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On the evening of the 18th April 2026 some eight members enjoyed some fine conditions to say goodbye to the winter constellations and take some images. The slender crescent Moon was close to Venus and it was possible to see Earthshine clearly. Some time-lapse images showed the pair as they made their way towards the observatory fence and below the horizon.Similarly the Great Orion nebula followed suit and some snaps were taken as it sank below the reach of our telescopes. Several members brought along scopes and binoculars for some great views of the night sky with several deep sky objects also being imaged, whilst the larger scopes showed nice views of Jupiter, its Galilean moons and its great red spot. Some early bright Lyrid meteors were observed later on as well as some faint aurora.
M42 (The Great Orion nebula): A stack of 10x 1s exposures taken with a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED using an ASI 533MM Pro camera with a luminance filter - taken part through the fence posts -stacked in Autostackert!4
1 day old crescent moon: A stack of 11x 0.5s exposures taken with a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED using an ASI 533MM Pro camera with a luminance filter - taken part through the fence posts- cropped in Pixinsight's Blink process - stacked in Autostackert!4 and further processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Venus and the 1 day old Moon: A single RAW exposure taken at 21:25 hrs with a Sony ZV-E10 camera on a fixed tripod with a Sony E PZ 18-105 zoom lens set at 51mm at F4 and 1/6" using ISO 800
Venus/Moon time-lapse: Movement of Venus and the Moon recorded over a 45 minute period taken with a Sony ZV-E10 camera on a fixed tripod with a Sony E PZ 18-105 zoom lens set at 51mm at F4 and 1/6" using ISO 800 with images taken every minute. As the pair descended below the fence line and darkness descended the fainter stars of the Pleiades and Taurus can be seen to follow them.
Caldwell 49 / 50 (NGC 2237-9 & 2244 - The Rosette nebula and open cluster): A 1 hour SHO integration taken with an ASI 533MM Pro camera attached to a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED fitted with a field flattener. The scope was driven using an iOptron CEM26 mount guided with PHD2 using an ASI 462MC guide camera attached to an SV Bony 165 guide scope. Integration and processing in Pixinsight.
M51 (The Whirlpool galaxy): A 3 hour LRGB/Ha integration taken with an ASI 533MM Pro camera attached to a Sky Watcher Esprit 80 ED fitted with a field flattener. The scope was driven using an iOptron CEM26 mount guided with PHD2 using an ASI 462MC guide camera attached to an SV Bony 165 guide scope. Integration and processing in Pixinsight.
Chris Bowden
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