The Winter Milky Way

 

The Milky Way running through Auriga, Gemini and Taurus- Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.18x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO1600 and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"Pip Stakkert has been reading the guides and help pages for the software packages GradientXTerminator and Affinity Photo. It is amazing how well reading the instructions works!

The Winter Milky Way is much harder to see and image than the Summer Milky Way. This is because in summer we are looking along the disc of our home galaxy towards galactic centre, where the number of stars and dust densities are high. In winter when we view the galactic disc, we are looking out of our galaxy into deep space, the number of stars becomes less and they are further spread out with the dark void of inter-galactic space beyond. Pip's image shows the bright stars of the constellations Auriga the Charioteer, Taurus the Bull and Gemini the twins. The vey blue Pleiades open star cluster is clearly visible. Almost directly above the Pleiades and in the constellation Perseus, is the emission nebula - the California Nebula, glowing red with the excited atoms of hydrogen gas. All the areas glowing red in the image are indicative of ionised hydrogen atoms within enormous rarefied gas clouds. The darkest areas indicate the presence of vast amounts of dust which act to extinguish the light from stars behind them. The dust has been created by the life and final demise of countless generations of stars as they fuse and use up their hydrogen and helium reserves. Our Milky Way galaxy home is a very dusty place and it is just as well as our planet and we are made from it". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"This is my favorourite rendering of the dust clouds in the Winter Milky Way - I think Pip captured the best of it in this version of his image". Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Interstellar Dust

Auriga, Gemini, Stars and Dust - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 12x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

On the 4th of February the weather in Lowestoft took a turn for the better so we decided to try out our new Triband filter. We set up the mini-imaging rig whilst the street lights were on and began an hour long run of five minute exposures. We thought that imaging the winter Milky Way, where it runs through the constellations Auriga and  Gemini, would provide a stiff test of how well the Triband filter deals with light pollution from full spectrum LED street lighting. We are pleased with the results but recognise that including the filter in the light train requires long exposure times which in turn puts greater pressure on the accuracy of polar alignment and the equatorial drive. The manipulation of the resulting data also requires a slightly different approach and skills which we hope to develop over the year." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Orion's Belt with the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and Canon 90-300mm zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 4x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/6.3, f=220mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

 

The Veil Nebula and Open Cluster NGC6940

 

"Pip Stakkert has been using the new Affinity Photo software to bring out the detail in the Veil Nebula and the open star cluster NGC6940 located  in the constellations Cygnus and Vulpecula. These astronomical delights are hidden in the summer Milky Way where stars and dark dust clouds abound" -  Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Belt Up

 

Orion's Belt and Dagger - Canon 600d camera with Canon 90-300 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer Equatorial mount. A stack of 5x3 min light frames at ISO800.credit Kurt Thrust

" Pip Stakkert is continuing to learn the 'ins and outs' of Affinity Photo software prior to capturing and developing images of the spring galaxies 'in and around' the constellation Virgo.  The eagle eyed will just about make out in the above image; the Flame, the Running Man and Horse Head Nebulae, as well as the more obvious Great Molecular Cloud". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Blue-White Supergiant Star Deneb

 

The Blue-White Super-Giant star in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan - Data captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory in summer 2021 - Credit Pip Stakkert

"Pip has used our new Affinity Photo software to process this data to create an image that reflects the large dynamic range afforded by this extremely bright and distant star seen within the nebulous band of the Milky Way. Deneb is; very bright with a luminosity up to 200,000 times that of the Sun, more than 2500 light years distant from Earth and has a diameter over 200 times that of the Sun. It is a Super Giant in every way and can be seen with the naked eye!

 If you look closely at the image you can see the very many dark dust clouds or dark nebulae that abound within the disc of the Milky Way"  - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

The unfolding JSWT ballet on the way to the L2 Lagrange Point

 

The James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed - Credit NASA- Goddard Space Flight Centre

The James Webb Space Telescope is fully deployed and 80% of its way to insertion into orbit at the L2 Lagrange Point. Well done everyone involved, what a fantastic engineering achievement!

The unfolding of the JSWT's structural elements, sunshield and segmented mirrors is truly balletic.

Follow the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ

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.