seeing Uranus move

Last Wednesday, as well as getting a SeeStar photo of the Crab Nebula, we also took a picture of Uranus.

5 minute exposure : can you spot Uranus?

The problem is, Uranus looks like a star at the resolution of this telescope.  But, planets wander; it's there in the name.  So, we took another picture on Saturday, when we were also looking at the Orion Nebula.  Putting the two images side by side makes it clear which spot is the wandering planet, and which spots are the fixed stars.

 18 March, 5 minute exposure                                     21 March, 2 minute exposure

Blinking between the two images shows the movement well (but also shows that one image is very slightly rotated with respect to the other).

So how far across the sky does Uranus move in 3 days?  Well, its orbital period is 30,688.5 days, during which time it travels once round the sky, through 360 × 60 arc minutes.  In 3 days, it will therefore travel about one ten thousandth of this, or just over 2 arc minutes, or about 1/15th of the angular diameter of the moon.  So definitely enough to be visible.

M42 photo

 Another clear night tonight, another great SeeStar photo, this time of M42, the Orion Nebula.

3 minute integration, no post processing

The SeeStar takes several shots, and stacks them.  This 3 minute integration comprises a stack of 18 shots, each itself a 10 second exposure.

magnolia

The magnolia tree that had just started blossoming at the end of February a couple of days before meteorological spring, is now in spectacular full bloom, the day before astronomical spring (equinox).

M1 photo

Tonight was quite clear, so we played with the SeeStar telescope.

We got a nice picture of M1, the Crab Nebula.  You can even see colours!

10 minute integration, no post processing

We tried Jupiter, but it was over-exposed, even with the exposure turned down as much as we could.  We need to try playing with the settings a bit more.  We could see the moons, though.

A too-bright Jupiter and four moons. Must try harder.

spots and birds

The sun is very spotty today.

15:54 GMT, taken with out SeeStar telescope with solar filter

The SeeStar allows us to take videos.  The sundoesn't change much, but a short video showed something rather fun.

Blink, and you might miss them.  Here's a still frame:

16:29 GMT.  Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's ... a bird.

(The wobbly shadow at the bottom is a tree.)

too soon?

 Seen today in a nearby garden, a Magnolia tree already in bloom (just).

It's still winter!  Well, it is technically meteorological spring (if not astronomical spring) in a couple of days, but nevertheless: February!

golden boughs

The rising sun snuck round the side of the house and illuminated our neighbour's tree, whilst leaving out apple tree (on the left) still in shade.  A surprisingly beautiful contrast.

7:35 am GMT, looking north