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My latest & best astrophotographs

This page has two sections. First some links to the photos I consider to be my best so far. Then a log of latest photos, in reverse chronological order. I gradually move the latest photos to relevant other pages and leave a link.

My best:

• Zeta Orionis, the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae
• NGC7000 - the North America Nebula
• The Milky Way (with constellations marked)
• M42 - the Great Orion Nebula
• IC5146 - the Cocoon Nebula
• Comet 103P/Hartley (processed 2 ways)
• M33 - the Pinwheel Galaxy

 2012 Feb 18

This Saturday evening had been forecast as a completely clear gap between two weather systems, so we should at last get a clear moonless night.

 Comet C/2012 C2 Bruenjes

This comet was only discovered 6 days previously by an amateur (Mr Bruenjes). Orbital elements were available on the Minor Planet Centre site so I generated some charts for the BAA Computing Section and went out to look for it myself. I used my Hopper software (about which I will write more soon) to find the location. Nothing was visible in a wide angle eyepiece but I hooked up the camera and hoped. Unfortunately the clouds were already descending. My starting star, η Psc (magnitude 3.6), from which I found the comet location, was already not visible to the naked eye when I started to photograph. I managed to get four 30-second frames before the results were just fog. Nevertheless, when I stacked the 4 in GRIP and stretched the contrast I was able to make out the comet. This is not a great photo but the greenish blob in the bottom half of the photo is the comet.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 4x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Feb 18 20:26:06-20:28:47 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

The image on the right is part of the view in Hopper, from which I found the predicted location (marked by the red cross). It shows stars down to about magnitude 12. The brightest star, near the top, is HIP7447, magnitude 5.95.

This does indicate that the comet should be easy to photograph if we ever get a clear sky.

The clouds did clear away completely about an hour later but by then the comet was too low behind trees for me to try again. It stayed clear, so I did photograph some other things.

 M78 nebula in Orion

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 52x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Feb 18 22:12:25-22:43:11 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 NGC1555 Hind's variable nebula

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 51x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Feb 18 21:25:42-21:55:28 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 M109 galaxy in Ursa Major

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 51x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Feb 19 00:17:45-00:47:33 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 NGC4485 & 4490

Two interacting misshapen galaxies in Canes Venatici. NGC4490 is sometimes known as the Cocoon Galaxy.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 50x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Feb 18 23:36:51-00:06:29 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2012 Jan 23

There was a lot of talk today, and pictures on TV, of a good aurora last night, mostly seen from the coast, east of here. I was observing (see below) but saw nothing of it from 40 miles inland.

In fact I have never seen an aurora, for all that I have been astronomising for over 45 years, on and off.

Tonight's observing session started well but after 10 pm a veil of cloud suddenly appeared. The next morning we had a few centimetres of snow.

While waiting for one of the photos to complete I did the Orion Star Count for CfDS. I counted 24 stars inside the rectangle. That is worse than last year because the village street lamps near my observatory were replaced by much brighter, broader-spectrum ones last summer, much to my annoyance.

 NGC 2403 galaxy in Camelopardalis

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 54x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 23 19:38:34-20:15:01 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 M52 cluster & NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 51x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 23 21:20:10-21:49:29 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 Gyulbudaghian's variable nebula

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 53x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 23 20:27:57-21:03:53 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2012 Jan 22

All of this evening's successful photos were in the constellation of Monoceros (the unicorn). Monoceros is immediately to the east of Orion but all of its stars are rather faint and so it is not easy to recognise.

 NGC 2264 The Christmas Tree Cluster

Turn the image anti-clockwise to see how this cluster got its name. It is accompanied by a blue gaseous emission nebula which does not have a separate NGC number. On the right is a fainter red (Hydrogen alpha) emission nebula called the Cone Nebula.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 51x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 22 23:36:37-00:07:21 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 Variable nebula associated with V900 Mon

V900 is the 900th known variable star in Monoceros. It has only recently been discovered to have a small nebula adjacent to it that varies in brightness. It is nothing like as obvious as Hubble's variable nebula.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 37x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 22 23:10:50-23:32:30 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

The right of this image is a portion of my photo. On the left is part of the display I use for finding targets at the telescope (I do not have a "go to" mount). The red cross on the left was my target, set to coordinates found from the Internet. The stars on the left go down to about magnitude 11 and those are the brighter ones, with diffraction crosses, in my photo. You can see that there is a small blurred object at the expected position. But there is also another, more obvious, blurred object a little way up from there. So I am not 100% certain of the identification yet, until I do some more research.

 A fireball?

