v.140 uploaded  22nd August 2010
Sharnbrook Observatory

Welcome to my web site! This latest version includes an image of a long dark filament on the Sun plus a
sketch of M7 from southern England.

All the images on my site are my own, obtained with relatively modest telescopes, cameras and filters.
As ever, I hope this encourages you to get out there and enjoy the treasures of our universe at first hand.

Best Wishes,  

Peter Garbett



Galleries...

African Skies     Mars                Venus


Equipment          Comets          Sun      

The Aurora          Deep Sky       Moon


Jupiter             Saturn            Noctilucent Clouds





Long, dark filament on the Sun


22.8.10 09:11 UTC
Although there were no sunspots today, the Hydrogen Alpha view was more interesting.
Orion 80 ED Apo refractor SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; Coronado SM-40 double stacked filters < 0.05nm passband.




Open Cluster M7, Scorpius

This was sketched on the nights of 11th and 12th August 2010 from Charmouth, Dorset whilst
on holiday with the family. The altitude of this southern cluster varied from 4.2 to 2.9 degrees
during the course of the drawing, and the sky was not fully dark either! At the caravan park in Dorset,
I was almost as far south as you can get in England at +50 44' 07". You may know that M7 is at a very
low declination of -34 49', so even from this site it does not attain an altitude greater than 4.4 deg.!

Telescope: Megrez 80mm triplet apo refractor, x24, on simple camera tripod.

I thoroughly enjoyed four clear nights, just lapping up the dark skies by naked-eye and through the
80mm refractor! On the night of the Perseids maximum, the limiting naked-eye magnitude at the
zenith was 6.6 - 6.8, with Uranus and M33 glimpsed without optical aid. My 13 year old son, Jack
and I counted exactly 100 meteors between 22:10 and 23:10 UTC and a further 89 between 23:10
and 24:10 on the night of 12/13 August - we were both facing in mostly, but not entirely, the same
direction.





Jupiter 2010


         
5.8.10
Jupiter with dark spot and adjacent light spot in SEZ: a hint of an SEB revival?
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; rather poor seeing
Trutek R,B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:41 UTC; B = 03:42 UTC; R[G]B and R images shown above











   
 
5.8.10
Jupiter with dark spot and adjacent light spot in SEZ: a hint of an SEB revival?
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; rather poor seeing
Trutek R,B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:34:30 UTC; B = 03:35:20 UTC; R[G]B and R,B  images shown above





    
2.8.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot and adjacent oval BA
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite poor seeing again
Trutek R,B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:51 UTC; B = 03:52 UTC; R[G]B and R, B images shown above







30.7.10
Jupiter with Ganymede in shadow transit
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; seeing poorish
Trutek R,B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:45:20 UTC; B = 02:46:10 UTC; R[G]B












    

24.7.10
Jupiter with dark swirl in EZ near centre of image
C14 @ F38.5  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:33:30 UTC





24.7.10
Jupiter with dark blue swirl in EZ right of centre of image
C14 @ F38.5 (reduced to 70% size)  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R,B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:32 UTC; B = 03:31 UTC; R[G]B








24.7.10
Jupiter with dark swirl in EZ right of centre of image
C14 @ F38.5  (reduced to 70% size)  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 03:11 UTC









    

24.7.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot at extreme right edge, oval BA in attendance and little red spot at left end
of dark streak in NPR, virtually on CM towards bottom of colour image.
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R, B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:51 UTC; B = 02:52 UTC; R[G]B with R and B images beneath









    

24.7.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot at extreme right edge, oval BA in attendance and little red spot at left end
of dark streak in NPR, virtually on CM towards bottom of colour image.
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R, B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:45:20 UTC; B = 02:46:20 UTC; R[G]B with R and B images beneath










      

   

24.7.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot at extreme right edge, oval BA in attendance and little red spot at left end
of dark streak in NPR, virtually on CM towards bottom of colour image.
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R, G, B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:42 UTC; B = 02:43 UTC; R[G]B with R image to right and G (02:44 UTC) and B images beneath









24.7.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot at extreme right edge, oval BA in attendance and little red spot at left end
of dark streak in NPR, virtually on CM towards bottom of colour image.
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fair seeing
Trutek R, B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:35:25 UTC; B = 02:36:30 UTC; R[G]B











         

24.7.10
Jupiter with Great Red Spot at extreme right edge, oval BA in attendance and little red spot at left end
of dark streak in NPR
C14 @ F27  SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; fairish seeing
Trutek R, B filters  Baader UV/IR rejection filter
R = 02:32 UTC; B = 02:33:30 UTC; R[G]B with R image to its right







1st July, 2010


 

Above: IR 04:10 UTC

C14 @ F27
SKYnyx 2-0M CCD
Astronomik IR > 742 nm filter
Alt. 34.5 deg.
Seeing  5+/10






Above: R[G]B; R = 03:59 UTC, B = 04:00 UTC

C14 @ F27
SKYnyx 2-0M CCD
Trutek Type 1 R,B filters, Baader UV/IR rejection
Alt. 34 deg.
Seeing  5/10












Lunar Landscapes




5.8.10
Aristarchus plateau
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter












5.8.10
Aristarchus plateau in close up
C14 @ F27 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter













5.8.10
Schiller and environs
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing and strong twilight
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter















5.8.10  04:53 UTC!
Schickard with its dark floor areas nicely shown
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing in brilliant twilight
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter













5.8.10
Gassendi
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing and bright twilight
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter







5.8.10
Mare Orientale mozaic of three images at favourable libration
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite choppy seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter











2.8.10
Triesnecker Rilles at sunset
C14 @ F11 SKYnyx 2-0M CCD; quite poor seeing
Trutek R filter  Baader UV/IR rejection filter










Long dark filament on the Sun



Above:  3.7.10   09:51 UTC

Orion 80mm ED Apo refractor f = 600mm ; Coronado SM 40 H-alpha filter double stacked;
Baader UV/IR rejection filter; SKYnyx 2-0M CCD






Other sites of personal interest...

Amateurs                                                                              Commercial

Damian Peach's site                                                                Telescope House

Ian King's site                                                                         Coronado Hydrogen Alpha Filters

Jack Newton's site                                                                  Celestron U.K.

Nik Szymanek's site                                                                Meade

Rob Gendler's site                                                                  Starlight Xpress Ltd

Stefan Seip's site                                                                   True Technology Ltd

Steve Mandel's site                                                                Ian King Imaging

Thierry Legault's site                                                             Modern Astronomy



Organisations                                                                       Software

Astro buy/sell                                                                        K3CCDTools for image capture etc       

American Meteor Society                                                       Registax for processing webcam images

Big Bear Solar Observatory latest images of the Sun              

British Astronomical Association                                                         

Cloud forecast for UK

Cloudy Nights reviews

Greenwich Mean Time

Luton Astronomical Society                                                    

Observing Planets around other Stars via Transits!

Periodic error test results for mounts
(Google translator from French)

Prince Albert (South Africa) site

SpaceWeather.com for solar activity and far more!

Unisys Jet Stream Forecast to assess likely seeing conditions

Jet Stream Forecast

Uk astro imaging forum





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Established October 2000.           Copyright: P.J.Garbett