After a reasonably successful test of eyepiece projection using my old 3 inch refractor, I decided to try again with a bigger distance between the eyepiece and the camera focal plane. Continue reading
More Moon tests
Crescent Moon
Yet another clear evening! A new adapter for my old Pentax fitting lens had arrived, so I was keen to try that; however I had also found an ancient eyepiece for a microscope that fits in the camera adapter for my old 3 inch telescope, so this is a photo of the whole Moon taken with that setup. Continue reading
Messier 35 and NGC 2158
Yet another unexpected clear evening – these weather forecasters need to get their act together. I’m not complaining about the clear sky though as it meant more tests. Here’s the open cluster Messier 35. Continue reading
M42 and the Pleiades
An unexpected clear evening (the weather forecasts are hopeless at present) meant a happy couple of hours testing the telescope drive for photography, with some success. The header image is the Orion nebula (M42), which can be compared with the previous version of this posted on 27 February. Continue reading
More astronomy
After playing around with odd astronomical photos over the last few years (lunar eclipse, comet Neowise, various planetary conjunctions) I decided that I needed to make things a bit easier.
Mars and the Pleiades
Mars was passing fairly close to the Pleiades this year so a clear night gave an opportunity for a photograph, and a test of my new alt-az drive as a static camera mount. Continue reading
Moon
Jupiter – Saturn conjunction 2020
This is described in most places as the “Great Conjunction” because it doesn’t happen very often. The closest approach of Jupiter and Saturn in the sky (they’re a long way apart, but almost in the same direction) is today. It’s cloudy though, so here’s a photo from yesterday. They don’t get much closer.
SpaceX – the Starship is almost there
This is amazing – they are getting so close to having this amazing vehicle working. Maybe SpaceX will be on the Moon before the planned NASA mission for 2024? OK, rapid unplanned disassembly at the end, but so nearly there. The manoeuvre from horizontal flight to vertical for landing is quite a shock!