While the camera was busy on the V900 photo I sat on the pair of steps I use by the telescope, idly counting exposure clicks and looking eastwards towards the newly risen Leo. I saw what I suppose must have been a fireball. It was not spectacular but it was certainly unlike anything I have ever seen before.

My impression was of a lump of coal. It glowed with a saturated orange colour. Not dazzling but fairly bright. It had an appreciable size - I guess about half the diameter of the Moon, so about 1/4° across. It seemed to have a black outline but I suspect that was probably an illusion. It had a trail of white smoke which rapidly wiggled and dispersed (there was some breeze).

The object moved horizontally as far as I could judge in the 3 seconds or so for which I could see it. It headed southwards following a line roughly from ξ UMa to ζ Leo. My field of view was restricted by my dome aperture so that is as far as I could see it.

I guess it could not have been more than a few hundred metres from me. There was no sound but the waviness of the smoky tail gave me that impression. So something may have fallen to earth on the open hillside to the south of me.

 NGC 2261 Hubble's variable nebula

For comparison with 6 days ago (see below):

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 53x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 22 22:26:34-22:57:23 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

The star at the apex of this nebula is denoted R Monocerotis. That means it was the first known variable star in the constellation of Monoceros. It varies between about magnitudes 10 and 12. A possibility is that the brightness of the nebula follows the brightness of the star, after some time delay. I believe that connection has not been proved however.

 2012 Jan 16

There have been a few nights recently which were forecast to be clear, and were indeed clear enough to cause frost, but were spoilt by thin high cloud. I even got set up with the camera focussed on the telescope only to find that deep sky objects were generally invisible.

However on the 16th we did get a truly clear night and I tried to make the most of it. I photographed 2 comets, 2 variable nebulae, and a few other things.

 NGC 2261 Hubble's variable nebula

There are only a handfull of nebulae which vary in brightness over shorter periods than hundreds of years. From my experience so far, Hubble's is much the easiest to photograph. It is in the constellation of Monoceros.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 39x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 17 00:02:59-00:26:35 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 NGC 1555 Hind's variable nebula

This variable nebula is much fainter and therefore harder to photograph. It lies near the variable star T Tauri.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 27x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 23:40:14-23:55:31 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 Comet P78/Gehrels

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 44x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 19:37:38-20:07:06 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 Comet C/2010 G2 Hill

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 35x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 18:30:47-19:01:43 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 M77 and other galaxies in Cetus

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 51x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 20:14:22-20:44:11 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

M77 (NGC1068) is an active galaxy of the Seyfert type, so it is a radio source (catalogued as 3C71). My photo managed to show the fainter outer set of spiral arms as well as the brighter inner ones. The faint blue streak going rightwards (west) from the galaxy must be an artefact. I guess it is an aircraft trail but it seems remarkably stationary over the 30 minutes exposure time.

Also in the picture, top right, is a fine spiral galaxy seen edge on - NGC 1055. (The 2 bright stars above that are magnitudes 7.6 and 6.7.) M77 and NGC1055 both lie at a distance of about 50 million light years and form a gravitational pair.

Near the top of my photo, above M77, is another galaxy, NGC1072. Down from that and further left is a short streak that is another edge-on galaxy with a thin disc.

 M78 & McNeil's nebula in Orion

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 48x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 22:47:22-23:16:00 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

An emission nebula in Orion that I had not tried to photograph before. Notice how there are a lot of stars on the left of the photo but far fewer to the right. This is because the emission nebula is surrounded by a dark cloud of dust which only allows occasional glimpses through it.

One of the bright patches in the dust cloud heading towards the top of my photo is yet another variable nebula, McNeil's. I have marked it in this enlargement from the photo above:

In this case the variability may be due to a shifting gap in the obscuring dark cloud.

 M42 Orion nebula revisited

This time I have combined two sets of images with different exposure settings so that the brightest parts are not completely saturated.

Canon EOS 5D MkII [ISO6400 51x32s] + [ISO800 35x16s]
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 16 21:51:25-22:40:11 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2012 Jan 5

At last a clear night! Unfortunately the Moon was nearly full, so deep sky photography was not promising.

 433 Eros

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 37x8s
254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm) f/9.6
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 5 22:48:31-23:58:33 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

8 second exposures were taken automatically at 2 minute intervals except at the start, where I was setting up. So the start of the trail looks uneven. The asteroid is moving southwards into Leo, this photo being near the border with Leo Minor. The asteroid appears fainter than the bright stars here because it is smeared out, whereas the stars are added 37 times.

