Day 169 Saturday 6th September 2014. NGC 7025 and the Toad Stool

Day 168 Friday 5th September 2014 Local wildlife and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

A third night of clouds. Some photographs from this week

Views from the observatory -some of the action in the Indiana Jones film "The Last Crusade" was filmed on locations in these photos -  including the old car being chased by a plane (on the old runway just visible in one of these) , the Zeppelin scenes and the scene at the goat shed - goats still to be met everywhere!

 

Looking down on Cortijo grande - read this excerpt

Image of cortijo grande below:

Day 167 Thursday 4th September 2014 - Clear Skies at 6 a.m.

I awoke this morning just before 6 a.m. and looked out of my bedroom window a little North of West. Still totally dark the sky was dripping with stars and the cross of Cygnus was almost vertical in the sky with the Milky Way behind it in a vertical band.

I felt my way through the house in the dark and outside and there were the Pleiades directly overhead and Orion quite high in the sky tilted over towards the East.

Day 166 Wednesday 3rd September 2014 My first dome and NGC 6928

Clouds again descending just when it fell dark.

Here is an old photograph of my first observatory dome when I lived in Wiltshire. I built the dome out of half a ball that had been hanging in a display at an exhibition in Birmingham, cut a slot and added wheels and a track - building all the other parts from fibreglass from scratch. The dome was mounted on my first circular brick wall - well first brick wall ever in fact! I found a lot of fossils when I dug the hole for the base for the 10 inch reflector - including fossilised coral and several ammonites. I still have these.

This is what I dug up

This is another galaxy from the previous run.

NGC 6928 30 second exposure SBIG ST9XE + C14

Plate Solution

and linked to the labelled chart

Day 165 Tuesday 2nd September 2014 Cloud descends - missed seeing Comet Jacques and garden plants in Spain..

In the evening clear at the observatory but cloudy beneath us - then it moved higher up the mountain and no observing possible. My intention was to view Comet Jacques 2014 E2 which is mag 11 in Cygnus so should be an easy target for my C14.

Plants from the garden.

Day 164 Monday 1st September 2014 SN Patrol captures 412 galaxies tonight.

412 galaxies - here is one of them

NGC 6930 30 second exposure SBIG ST9XE +C14

Plate Solution

linked to the corresponding chart with labels

Day 163 Sunday 31st August 2014 Almeria Goldfinches

There are large flocks of Goldfinches which keep their distance and only ever perch for a few seconds making them difficult to photograph. You can identify them as Goldfinches in flight because of the yellow stripes on their wings. This pair landed briefly.

 

The odd lizard shows itself in the sun

Day 162 Saturday 30th August 2014 - Remotely imaged Virgo Galaxies 156 x 234 Minutes of Arc

The image below is of the entire field but to show the details I have had to break that image into 12 sections which are included below which start at the top left of the first image then progress right - left right etc down the image - losing a small section at the bottom that is fairly galaxy free! The second image then shows the image combined with a chart to aid identification and then the chart is shown on its own. iTelescope.com T14 4 inch refractor New Mexico.

 

 

VIRGO 1 The Siamese Twins Galaxy Pair

VIRGO2 

  

VIRGO 3

 

 VIRGO 4

VIRGO 5

VIRGO 6

VIRGO 7

  

VIRGO 8

VIRGO 9

VIRGO 10

VIRGO 11

VIRGO 12

Friday 29th August 2014 Minor Planet 1994 YZ

I was checking one of my galaxy images - PGC 24464 - taken in the early hours of 4th January 2012 and noticed a trail near the galaxy. The exposure was only 30s so it would have to be a fast moving object - or possibly a cosmic ray - although cosmic rays tend to be thin wiggly streaks usually. I solved the plate in CCDSoft and The Sky indicated that there were in fact two minor planets in the field of view at that time and added green circles to my image to pinpoint them. Not surprisingly the 21st mag minor planet does not show but the Mag 18.6 one is in its circle as indicated. Any solutions to the mystery trail invited!

   

Day 160 Thursday 28th August 2014 Eagles over Cabrera, Thekla Lark and Stick Insect + Teresa Flower.

Previous images from Cabrera with a pair of Bonelli's Eagles, Larks and more.

Thekla Lark (below)

Teresa Stick Insect