Amateur Astronomy from Edinburgh
This website is a place where I can post my images purely for the fun of it. You can find more information about the equipment I use on the About/Equipment page.
To give me something to aim for, I have set up pages to get as many Messier and Lunar 100 objects as I can. The Deep Sky page is for objects not in Messier’s catalogue and includes some more recent lists such as the Caldwell and Finest NGC catalogues.
Light pollution is a serious problem for amateur astronomy here on the edge of Edinburgh, Scotland, so this is a battle of photons vs sodium! Please come back and visit as the site develops, I make lots of mistakes, the weather gets worse and the skies get brighter.
I am a member and webmaster of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and some of my pictures are displayed on their Flickr page.
Mark
Recent posts
Reprocess of Copernicus and Apennines
Reprocessed to bring out more detail of the 5 March 2020 post
HAT-P-3b Exoplanet transit
The fit seems to match the predicted parameters in this case. Terrible seeing made guiding very poor (1.2″ usually get 0.5″) and strong moonlight made it messy data but the software was still able to pull a good fit out of the data. This graph is the reprocessed version by the ExoClock team, but very similar to the original.
| Object ID | HAT-P-3b |
| Details | Exoplanet, Ursa Major 2020-04-02 21:28:42 – 01:19:16 mag: 11.025 depth: 15.84 mmag (0.01584) duration: 2.22 h |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | ATIK 460EX @-15C Baader TR filter |
| Exposure(s) | 269x50s 1×1 exposures darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | HOPS 6.0 |
Venus 2020-04-02
Probably my best Venus so far.
| Object ID | Venus |
| Details | 2020-04-02 14:54 UT Terrible seeing and gusty wind shaking the scope |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | ZWO ASI 290mc ZWO Infrared filter |
| Exposure(s) | 120s 220fps SER file |
| Capture | FireCapture |
| Processing | Registax 6, Photoshop Resized 120% |
Mention in the ExoClock Newsletter 5, 31 March 2020
“Highlighted observations
There are quite many interesting observations thanks to all of you. For this month’s issue, two are the highlighted ones, for WASP-104b. This is a planet that was marked with a medium priority and there are only few observations since its discovery. The two observations were carried out at the same date by two observers at different locations. The uncertainty on the predicted mid-time (shown with red) was quite high. Both observations show a time shift of roughly 15 minutes. This is a good example of how simultaneous observations can contribute to cross calibrate the results. We will reanalyse the data to achieve the highest possible precision.
Congrats to our members Mauro Calo from Italy and Mark Phillips from the UK for their observations!”
The ExoClock team reprocessed my data to give a more accurate representation so is different from my initial report.
Maria Crisium & Nectaris, Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina Infrared
Two daytime infrared imaging sets
| Object ID | Maria Crisium & Nectaris, Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina Infrared |
| Details | 2020-03-28/29 Daytime |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | ZWO ASI 290MC ZWO Infrared filter |
| Exposure(s) | 30s AVI @47fps 1024×768 |
| Capture | FireCapture |
| Processing | 10% frames stacked in Autostakkert Final process in Photoshop |
M81 Ha and RGB
A layer of Ha added on top of RGB to bring out the emission regions in red.
| Object ID | M81 Bode’s Nebula |
| Details | 2020-03-22 21:17 – 22:23 UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX Baader Ha and RGB filters |
| Exposure(s) | 10x180s each RGB 2×2 8x300s Ha 2×2 |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
IC443 Jellyfish Nebula HOO
HOO process
| Object ID | IC 443 Jellyfish Nebula |
| Details | 2020-03-18 21:25 – 22:53 UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX Baader Ha and OIII filters |
| Exposure(s) | 9x300s Ha 1×1 6x300s OIII 1×1 |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP and SiriL – then combined into one in Photoshop |
Rosette Ha mosaic 6 sessions
Still a work in progress. APP is great for doing these sorts of mosaics.
5000 pixel size reduced to 2000 for this.
| Object ID | NGC2244/2237 Rosette Nebula Monoceros |
| Details | 6 sessions over Jan – March 2020 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX Baader 7nm Ha filter |
| Exposure(s) | Nominally 6 x 15 x 300s but probably fewer since some will be discarded |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | APP, Photoshop |
70.4% 4-pane Lunar mosaic
One of my best Moon images I think.
| Object ID | 70.4% illuminated Moon Copernicus, Eratosthenes, Archimedes Apennines, Mare Serenity and Imbrium |
| Details | 2020-03-02 20:02 UT Seeing III (I – V) |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | ZWO ASI290mc |
| Exposure(s) | 4x120s .ser videos, 45fps 1024×768 |
| Capture | FireCapture |
| Processing | Autostakkert, Photoshop |
M51 with synth G
Green channel was very noisy with horrible LP gradients in it so synthesised G from R + B. Still noisy though.
| Object ID | M51 Whirlpool Galaxy |
| Details | Red channel 2020-02-15 Blue channel 2020-02-18 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX@15C Baader RGB |
| Exposure(s) | 15x180s ea RB darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | SIRIL (first time) Photoshop |
WASP-104b
Submitted to ExoClock project.
| Object ID | WASP-104b ExoPlanet, Leo |
| Details | 2020-02-06 22:11:27 UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-15C |
| Exposure(s) | 237x50s 2×2 TR |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | HOlomon Photmetric software |
This fitting uses points with less scatter and is clearer to see.
