September 2024
Dark skies on holiday, with NO telescope!
29th September - Lumpy at the bottom clouds.
Here's an example of the kind of thing that prevented me from attempting an image of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in the pre-dawn skies of Derbyshire and Lancashire on 27th, 28th and 29th September.
This is in the late afternoon sky on the 29th, rather a nice cloud type I thought.
12th September - In the South Downs National Park.
There were some staggeringly clear nights while we were holidaying in the South Downs. The National Parks has rules regarding light pollution which bear dividends to a) someone interested in seeing the night sky and b) most wildlife. And to the detriment of no-one.
I hadn't taken a telescope, but there was no suitable flat area with sky views in the place we were staying, so I wasn't overly disappointed. Particularly after seeing the results of short exposures on a fixed tripod, with an 85mm focal length lens.
There are 4 objects here, heavily cropped (and not biggable by clicking or tapping).
First up Messier 31, the Andromeda galaxy. 5 x 4 second exposures at ISO 5000:
Next, the second largest galaxy in our local group, Messier 33. 11 x 4 second exposures at ISO 5000:
Not as impressive (as is borne out by previous experience of imaging this object).
The previous two images were taken soon after 03:00 on the 12th. Moving on to 23:00 on the 12th:
The double cluster in Perseus:
I was getting a bit bolder, so this is now a stack of 51 exposures at 4 seconds each (ISO 8000). The 'tracking' consisted of me moving the camera up and right a bit at one point in the middle of these.
The last of the four is the Dumbbell nebula (M27):
Here is a 100pc resolution version of this object, for comparison with the 23 minute exposure at focal length of 1000mm taken back on the 8th of July.
OK, I prefer the 1000mm picture too, but I'm still impressed by 85mm picture taken with no astronomy specific equipment at all.
And lastly, the first image I took, a single 4 second picture of Orion's belt and sword rising. I say 'rising', this was looking uphill and over a hedge, so M42 (the Great Nebula in Orion) actually had an altitude just shy of 14 degrees.
You can 'big' this image, if you do you may be able to see the Flame Nebula, and the nebula M78, which I've marked on the smaller picture as a guide.
Remember, check out the home page of this blog for other posts, including the best images from previous years.
29th September - Lumpy at the bottom clouds.
Here's an example of the kind of thing that prevented me from attempting an image of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in the pre-dawn skies of Derbyshire and Lancashire on 27th, 28th and 29th September.
This is in the late afternoon sky on the 29th, rather a nice cloud type I thought.
12th September - In the South Downs National Park.
There were some staggeringly clear nights while we were holidaying in the South Downs. The National Parks has rules regarding light pollution which bear dividends to a) someone interested in seeing the night sky and b) most wildlife. And to the detriment of no-one.
I hadn't taken a telescope, but there was no suitable flat area with sky views in the place we were staying, so I wasn't overly disappointed. Particularly after seeing the results of short exposures on a fixed tripod, with an 85mm focal length lens.
There are 4 objects here, heavily cropped (and not biggable by clicking or tapping).
First up Messier 31, the Andromeda galaxy. 5 x 4 second exposures at ISO 5000:
Next, the second largest galaxy in our local group, Messier 33. 11 x 4 second exposures at ISO 5000:
Not as impressive (as is borne out by previous experience of imaging this object).
The previous two images were taken soon after 03:00 on the 12th. Moving on to 23:00 on the 12th:
The double cluster in Perseus:
I was getting a bit bolder, so this is now a stack of 51 exposures at 4 seconds each (ISO 8000). The 'tracking' consisted of me moving the camera up and right a bit at one point in the middle of these.
The last of the four is the Dumbbell nebula (M27):
Here is a 100pc resolution version of this object, for comparison with the 23 minute exposure at focal length of 1000mm taken back on the 8th of July.
OK, I prefer the 1000mm picture too, but I'm still impressed by 85mm picture taken with no astronomy specific equipment at all.
And lastly, the first image I took, a single 4 second picture of Orion's belt and sword rising. I say 'rising', this was looking uphill and over a hedge, so M42 (the Great Nebula in Orion) actually had an altitude just shy of 14 degrees.
You can 'big' this image, if you do you may be able to see the Flame Nebula, and the nebula M78, which I've marked on the smaller picture as a guide.
That's the end of the September astronomy post.
Remember, check out the home page of this blog for other posts, including the best images from previous years.
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