The orientation of the photo is shown by the following diagram. The photo above occupies the light blue rectangle. (The diagram is from another Java program of mine called Hopper that I use for finding objects at the telescope.)

The 4 brightest stars marked in the diagram are identified in this table (from the Hipparcos/Tycho data sets).

Using that information in GRIP enabled me to calibrate the photo in pixels/degree from which the size of the (cropped) field was measured as 0.489 x 0.298 degrees. Eros moved 0.0430 degrees in the 70 minutes and 2 seconds of the sequence (faster than predicted at opposition because it is closer to us now).

 NGC 6765 planetary nebula in Lyra

Not the famous Ring Nebula. This one is much smaller and fainter. It was also getting quite low in the sky when I took this.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 66x32s
254mm Newtonian f=1200mm f/4.8
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 5 18:05:52-18:46:56 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 NGC 2392 Eskimo Nebula

Another planetary nebula, in Gemini.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 105x8s
254mm Newtonian f=2400mm (2x Barlow) f/9.6
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2012 Jan 5 22:00:23-22:20:00 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

Here I was experimenting to see whether shorter exposures for each frame (8s instead of 32s) would give me a sharper result. I think not.

 2011 Nov 19

After many completely cloudy evenings this one started misty and then cleared towards midnight. The Moon was out of the way (last quarter). The humid conditions were causing condensation on the main mirror of my telescope so these images are taken through a zoom lens, not through the telescope.

 The Pleiades

(Again!) This is an easy target but I have not been entirely happy with previous attempts. My previous best was too blue because the Moon was only 90 degrees or so away. I think this is better but still not quite right.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 50x32s
Canon 100-400mm L IS lens @ 400mm f/5.6
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2011 Nov 19 23:01:59-23:32:57 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

By the way, I have discovered that when I set a 30 second exposure on my camera it really exposes for 32 seconds. It is logical, for doubling exposure on each photographic stop from 1s, but should the display not say 32"?

 Comet C/2010 G2 Hill

This is one of the brightest comets visible at present but very unimpressive. The bright star bottom left in this photo is Iota Aurigae, one of the main stars forming the pentagon of Auriga. The comet is the blue smudge upper right. The image is inverted, north at the bottom.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 34x32s
Canon 100-400mm L IS lens @ 400mm f/5.6
HEQ5 equatorial mount, driven but not guided
2011 Nov 19 22:37:47-22:51:01 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2011 Nov 6

A moonlit night with no chance of getting deep sky photos, so I tried something different.

 Observatory by moonlight

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO1600 233x30s
Sigma 17-35mm lens @ 35mm f/5.6
2011 Nov 6 19:09-21:44 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

Processing this, to combine 233 half-minute images, provided an opportunity to add another option to GRIP. The camera was stationary but simply averaging the images would cause the stars to fade away to nothing against the bright moonlit sky. It was necessary to detect the stars in each frame and boost their pixel brightnesses by 233 (the number of frames) before adding each exposure into the accumulator. Once I had decided to do that, it was easy enough using my existing Java library for GRIP. A new version of GRIP including this star-trail capability will be available for download soon.

It would have been possible to create the trails using ISO 100 (4 stops down in sensitivity) and 2 minute exposures (4 stops up in exposure time) but I wanted to use the frames to make a video too, so I wanted to keep trails short in each frame. That was successful and I might show the video here at some stage.

 Jupiter in Aries

I did a little light painting with a red torch during this single exposure, to show the telescope in the observatory.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO1600 233x30s
Sigma 17-35mm lens @ 35mm f/5.6
2011 Nov 6 21:55 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2011 Oct 18

A very showery day and I was lucky to get any view through thin cloud.

 The Sun

The complete view through thin cloud is not worth showing. With a bit of processing I was able to get a cropped piece to continue the daily comparison:

The sky cleared for a while in the evening so I took some more photos:

 M13 globular cluster

I had previously only photographed this from a light-polluted suburban site (link to M13 page).

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 45x30s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm) f/9.6 2011 Oct 18 20:13:27-20:41:30 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 M57 Ring Nebula

I had previously only photographed this from a light-polluted suburban site (link to M57 page).

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 45x30s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm) f/9.6 2011 Oct 18 20:47:08-21:15:15 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 M71 globular cluster

This is a small globular cluster, looser than usual, in the constellation of Sagitta.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 50x30s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm) f/9.6 2011 Oct 18 21:18:25-21:48:25 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2011 Oct 17

A showery day and I was lucky to get any gaps in the cloud.

