Big mushrooms in the Paddock. While not able to identify these at the time, the subsequent acquisition of ‘The Collins Complete Guide to British Garden Wildlife’ indicates these are likely to be ‘Brown Rollrim’, which are hight poisonous.
IC 5146 Colour
I’ve managed to acquire the colour data for the Luminance image acquired last January. The RGB date comprises of 7x 3min subs for the R,G and B channels. I initially processed this as an LRGB image, but wasn’t happy with the result, so I overlaid the RGB data over the top and created a hole in that layer for the LRGB section of the nebula to show through. Yes, the stars are a little…
iTelescope
My first deep sky image using the scopes on the iTelescope remote network. The images were taken over two days on the T14 and T20 scopes in New Mexico. Both scopes use the same Takahashi 106mm refractor and SBIG camera. The great thing about the remote iTelescope network – apart from the obvious dark and clear skies in places like New Mexico and Siding Spring, is that the raw FITS files you receive are…
I’m Back….I think!
It’s been a while since I last posted. The weather here has just been terrible and to be honest I have given up on trying to do Astronomy here in Cornwall. Since my last post I have given variable star observing a go using the remote telescope network in the US. Yes, it’s expensive at about one US dollar a minute, but if added up what I have spent on my observatory over the…
Dairy Doors
Today is dairy door day, but first we had to make the door frames. These were made from 50x 100mm tanalised timber which were bolted into the granite blocks behind with expanding bolts. These were a pain and I now regret not using ‘Thunderbolts’ as these just thread their way into the block just like a woodscrew. To prevent water getting into the dairy, I used a row of brick blocks to form a…
The Beast from the East
The Beast from the East was forecast to hit by lunchtime on Wednesday and on cue, it did. Here it comes….. The forecast was for temperatures to fall to -1C, but we had -5.5C by late evening and the lowest recorded was -10C….Brrrrr. I did venture out and have never experienced high winds coupled with such low temperatures at the same time.