Neil C

M51 wide field and close up

neilc — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:36:49 +0000

Just two shots of M51 for comparison. Close up is with the C11 at fl 1800 F6.8 and the wide field is with the ED80 at FL600.
It´s quite small this.

M82 on the C11

neilc — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:13:20 +0000

A quick post of M82 on the EQ6, C11 and the ART285. Still have problems with the guiding jumping but have no idea why. (mechanical problems somewhere)

Galaxy M82

Weather

neilc — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:31:33 +0000

Finally managed to figure out how to connect the Sheevaplug up to the N96GY weather station. The Weather station is similar to the WH1080 and I managed to install the pywws software which then uploads the data to Underground Weather. One thing to note is that if you get a problem with the comms between the station and the software and it gives a “magic number” error then clear the memory on the station. I found that my station had recorded some data out of range or with all FFs in the memory, on clearing the memory it picked up real data and connected correctly.
I can´t quite get the graphs working on my website but will have another go later. I also tried the wview software but couldn´t get it connected. It kept saying magic number error, this could have been the same problem as the pywws software but I haven´t re-checked it yet.
The pywws software works quite well but you have to copy the templates to the correct directory that you define in the weather.ini. I am still getting an error on the graphs as it can´t find some files so I either have not copied something correctly or I need to generate some templates.
All in all the pywws software is excellent and well done to the http://code.google.com/p/pywws/ programmer (must check out who it is then update this).

M1, NGC891, B33

neilc — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:17:08 +0000

Jupiter 18th September 2011

neilc — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:51:05 +0000

A quick Jupiter

Now is the Winter of our discontent..oh yes its cloud season again!

neilc — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:28:10 +0000

Summers over, it must be as I have just spent the last week and a half looking at cloud. The thunderstorm was fun….for a while…but then back to the cloud….dull grey ones skimming across the Galician country side.
The sneaky little buggers formed a huddle behind some hill then jumped out on me whilst I was setting up and no amount of shooing would get rid of them. I´ve even started naming individual ones figuring that if I name them I can take them to court and get them evicted from the skies…I´ll do them for invading my Human rights as an Astronomer them and the bloody street lights down the road. Who, I hasten to add, have been ma’liciously staying up late throwing parties and shining light into my Garden…..and laughing…I swear they are laughing at me as I walk by in the morning.
Then theres the Dew! I never knew it could get so wet here whithout actually raining…..lie down Mr C….deep breathes…remember what the Doctor said…”If you don´t get out of my office RIGHT NOW I´m calling the Police”….not quite sure if that was an actual diagnosis or not but the Golf club hurt like hell, although his swing needed a bit of work if you ask me, so I thought I had better leave.

So, after much pacing and looking skywards shouting the clouds cleared and the C11 came out….and then I got lost amongst the stars, couldn´t focus, tracked badly and generally behaved like a teenager on a family holiday….at which point I started doing a rain dance to bring the bloody clouds back, that´ll learn it.

Damn it…I´ve ranted myself out…I think I need a lie down now…rest…that will do it and a nice visit to the Doctors for a game of Golf.

Saludos

NGC891

neilc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:40:52 +0000

[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Edge on Spiral Galaxy NGC891"][/caption] Continue reading →

Bubble – in technicolour….

neilc — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:05:29 +0000

3rd version with different procecssing (Median)

Bubble version 3 with more data

Second Attempt with 14 x 300s RGB and 8 x 600 s HA

First Attempt:-

NGC 6885 – part of the Veil Neb

neilc — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 10:56:49 +0000

Version numero 3:-

Second attempt with better guiding:-

First Attempt, with guiding problems:-

M51 Supernova

neilc — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:16:06 +0000

Below is the suspected supernova in M51..