 The Sun

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO1600 1/200s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm)
Aperture restricted to 100mm by 16.5-stop filter -> f/100 2011 Oct 17 13:56:04 UT

 2011 Oct 16

 The Sun

Through gaps in the clouds today. I was interested to see how yesterday's sunspot groups had developed in 24 hours.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO1600 1/200s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm)
Aperture restricted to 100mm by 16.5-stop filter -> f/100 2011 Oct 16 12:15:21 UT

 NGC6888 - the Crescent Nebula

The night was clear for a while to begin with but again the Moon was bright. Attempting this faint nebula was never likely to result in a great picture but I was curious to know whether it would be detectable at all. The Moon gives a blue background to the whole sky just like the Sun, but of course faint enough to allow stars to be seen. The nebula was barely brighter than that background so it took a lot of processing to get this photo. I should be able to do better when the Moon is out of the way.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 61x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 2011 Oct 16 20:49:10-21:25:27 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2011 Oct 15

A rare sunny day without a cloud in the sky. The evening started clear but the Moon just past full soon rose high and bright. Then the clouds rolled in.

 The Sun

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO400 1/60s 254mm Newtonian (2x Barlow, f=2400mm)
Aperture restricted to 100mm by 16.5-stop filter -> f/100 2011 Oct 15 13:19:30 UT

 Nebulae around Gamma Cygni

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 49x30s 100-400mm lens@400mm f/5.6
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Oct 15 18:58:02-19:26:35 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

North is to the left in this photo. The area shown is about 5° x 3.3°.

The two red patches below γ Cygni, the bright central star, are, from the left, IC1318B and IC1318C. Another part of the nebula can be seen at the top left edge of the photo: IC1318A. To the left (N) of γ Cygni is the star cluster NGC6910 (see telescopic photo below) and further away is another cluster, Collinder 421. On the other side (S) of γ Cygni the most obvious star cluster is M29.

 2011 Sep 28 - 30

The Indian Summer (days in the upper 20's C) have brought an almost unprecedented 3 clear nights in a row. Well, the first 2 were very clear but the the third was hazy and so I tried some different photography, of which more later. With 600 exposures, about 75 Gbytes of data, it will take me a while to process and put all the results here.

 NGC7000 (North America Nebula)

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 65x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 (f=1200mm)
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Sep 29 23:23:21-00:01:54 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

With an unmodified DSLR this nebula is not as red as most photos show it. That is because most published photos were taken with CCD cameras. They are monochrome devices so multi-channel images are created by combining exposures made through different coloured filters. For photographing nebulae the filters used tend to cover wavelength bands around particular spectral emission lines that emanate from such nebulae. Examples are the Hydrogen Alpha line at 656nm (red) or Oxygen III (fully ionised oxygen) at 501nm (green). This results in false colour photos, unrelated to human vision.

Digital SLR cameras have a glass plate in front of the (usually CMOS) detector that cuts out infrared wavelengths that would otherwise be likely to dominate photos. In Canon DSLRs, like mine, the cut-off comes just past the Hydrogen Alpha wavelength but already the sensitivity is falling at 656nm. So such cameras make emission nebulae look less red.

Our eyes cannot distinguish colour at very low light levels but if they could we would perceive the colours of emission nebulae as similar to the DSLR images rather than the CCD ones.

CCD cameras have one major advantage over DSLR: every pixel counts (well, except for defective ones). In a DSLR there is a pattern of coloured filters over the pixels, as I described here, so software has to interpolate missing data for alternate pixels. CCD cameras used to have other advantages but DSLR sensitivity has overtaken them unless you want to spend a lot of money for doing very serious research.

 Cocoon Nebula (IC5146) and B168

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 33x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 (f=1200mm)
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Sep 28 22:50:49-23:10:12 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

This nebula, embedded in the Milky Way at the north end of Cygnus, appears to have cleared a path through the stars. That is not possible. A more reasonable explanation is that, at about 4,000 light years away, it is closer to us than most of the stars and it has an associated dust cloud that is obscuring stars behind. The dust cloud is one of many "dark nebulae" catalogued by Barnard and this is B168.

Here is a crop from another exposure showing more detail of the emission/reflection nebula itself:

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 65x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 (f=1200mm)
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Sep 28 22:10:15-22:48:22 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 Gyulbudaghian's variable nebula

This is a big name for a small smudge on a photo:

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 33x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 (f=1200mm)
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Sep 28 23:25:29-23:44:42 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

The nebula is the faint fan-shaped area just above and left of centre. Notice a small star at the bottom of the fan. The star is a variable star, PV Cephei. The brightness of the nebula follows that of the star after a delay of a few weeks, so its size is of the order of light-weeks. It is also surrounded by a much larger dark nebula and the fan shape may be due to an opening in the dark cloud.

