THE MOON TONIGHT

I tried similar a couple of nights ago - had very clear skies and thought I might pick up some early arrivals, despite the super moon glare. Discounting obvious plane trails I picked up a couple of tracks which I at first thought; maybe... - but now I think they are satellite tracks. Clouded out right now and drizzling :-(

 

checked the sky out last night before going to bed and lo and behold it was mostly clear so stayed out for an hour and took a LOT of long exposures - the seeing was bad because of the moon and only managed to see 5 or 6 meteors. I just about caught one on camera - possibly one of the most boring astro-photos ever but hey - first time I've captured a meteor!

I know it's a meteor because a) it doesn't start suddenly like a satellite would b) it's coming from the right part the sky - it points back to the radiant in Perseus and c) it has colour - you can just about see a shift from green to red which is typical

meteor is leaving the frame in the top (edit) left:


cropped:



enhanced to show the stars more clearly - Cassiopeia to the right, Perseus bottom right, the meteor is passing through the top of Ursa Minor

 

a better moon shot from last night - system camera, without lens, attached to reflector telescope - with a proper mount this time - so the telescope plays the part of a telephoto lens

major downside is you have to manually focus using the telescope - even with magnification on the camera screen it's a pain because the image bounces all over the place as soon as you touch the focusing wheel on the scope - iffy tripod

did some post processing to bring out more detail but the focus is a little off - plus there's that spherical aberration around the poles (iffy spherical primary mirror)

 

Great shots Colinn

 

thank you Lolimac - I am reasonably pleased with that shot - but like I said, it's a little "off" - I CAN do better .. I WILL do better .. what's that? .. yes mother, I know ...

( I had pushy parents)

 

thank you shiney and woo - not as sharp as a telephoto lens on autofocus but getting there - the only view I had that night was through an upstairs, not very clean window - next time the moon is visible from the back garden I'll have another go.

 

@colinn ,
you make it look like it's only a bus ride away,
a lovely picture,
Jenny