Amateur Astronomy from Edinburgh2023-09-11T14:28:21+00:00

Forthimage – Amateur Astronomy from Edinburgh

This website is an observing log and a place where I can post my images and observations. You can find more information about the equipment I use on the About/Equipment page as well as papers I am co-author of.

Having imaged many of the obvious objects I find it more satisfying now to contribute data to various projects.

I stand with UkraineI am currently President and Webmaster of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and some of my pictures are displayed on their Flickr page.

I contribute data to the HOYS citizen science project, ExoClock, BAA Mars, Solar and VSS sections, AAVSO, GOSA, GMN, UKMON, as well as others. You can now see my meteor camera data on the Meteor Camera page.
Mark

Recent posts

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) 2023-05-14

20 May 2023|Comet, News|

Stacked on the comet so the stars trail and the comet remains still. Very faint at a mag of 16.9 CV and coma size < 0.4′

Object IDC/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
Details2023-05-14 23:24 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraQHY168C @-10°C
FiltersIDAS D3
Exposure(s)7x180s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, ASTAP, Photoshop
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Sun May 2023

16 May 2023|News, Sun|

Video using the QHY168C.

Object IDSun
Details2023-05-13 11:08 UT (banner)
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraQHY168C
FiltersBlack polymer
UVIR
Exposure(s).ser videos
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingAS3!, Registax, Photoshop
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Sun 2023-05-11

11 May 2023|News, Sun|

Video using the QHY168C. Only 40fps but still better than single shots

Object IDSun
Details2023-05-11 13:48 UT / 14:41 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraQHY168C
FiltersBlack polymer
UVIR
Exposure(s)120s .ser
40fps
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingAS3!, Registax, Photoshop
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Markarian 421 Blazar

28 April 2023|Blazar, News, Variable Star|

Markarian 421 – which is actually a Blazar, at an easier than most mag. of 13.4, right next to a really faint galaxy (LEDA 33453) at mag 19.6. This one is only 411 million light years away.

Object IDMarkarian 421
Details2023-04-13 21:36 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraATIK 460EX @-10°C
FiltersV
Exposure(s)5x180s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, ASTAP, Photoshop
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C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

28 April 2023|Comet, News|

The comet “meant” to put on a naked eye show in 2024. Still very far away and faint at about magnitude 17. Stacked on the comet so the stars trail and the comet remains still. Very faint at a mag of about 17 and come size 0.5′

Object IDC/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
Details2023-04-20 22:38 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraATIK 460EX @-10°C
FiltersV
Exposure(s)10x180s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, ASTAP, Photoshop
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M3 first one back colour imaging

27 April 2023|Globular Cluster, M1-30, News|

First one after finally (8 months) getting my QHY168C back from China – actually a replacement because they said they’d fixed the old one but hadn’t. New replacement which works fine.

Object IDM3 Globular cluster
Canes Venatici
Mag. 6.2, Size 18′
Details2023-04-26 21:15 –
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraQHY168C @-10°C
FiltersUV/IR
Exposure(s)20 x 180s
d f df
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, Photoshop
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Rupes Recta and Catena Davy craterlet trail

2 April 2023|Moon, News|

An interesting craterlet trail:

“This linear string of 23 tiny craters runs from the midpoint of Davy Y towards the walled basin Ptolemaeus, following a slightly curving course to the east-northeast. It is located at selenographic coordinates 11.0° S, 7.0° W, and has a length of 50 km.

This formation is not believed to be due to secondary cratering because it is not radial to a suitable source crater. The most likely cause is believed to be a single body that broke apart prior to impact due to tidal effects. High resolution images have demonstrated that the craters formed at about the same time since the ejecta from each crater does not overlay neighboring craters. However, there are still some scientists who believe that this chain of craters may be volcanic in origin.” Wikipedia

Object IDRupes Recta, Catena Davy et al
Details2023-03-30 17:45 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
CameraZWO ASI290MC
FiltersR
Exposure(s)90s 90fps .ser
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingAS3!, Registax, Photoshop
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Mare Crisium, Nectaris and Janssen

27 March 2023|Moon, News|

Just some random areas but decent seeing for here. Main banner image Mare Crisium.