Not many variable nebulae are known and probably more await discovery.

 Minor planet 1036 Ganymed

Moved to 1036 Ganymed page.

 Two comets: Garradd & Gehrels

I photographed 2 comets in one night. Both are rather small and faint but one is much fainter than the other. Here is C/2009 P1 Garradd:(Moved to the comet's own page).

And the fainter one is a periodic comet, 78P/Gehrels:

Photo moved to the comet's own page.

 NGC6910 & Gamma Cygni

NGC6910 is a small star cluster quite close to the star γ Cygni, at the centre of the cross of Cygnus. This is in the middle of the Milky Way and there are hints of emission nebula all around the area.

Canon EOS 5D MkII ISO6400 27x30s 254mm Newtonian f/4.8 (f=1200mm)
HEQ5 mount, driven but not guided 2011 Sep 29 22:56:12-23:12:02 UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

North is to the left in this photo.

 2011 Sep 21

A really clear night, this time without the Moon. There was a strong wind but the observatory sheltered the telescope and camera. I would not have been able to take these photos without such shelter. I did take some other photos but the results are not worth showing (less good than previous shots of the same things).

 Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd

Photo moved to the comet's own page.

 NGC457 - the ET Cluster

Moved to the NGC457 page.

 Minor planet 24 Themis

Moved to 24 Themis page.

 2011 Sep 14

At last, a truly clear night. I did 5 hours-worth of observing, up to 2am. Hampered a bit by a Moon just past full but at least I managed to see and photograph comet Garradd.

 Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd

Photo moved to the comet's own page.

 Supernova 2011fe in M101

Photo moved to SN2011fe page.

 The Moon, just past full

Photo moved to Moon page.

 2011 Sep 10 - Supernova 2011fe

Again there were gaps in the clouds for a while after dark but then it closed over.

Photo moved to SN2011fe page.

 2011 Sep 9 - M57

Tonight it was clear at sunset (but too late to photograph the Sun again) and then gradually clouded over. I had time to do an approximate alignment of the tripod on the pole star and then to grab a few shots of M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra:

Canon EOS 5DMkII 254mm Newtonian @1200mm f/4.8 ISO6400 12x15s 2011-9-9 20:9:16-20:12:41UT
From Rookhope 54.8N 2.1W 330m asl. Rural, almost no light pollution (3 Bortles)

 2011 Sep 8 - the Sun

Photos moved to Sun page.

 Earlier photos

 2011 April 10

• More of the Virgo Cluster.
• NGC 4565.

And now there will be no more deep-sky photography for me until the end of August. From May 11 to July 31 the Sun never gets more than 18° below the northern horizon at my latitude, so it never gets astronomically dark. Already (mid-April) the truly dark period around 1 am (summer time) is too short for it to be worth setting up the telescope.

 2011 April 3

• Leo's tail & Virgo's Cluster.
• M89 & M90.
• M86 & M84.
• NGC 4216.

 2011 March 18

• The Trapezium.

 2011 March 7

• Earthshine on the Moon.
• M44 - the Beehive star cluster.
• Minor planet 16 Psyche.

 2011 March 1

• The Milky Way past Gemini and Orion.
• NGC 2237 & 2244 - Rosette Nebula.
• M51 - the Whirlpool Galaxy.

 2011 February 7

• H-alpha regions around Monoceros.

 2011 January 28

Very still and clear but also very cold. Once again I had to give up by about 22:30 when all my equipment was icing up.

• Zeta Orionis (Flame/Horsehead).
• Orion.
• M81 & M82 galaxies in Ursa Major.
• NGC 1499 - California Nebula.

 2011 January 6

The first really clear night since Dec 11th. Good points were a lack of moon and of wind. It was very cold, so everything was getting covered in frost. I had to give up when it got to -10°C and the camera was covered in ice crystals. Remarkably it kept performing but the image seen through frost was not good, as you can see below.

• The Christmas Tree cluster & Cone nebula.
• NGC7331 & Stefan's Quintet.
• Orion.

 2010 December 11

A very productive dark night at my rural observing site. A newish moon in Aquarius was bright to begin with but it set around 10 pm.

• Nebulae around Zeta Orionis.
• M42 - the Great Orion Nebula.
• M45 - the Pleiades
• M31, M32 & M110 - galaxies in Andromeda
• M33 - the Pinwheel Galaxy
• M1 supernova remnant (the Crab Nebula)