Webcam astrophotography
Posted on March 24, 2008 in Astrophotography. - No comments
I’d long admired the impressive images that had been captured by amateurs using an inexpensive equipment in every more creative ways. Having had my appetite wetted by some fantastic images on the net I decided to have a go myself.
Long exposure picture of Orion
Posted on March 17, 2008 in Astrophotography. - No comments
Here is my first attempt in using my new Canon EOS 400D to do some long exposure images of the night sky. There’s nothing fancy about this shot. I literally opened the front door, shoved the camera and tripod out side and clicked on the shutter button. I didn’t even use the timer to avoid camera shake. This was purely a quick experiment to see what was possible.
Astronomy: an exercise in frustration
Posted on February 08, 2007 in Stargazing. - No comments
I live in Bristol, England. That poses a few problems when it comes to my chosen hobby of astronomy. I’m going to vent a few of my frustrations…
It doesn’t start well. Family life and work pressures do their best to limit opportunity right from the outset. I guess this explains why it seems that the majority of people you see pictured in astronomy magazines (such as the excellent Astronomy Now) look as if they are either retired or students!
Planetarium software
Posted on December 12, 2006 in Palm and Software. - No comments
One of the reasons I decided on an ETX-90 was because of it’s size and portability. As I don’t have the luxury of an observatory or anywhere I can leave the telescope set up I needed something a little more practical. Equally important was the portability and time and effort required to set it up.
Next, I was looking for some good planetarium software however the thing that bothered me was that having the laptop was going to mean another bag to carry and something else to set up.
Introduction to Stargazing
Posted on November 15, 2006 in Stargazing. - No comments
In 2001, having only just moved to Bristol and being newly married, my wife and I decided that we needed to find a shared interest and it had to be something new to both of us rather than adopting one of the other’s hobbies.
We had heard good things about Bristol University and so obtained a brochure. We thought we would do a history course but none of them seemed very inspiring so we looked through the rest of the brochure instead and came across the Astronomy section. One course in particular caught our interest, mainly because it didn’t require any prior knowledge what so ever, and that was the monthly sky guide. We signed up and started the 10-week course in January 2002.