nebula – Jonathan Gazeley

First autoguided exposure

I’ve been amassing the components of my astrophotography rig over time. Before Christmas I got hold of a guide scope and I attempted to rig up a modified webcam as a guide camera. This wasn’t too successful so recently I bought a dedicated but inexpensive guide camera. After a brief experiment in my back gardenContinue reading “First autoguided exposure”

M42 – Now with extra Hydrogen-alpha!

Last night it was clear so I went out with my telescope for the first time in ages. It should have marked two firsts: First successful use of autoguiding and remote control of telescope & camera via laptop First field use of my CLS-CCD filter Unfortunately, the autoguiding failed spectacularly after the laptop decided thatContinue reading “M42 – Now with extra Hydrogen-alpha!”

Horsehead nebula

While the weather in Scotland and the North has been terrible today, that wasn’t the case in Somerset last night. It was still, clear and moonless, so I decided to head out for some astronomy. On my previous excursion I looked at as many bright and interesting objects as possible, but the photos didn’t doContinue reading “Horsehead nebula”

Finally – round stars!

This was my telescope’s first outing since I fixed up its mirror cell. A quick glance at a bright star in the city seemed to indicate that the problem was fixed, but there’s no way of knowing for sure without trying some proper photography. Recently the three circles in this Venn diagram have been conspiringContinue reading “Finally – round stars!”

More deep space

I’m still suffering with triangular stars caused by pinched optics, but last night I decided to head out and enjoy some astronomy anyway. I’m still a relative beginner at astrophotogrpahy and there’s always something to learn even if the telescope is misbehaving. The weather was clear and very cold. Frost formed on the car andContinue reading “More deep space”

Orion Nebula

Last night it was incredibly clear so with a few friends I ventured out to my favourite dark-sky spot in rural Somerset. The moon was below the horizon for most of the evening so it was sufficiently dark to see the Milky Way. We had a quick peek at Jupiter, as it’s easy to find,Continue reading “Orion Nebula”