Last night’s photo-session in Wombourne heralded some successes and some failures. I tried to image M51 (the double-galaxy in Canes Venatici, but right by Ursa Major), but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I got an image, but without a proper guided telescope or knowing which settings to use on the camera, it was pretty useless. Off to the Stargazers Lounge for help on that one! (again!).
Setting the camera on auto-exposure though, I was able to image a couple of open clusters quite nicely. I got a too-grainy M35 in Gemini, and the double cluster in Perseus, (perhaps my favourite open cluster). My Jupiter shot I’ll include here again, as I’ve lightened and labelled it. And lastly. Mizar in Ursa Major, (the first double star to be discovered, according to Turn Left At Orion). I must have been tired last night, because when checking the images I was disappointed in a ‘trailing’ in Mizar, not realizing it was the double star, Mizar B, I could see. I can’t even remember if I used the Barlow for this, I think perhaps not, (hurry up Cygnus! Can’t wait to image Alberio!)
Again, I put these images here not as great examples of astro-photography, more to plot my progress as I get (hopefully) better.
So all in all, not a bad couple of hours from a pretty light-polluted area. All good practice for the campsite excursions of the summer.
I Need my Space 