Planetary Nebulae and a Star Cluster- 31st May

Being an unexpectedly clear night last night I decided to try for some deep sky objects from my garden. Althought there was a full moon, it was quite low so it wasn't too much of a bother.
I imaged M27 and M57, to planetary nebulae - leftover gas and plasma from exploded stars, and M13 - a globular star cluster.
I didn't have my bulb cable to hand so was limited to 30sec exposures, but the results are lot better than my first try at Deep sky objects with the camera. The tracking and colours are better, and I'm getting the hang of stacking deep sky shots now. See the pictures here.

Jupiter - 30th May

I got up at 1:30am last Friday because the forecast looked promising, and I intended to get some shots of Jupiter now it had risen since my last attempt in January. I drove out into the country, set up, it was all looking good.As soon as I got the webcam and laptop out... clouds covered the sky.
Last night was set to be fine, and not wanting to miss any opportunity - left at 1am this morning. Jupiter was set to be at its highest at around 1:50am. I started getting as many pictures as possible. Due to the low altitude the detail isn't great, but the Great Red Spot is clearly visible. Visit the planet page for the two final pictures .

A sunspot and Venus- 1st May

After a long period of the sun being blank, a new sunspot (953) appeared a few days ago, and as been steadily creeping across the sun's disc. I've been watching it over the past few days and there are two different pictures of it over at the Sun page. I have also taken my first proper picture of Venus, after poor seeing dampened previous efforts, see it over at the planet page.