy- timelapse

Discovered by Terry Lovejoy in Australia on 17th August 2014, comet Lovejoy Q2 will be the brightest comet for some years. It can be seen easily through binoculars or a keen eye.

It wont be back for abot 8000 years, so take a look at it now. 

It will be closest to Earth on 7th Jan 2015 at a distance of 43 million miles. 

I'm really quite surprised at how fast this comet is travelling against the stars in the background. Currently its quite low in the sky below Rigel in the constellation of Orion but in just 8 days it will be as high as Orion's belt. 

Taken on 30/12/2014,  this gif is made from 15 x 90 second exposures at ISO 1600. I used a canon 40D and a Meade 105etx tracked using my home made arduino driven barndoor mount. 

In all its about 25 minutes in real time.

Here is a screen dump from Stellarium (free amazing software) showing the current position of the comet,

Berry Head in December

Its the first time I've been to Berry Head in Devon and I thought the light was just amazing. 

Even on this cold and blustery day, the light and scenery changed with every minute. On a day when I thought I would struggle to get any images I was pleasantly surprised. It just goes to prove that you should always take you camera.

The lonely path.

Here is another black and white image from the same day taken with my 10mm -18mm lens.

I took the picture because I just liked the dead straight path and this lens just suited it. In colour, the image is quite boring but in black and white I think it becomes quite thought provoking. The cold December with its menacing clouds day simply adds to the mood.

Berry Head Guard House and Canon in Devon. 5th Dec 2014

Another hdr image using 3 images processed in Photomatix 5 Pro shutter speeds of 1/100, 1/400 and 1/25 at F/6.3 ISO 100
This old Napoleonic Guard House is now a cafe but you wouldn't know until you walked around the side and its full of people. Again its shot at 12mm focal length using a 10mm to 18mm canon lens.
It looked pretty ordinary until I converted it to black and white when it seemed to instantly age.

Trip to Berry Head in Devon. 5th Dec 2014

On a cold December day, the sun is low and the sky is dark. 

This hdr image was taken at 12mm and ISO 100.

Three images -2 stops 0 and +2 stops (1/100, 1/400 and 1/1600) combined using Photomatix 5 pro.

I tried to keep the image as natural as I could But I wanted the sky to be menacing so the sunbeams would show up clearly. 

Taken hand held as I didn't have my tripod with me I used f6.3 but if I had tripod it would have been about f9. I like it so much its now my desktop background.

First quarter Moon 29th Nov 2014

Taken with a 70mm Skywatcher refractor which I bought second hand from eBay 2 years ago for £30 including postage.
I have only used it once when it produced bad vignetting and an less than sharp image. So I put it in the drawer under my bed and forgot about it.
With a focal length of 500mm (F/7.4) its a lot faster and wider than my old Meade Etx105 so I gave it one last try. I removed the prime lens then split it and cleaned it with alcohol. I made a Batinov Mask from black plastic to improve the focusing and mounted it on my Barn-door Tracker.
I'm quite pleased with the result. Its no triplet but at least I can get some use out of it whilst I'm saving for a better scope.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy

Taken early this morning directly overhead with my DIY barndoor mount and a 200mm lens at f4.
I just love looking at this galaxy. I commented on Facebook that light can travel 7.5 times around the equator in 1 second but the light from this galaxy has taken 2.5 million years to reach my camera. and that's a relatively close galaxy.

This shot would be almost impossible using my Meade etx 105 due to its position in the sky but using my barndoor mount its easy and much quicker to set up. Its also too big to fit on the sensor at that magnification.
Using 45 second raw images at iso 1600 from my 40d. I took 25 lights, 22 darks, and 21 flats all processed in Deep Sky Stacker. That's 18 minutes of data. I would like to try this shot in a dark windless location using much longer exposures. Maybe soon?

M15 Globular Cluster using the home made barn door tracker.

Taken with a 200mm lens mounted on my Barn door. M15 is one of the oldest and most dense clusters in our galaxy. At nearly 12 billion years old and 33.6 light years away it is made up of 100,000 stars. Discovered in 1746 it lies in the constellation of Pegasus but to see it you need a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope as its just too faint too see with the naked eye.

The image was made from 4 x 3 minute images with 6 darks. A very poor seeing night and the 3 minute exposures at 1600 iso looked completely blown out. With the aid of deep sky stacker this amazing cluster appeared.