Object IDMoon
Details2023-03-27 18:35 – 19:54 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
CameraZWO ASI290MC
FiltersL
Exposure(s)90s .ser 30 – 50% frames
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingASI3!, Registax, Photoshop
Mare Nectaris and craters Theophillus, Cyrillus and Catharina

Crater Janssen with fault on floor and other craters invading its space

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Sun in Ha 2023-03-21

21 March 2023|News, Sun|

ASE’s Coronado NearStar. Mounted on the back of my main telescope now, dodging clouds and rain.

Object IDSun in Ha
Details2023-03-21 11:41 UT / 11:44 UT (full disc)
TelescopeCoronado NearStar
CameraZWO ASI290MC
FiltersBuilt in Ha
Exposure(s)50s 108 fps .ser (close-up) 40% frames
70s 55 fps .ser (full disc) 50% frames
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingASI3!, Registax, Photoshop
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Plato, Alpine Valley and Imbrium Basin -99.8% Moon

7 March 2023|Moon, News|

Tricky at Full Moon

Object IDPlato, Alpine Valley, Imbrium Basin
Details2023-03-07 21:05 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraZWO ASI290MC
FiltersL
Exposure(s)120s .ser 80fps
CaptureFireCapture
ProcessingAS3!, Registax, Photoshop
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Aurora caught on UK007J meteorcam 26-02-2023

27 February 2023|Aurora, News|

Points to high to get all of it but this short clip shows how active it was. Blue colour is artificial to make it easier to see as it was captured in mono.

From  21:22:11 to 21:27:19

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Conjunction Moon, Jupiter, Venus 20223-02-22

23 February 2023|Moon, News, Other, Wide Angle|

Beautiful conjunction last night. Gained lots of interest when I posted on the ASE’s Twitter feed and local WhatsApp group. Nice Earthshine and you can just make out some of the moons of Jupiter too.

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NGC 436 Cassiopeia

23 February 2023|News, NGC Autumn, Open Cluster|

No real reason for doing this, just a nice open cluster in Cassiopeia and thought I’d do some photometry on some of the cluster stars using ASTAP, which I did.  I chose a Be star (2MASS J01154089+5849021 / Cl* NGC 436 BOD 54) but nothing revealed on that, or any of the other stars I chose. But then again it would have been lucky!

Object IDNGC 436
Details2023-02-22  22:15 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
MPCC
CameraAtik 460EX @-10°C
FiltersV photometric
Exposure(s)20 x 180s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, Photoshop, ASTAP
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Very bright fireball over Scotland 2023-02-05 UK007J

5 February 2023|Meteorcam, News|

Details here: https://archive.ukmeteornetwork.co.uk/reports/2023/orbits/202302/20230205/20230205_022512.269_UK/index.html

Data from UKMON

Mark McIntyre of UKMON says on the GMN forum:

Bright visual mag -5.9 fireball over Scotland last night. Abs mag at least -9. Asteroidal in origin, travelled about 50km over NE Scotland between Aviemore and Dufftown.

Unfortunately going too fast I think – entry velocity 24 km/s, slowed down to ~15km/s before disintegrating at ~35km, so not much chance of ground debris which anyway would probably have gone into the sea north of Elgin.

We are getting a lot more coverage of Scotland now, several cameras onboarded in the last few months and more to come.

Those are mostly ASE cameras that we’ve been adding. At an abs mag of almost -9, that’s brighter than the brightest from 2022, caught by my UK006E during the Perseids at -6.77.

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C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in R

27 January 2023|Comet, News|

Brighter still. 3 tails including sunward pointing one. Ion tail is twisting having suffered a “discontinuation event” caused by CMEs from the Sun.

Object IDComet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
Details2023-01-25 23:13 – 22:22 UT
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian
CameraAtik 460EX @-10°C
FiltersR
Exposure(s)20x60s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, Photoshop

Moving very fast now. 20 minutes, each step 60s.

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EdinburghW Station report 2022

11 January 2023|Meteorcam, News|

During this period, 26054 single station detections were collected by cameras in EdinburghW. including 22672 sporadics. 2955 of the detections matched with other stations. Orbit and trajectory solutions were calculated for these matches. The brighest up to ten confirmed matches are shown below.

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29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

21 December 2022|Comet, News|

Hard to get a magnitude with so many star in and around but still in outburst. Removed as many using ASTAP and got V mag. of 12.0.

Object ID29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
Details2022-12-20 23:00 UT
V 12.0
Telescope250mm f4.8 Newtonian, MPCC
CameraAtik 460EX @-10°C
FiltersBaader V
Exposure(s)10x180s
CaptureNINA
ProcessingAPP, Photoshop
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