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My Telescopes
My Main Telescope - C14 and Paramount ME
My new Paramount MyT and 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien Telescope
MyT Hand Controller
My Meade 12 inch SCT on a CGEM (Classic) Mount
My 4 inch Meade Refractor with Sky Watcher Guidescope and ZWO camera on a CGEM (Classic) Mount
Skywatcher Star Adventurer Mount with Canon 40D
My Solar setup using a DSLR and Mylar Filter on my ETX90
DSLR attached to ETX90. LiveView image of 2015 partial eclipse on Canon 40D
The Celestron 14 is mounted on a Paramount ME that I have been using for about 10 years now - you can see that it is mounted on a tripod so is a portable set up. I still manage to transport it on my own and set it all up even though I have just turned 70! It will run for hours centering galaxies in the 12 minute field even when tripod mounted.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 5:27PM I used telescope T30 at Siding Spring to image the comet.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 12:14PM As well as imaging Comet 32P Comas Sola this morning I used T11 in New Mexico to image C/2013 V2 (Borisov) which is much fainter than my software predicts. I only took a single image using a V filter. I have identified some galaxies in the image with their magnitudes for comparison. It seems to me that the comet is at least a magnitude fainter than the predicted 15.07
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 8:08AM I managed to get an image this morning of the 14th Magnitude Comet 32P/Comas Sola in the constellation of Leo.
32P/Comas Sola 300 second exposure
I took another exposure of 600 seconds just over half an hour later
Here are some close ups
300 second exposure
600 second exposure
This is its location
32P Comes Sola Chart Courtesy of Software Bisque.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 10:54AM I used Telescope T3 in New Mexico to image the cluster Messier 44.
This is the data for the image
iTelescope T3 FoV - M42 (white frame)
The chart below shows its position in Cancer Courtesy of Software Bisque.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 11:18AM I used telescope T32 in Siding Spring to image NGC 4755 which is known as the Jewel Box Cluster.
This is the image data:
Object Name: NGC 4755
Object Type: Open Cluster
Altitude: +59° 41' 50"
Constellation: Crux
Major Axis: 10.0
Minor Axis: 10.0
RA (Topocentric): 12h 54m 34.695s
Dec (Topocentric): -60° 26' 05.516"
RA (2000.0): 12h 53m 37.001s
Dec (2000.0): -60° 21' 22.011"
Azimuth: 168° 01' 56"
Axis Position Angle: 0° 00'
Magnitude: 4.20
Transit Time: 04:37
Hour Angle: -00h 48m 58s
Air Mass: 1.16
Rise/Set Notes: Always above horizon.
Source Catalog: Revised NGC
Constellation: CRU
Remarks: Jewel Box, Kappa Cru cl.
Date: 11/02/2015
Time: 03:47:49 DST
Constellation (Abbrev.): Cru
Screen X: 392.91
Screen Y: 316.63
Sidereal Time: 12:06
Julian Date: 2457064.19987269
and the telescope data
T32 FOV
CCD: FLI Proline 16803T32 FOV Dark Current: <0.07 e-/pixel/sec. @ -35º CPixel Size: 9um SquareResolution: 0.63 arcsec/pixelSensor: KAF-16803 Cooling: -35º C default Array: 4096 x 4096 pixelsFOV: 43.2 x 43.2 arcmin Filters: Astrodon E-Series. Red, Green, Blue.
OTA: Planewave 17" CDK Optical Design: Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph
Aperture: 431mmFocal Length: 2912mmF/Ratio: f/6.8 Guiding: Active Guiding DisabledMount: Planewave Ascension 200HR
Monday, February 9, 2015 at 6:57AM I used telescope T9 at Siding Spring to image this open cluster using V and B Filters. Telescope T9 is regularly used in Hubble Space Telescope support missions. This cluster was discovered on 15th February 1836 by John Herschel, the son of William Herschel. The stars are generally around 12th Magnitude. The cluster is approximately 5' across. The field of view of telescope T9 is 13.6 x 20.4 arc-mins. The cluster lies at a distance of 2650 Parsecs. (Ref 1) The bright foreground star is HIP 38197 with a magnitude of V =7.95 and B = 7.80 so is slightly brighter in the blue. It lies at a distance of 1,716 Light Years which is 526 Parsecs so it lies at about one fifth of the distance of the cluster from us.
The chart below shows the position of NGC 2455 in Puppis.(Courtesy of Ref 2)
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 7:11AM This is the view looking south tonight at 10 p.m. local time from the latitude of my location in Lancashire.
Chart courtesy of Software Bisque
The panoramic horizon is of my view in Spain last year - unfortunately not what I see now in a town in Lancashire! Gemini is in the south with Castor and Pollux approaching the meridian line. Castor will be the first to get to the meridian at 22:51 followed by Pollux at 23:02. At 10 p.m. Castor is at an altitude of 67 degrees and Pollux at 63 degrees.
The constelltion of Gemini is shown in a closer view below.
Courrtesy of Software Bisque
NGC 2331 is an open cluster in Gemini with a diameter of 19 minutes or arc. Uncle Rod from Possum Swamp observed this in 2009 at Chiefland Astronomy Village in Florida but didn't seem to think much of it! Several descriptions of it are given in the Deep Sky Observer's Companion.