Vesta occultation of HIP 14439
Well I didn’t manage the occultation because of really bad weather – very windy and sleet blowing into the dome and telescope tube.
Got an image just before occultation.
2020-02-11 21:45:13
2s exposure 1×1 TR filter
Heart of the Rosette NGC2244
Data taken for the HOYS project of NGC2244 in Hydrogen-Alpha. This was taken in strong moonlight but Ha images are much less affected. RGB was a non-starter with the Moon so strong.
| Object ID | NGC2244 Rosette Nebula HOYS 008 |
| Details | 2020-02-04 22:48:47 – 23:36:01 |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @15C |
| Exposure(s) | 10x300s Baader Ha bin 1×1, darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | Nebulosity, Photoshop |
Exoplanet observation by imagination
How do you observe Exoplanets when it’s cloudy? By imagination. I’m not an artist but I can use Photoshop, so here’s an Exoplanet “observation” by imagination. Just a bit of fun – and really not to scale – that would be boring!
FORTH-1b is the one closest to the star, far too hot for water and life, but FORTH-1c is in the Goldilocks zone, is about 1.2 times the Earth’s diameter and has a satellite. There are 2 gas giants further out.
WASP-36b
Second observation submitted to ExoClock project. Not such good data
| Object ID | WASP-36b ExoPlanet, Hydra |
| Details | 2020-01-18 21:56:26 UT |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-15C |
| Exposure(s) | 58x180s 2×2 TR |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | HOlomon Photmetric software |
Supernova SN 2020ue in NGC 4636
| Object ID | SN 2020ue NGC 4636 |
| Details | 2020-01-19 01:12:57 UT Muniwin gives mag. as 12.56 RA = 12 42 47 DEC = +2 39 35 FWHM = 2.77 pxl Sky = 1708.31 ADU Sky dev. = 50.19 ADU Net intensity = 94384.6 ADU Noise = 271.5 ADU S/N ratio = -25.4 dB Brightness = 12.5627 mag Error = 0.0031 mag |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 OO Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX @-15C |
| Exposure(s) | 5x120s 2×2 TR |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | Nebulosity, Muniwin |
Named in latest HOYS paper
Have been contributing to the HOYS (formerly known as HOYS-CAPS) project and they’ve just published a paper on V1490Cyg. I’m named along with the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh.
Exoplanet X0-2 b
Second attempt at an exoplanet. Dips in light curve caused by a moving dark patch in light train – possibly dust or condensation. Would be better data if not for that. Also target is over-saturated again.
| Object ID | Qatar-1 b |
| Details | 2019-12-30 20:58:17 – 00:32:05 UT Lynx RA (J2000): 07 48 07, DE (J2000): +50 13 33, V = 11.18 mag, dV = 0.0124 mag, duration = 162 minutes |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX -15C |
| Exposure(s) | 216x50s TR 2×2 (probably oversaturated) darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | Nebulosity, AstroImageJ Exoplanet Transit Database http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/etd.php?STARNAME=XO-2&PLANET=b |
| JD mid: | |
| HJD mid: | (helcor = 0.00491) |
| Duration: | minutes |
| Depth: | mag |
Qatar-1 b First Exoplanet
Been on my list to detect exoplanets for ages and finally got around to doing it. The data is messy and needs to be improved but it does fit the transit. Target star is over-saturated so never going to be good.
Top line shows curve before detrending – probably due to airmass changes. Quite serious clarity variations during session.
| Object ID | Qatar-1 b |
| Details | Draconis 2019-12-13 18:56:34 – 20:54:59 UT RA (J2000): 20 13 32, DE (J2000): +65 09 43 , V = 12.84 mag, dV = 0.0204 mag, duration = 96.7 minutes |
| Telescope | 250mm f4.8 Newtonian |
| Camera | Atik 460EX -15C |
| Exposure(s) | 58x120s TR 2×2 (probably oversaturated) darks, flats, bias |
| Capture | APT |
| Processing | Nebulosity, AstroImageJ Exoplanet Transit Database http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/predict_detail.php?STARNAME=Qatar-1&PLANET=b&PER=&M= |
| JD mid: | |
| HJD mid: | (helcor = 0.00041) |
| Duration: | minutes |
| Depth: | mag |
