First photo of the Andromeda Galaxy

Last night had a clear sky, although the moon was up, which kind of spoiled it a bit for what I was trying to do... get my first photo of a galaxy!

Anyway, this was still good practice, mainly to show that I could actually point the camera at the right bit of the sky, even though the object I was trying to capture wasn't visible to the naked eye! Here's the photo I got... the object in the centre is the Andromeda Galaxy, or M31 as it is also known (click for a larger image):

Nothing overly impressive, mainly due to the effects of the moon, but I was pleased to capture it nonetheless. Next time I need to try it zoomed in a bit, and on a moonless night, and see what I can get...

I also got another picture of some stars, though again the moonlight spoiled it a bit (click for a larger image):

As usual, my setup was pretty simple:
- Nikon D60 SLR, used at ISO1600
- Sigma lens at 18mm and f2.8
- EQ1 telescope mount with basic motor drive

Mike

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Deep sky astrophotography

Enthused by my recent visit to an open evening at Herstmonceux Observatory, yesterday I made an attachment to fix my SLR camera onto a telescope mount, and tried getting a few pics of part of the Milky Way. I pretty much just aligned the mount and point the camera up into the sky, not at anything specific, so I'm pretty pleased with the results! I've produced two versions of the image I got, the first is adjusted to highlight the brighter stars (click it to view full size in Flickr):

and this one which brings out the dimmer stars, getting some of the 'cloudy' appearance of the Milky Way:

For those interested in the technical info:

• EQ1 telescope mount, polar aligned and with a very basic RA motor drive
• Nikon D60 with a Sigma lens, at 18mm and F2.8
• Five 30-second exposures at ISO1600 (I took seven, but two had a plan on them!)
• DeepSkyStacker software used to process the images, using flat, dark and bias frames.

I'll be trying some different shots over the coming weeks, when time and weather permit...

Mike

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Herstmonceux Observatory open evening

Last night we went over to a Herstmoncuex Observatory open evening. If you're even just remotely interested in astronomy or space, this is well worth a visit. All the usual hands-on science displays and exhibits are open - these are great for kids, but I quite enjoy them myself too.

Of course, they do look a bit weird lit in red lights! This is necessary to avoid ruining your night vision, which you'll be needing when it comes to looking through telescopes...

Outdoors, the courtyard is also lit in red, though you may still want to bring a torch - red ones preferred, of course!

The real treat is looking through the big telescopes. Some of these are up to 150 years old, but have been restored to working order and are still much, much bigger than anything you could have at home in your garden!

They used to be part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and were moved to Herstmonceux when the the light pollution got too bad in London. Of course, the same happened here due to Eastbourne, and the RGO is on an island overseas somewhere now.

As well as these, out in the courtyard are lots of telescopes of varying designs and sizes, provided by the local astronomy club and its members. These are all pointing at various interesting points in the sky, and available for visitors to look through:

I tried taking a few photos of the sky with my camera, and got this one of Cassiopeia:

The Milky Way is running vertically through the centre of this one, though you'll probably have to take my word for it!

It all takes me back to before we had the woodland, when I had time to do my own astrophotography in the back garden - here's a few of my best pictures...

Orion Nebula:

Saturn:

Jupiter:

The Moon:

Maybe I'll get back into this one day, but it'll probably have to wait till I retire!

Mike

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