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Club members featured
photos of the month!
Latest Images of mars, and stellar bodies!
(As you might expect, the most recent images are at the top of this page. But the Gallery pages read downwards.)
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Fairly still conditions, but dappled thin cloud dimmed the contrast early on 2nd. September. A little more detail than 30th. August, but only just! Nevertheless, it is very obvious how much the South polar cap has shrunk over the three weeks since my first image of 6th. August. |
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Here's an M1 The filaments aren't particularly clear, |
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After a few cloudy nights, the night of 29/30 August had numerous clear spells, so I took another avi of Mars. But seeing was poor, so the image only shows the broadest features. |
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Light pollution can be overcome to a certain extent with filters, but although NGC 7331 and Stephan's quintet were quite high, nevertheless even with a LPR filter they still lack contrast. Next time at a dark site....
Both in Pegasus, NGC7331 full frame progressive. |
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More stable again early on 24th. August, and my best yet, and the South Polar Cap shows some signs of fragmentation.
Closest in a couple of days, but the weather forecast is poor :-( |
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High Pressure became established for a couple of days , and I obtained this image of Mars early on 23rd. August. Still troubled by atmospherics, but more features identifiable using Mars previewer (click on thumbnail).
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Mars has been misbehaving - poor seeing, so no worthwhile images. But some more Messier objects for my collection. All taken in the early hours of 20th. August 2003
Here is M2 - a compact Globular Cluster in Aquarius |
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M15 in Pegasus. This globular cluster unusually contains a planetary nebula, Pease 1, ( PK 65-27.1) |
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M56 in Lyra. Rather a sparse cluster. |
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All those globulars! But here is the nice small open cluster M29 situated just beside the centre of the cross of Cygnus. |
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By the time I was happy with the M92 below, Mars was starting to ride high (well, almost 20 degrees), so as soon as it appeared around the corner of my neighbours house, it was webcam time! I took several .avis, and eventually produced this image from around 2500 frames. Much better colour and shape than my previous attempt, but I am still hoping for further improvements before this very close approach is over - I might not be around (in 2020) for the next one! The enlargement also shows a simulation from Mars Previewer. |
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After a few days of cloud cover, the evening of 13th. August was clear. Just after the Perseid meteor peak, and I wanted to experiment with autoguiding the MX716. But it was breezy and gusty, so I quickly abandoned the autoguide experiment and imaged the Wild Duck (M11) Open Cluster in Scutum and a couple of Globular Clusters - M13 and M92, both in Hercules. The M13 turned out worse than the previous effort on 13th. June, so is not shown here, but M92 was satisfactory. Almost full Moon, but well away from M92. Nevertheless the sky was fairly bright. And I didn't see a single meteor! Both clusters with the LX90 at f6.3 |
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Using the same technique as for M31, and as I did with a previous image of M27, I have used the colour information from my webcam image to 'prettify' the monochrome MX716 image. |
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Richard Bosman posted a very nicely coloured 'conventional' film image of M31 on the QCUIAG site, and kindly gave me permission to use the colour information in conjunction with my higher resolution monochrome MX716 image. After rotating and scaling to get an appropriate portion of his image to match, a very pleasing final result. Thank you, Richard. |
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MARS makes its closest approach to the Earth for almost 60,000 years at the end of August 2003. The enlargement also shows a simulation from Mars Previewer |
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The first annual (DAC)
deep sky yearlong contest.
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This contest is open to only Dac club members
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In one year 365 days you must find all 110, messier
Deep skies objects, and record them.
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You must record all 110 objects on official Dac forms.
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You must study each object, and draw it using Dac tools, or Photography it.
All winners Will be awarded wooden plaques in all 4 divisions.
All who enter will recive a 2003 Mars Mars Exploration Rover patch..
DAC official Prizes
For all memebrs who sucessfully find all of the
The 1st prize member to locate and log all 101 objects in 365 days or less is...$101.00 Dollars. Or a 4 year subscription to Astronomy Magazine.
The 2rd prize winner is rewarded with a Solar Filter to fit His or Hers own telescope. Or $75.00. Cash.
The 3rd prize winner is rewarded a deluxe set of filters for your own Telescope. Or $50.00 cash on the barrel.
This contest is for (DAC) members only!
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sign my guestbook
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