First Light 2022 (Choice of beaks)

 

Orion over the Visitor Centre at Carlton Marshes, Lowestoft.

Orion over St. Michael's Church, Oulton Broad.

Orion over the LVST Yagi aerial at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The weather over Lowestoft on the 3rd of January provided some crisp widefield views of the constellation Orion. After a long period of moonlight, Christmas lights and poor weather, Pip Stakkert could not contain his enthusiasm for going imaging in 2022., As soon as it became dark, he set up the the Canon 600d camera with the EX Sigma 10-20 zoom lens, on the Star-adventurer equatorial mount. The sky was imaged at f=17mm. 20x3minute light frames at ISO800 were stacked using Sequator freeware. The foreground images at Carlton Marsh and St Michael's Church were taken by our sponsors Anita and George Roberts on location and in daylight with the same camera set up and using a compass to ensure correct alignment. Nowadays, A and G are not allowed out on their own after dark (ah bless!). Pip then used our newly acquired Affinity Photo software plus all our usual photo editing favourites, to merge the sky and foreground images. We are all impressed by the power of Affinity Photo to bring out astronomical detail and Pip will be hoping to improve his skills in using this splendid new resource. The recent Masterclass articles by Nik Szymanek in Astronomy Now and Dave Eagle's 'Guide to Affinity Photo Astrophotography Image Processing' are on the Jodrell Plank Observatory library shelf and are recommended reading for all budding astro-imaging Affinity Photo users". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.