After spending some working on the basics of piggyback astro-photography with some shots of Orion, I decided to turn my attention to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). I hadn’t been able to see this object yet, either with the naked eye or through the telescope, but I had a good idea of where it was. I therefore...
We had another lovely clear night last night so once again it was time to get our new telescope out. I had to have a bit if help from Anna to carry it out as my back was still sore, but we all wrapped up warm and soon had the necessary equipment in the garden....
At last, we’ve had a couple of clear nights, the first since Xmas, so we’ve been able to get our new telescope out. Anna was out rehearsing and doing the pantomime with the Scouts, so it was just Morgan and me. We set the scope up under clear skies, but on the first day night it wasn’t...
I’m really keen to take some photos through our new telescope. I knew this wouldn’t be easy. The world of astro-photography is complex with many diverse techniques that need to be learnt, practised and perfected. Some of the photos you can achieve are truly outstanding, but I think it will be many years before we...
Anna’s Mum bought Morgan and I a telescope for Christmas. I did of course have quite a bit of input into which one to get, and choosing a suitable telescope isn’t as easy as it might sound, so I thought I’d share some of my research here. The Factors to take into consideration. There were...
I had a nice run with the Tri Club last night. The run itself was fairly uneventful, just an undulating 10km run with Pete, Graham and Karen. It was a cool, clear night with plenty of light from the Moon and good views of Jupiter not far from the Moon. On the way back we took a bit of...
Following the amazing sunset we had yesterday here at Ynyslas I was hopeful that we might finally get a chance to use our new telescope. My optimism was short lived though because as soon as I had I returned from taking a photo of the sunset it started pouring with rain again. They do say that...
I think it may be our fault. Since Christmas there seems to have been nothing but mist, murk and miserable weather. We’re used to that here in Wales but it has been pretty bad. We’ve barely been able to se Aberdovey across the river, let alone out to the hills and we’ve had no chance...
Morgan suggested we put the moth trap out last night as it was the first day for ages without any wind. There weren’t loads of moths in it this morning, which is actually nice as it means that going through them is a little more relaxed, but there were 25 moths from 7 different species,...
Shem posted on Facebook yesterday about the Ying and Yang of his day. Sitting in a hot tub under the stars with owls and bats flying over head was the plus side, clearing up a mess made by his dog wasn’t so pleasant. The unseasonably hot weather that we’ve been having seems to have put a smile...