My beginner’s journey

On this day 62 years ago, the Soviet Luna 3 space probe took the first-ever photos of the far side of the Moon. It imaged 70% of the surface that is not…
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A rare break in the clouds – so a chance to test out the astronomy controller and have another attempt at some Solar astrophotography. Also chance to see if the…
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“I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky.” John Denver, 1972 One of the most active and visible meteor showers, the Perseid Meteor Shower happens this time each year. It’s…
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The skies have not been kind – soo, a great opportunity to do some more technical bits inside the house. I’ve been experimenting with kStars and Ekos/INDI running on a…
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Since discovering that I was definitely into astrophotography I’ve been saving. And saving… and saving. First on my upgrades list was a stable mount that would be suitable for long…
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Astrophotography processing always comes up, but it’s not something you can cover in a friendly reply or comment to help. So, to try to help here’s a step-by-step guide for…
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Absolutely fantastic night – much needed after months of cloud, but incredibly cold. This was my first all-nighter this year – I’m getting too old for this. But, an absolute…
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Felt this was a great way to explain polar alignment. Polar alignment sets the telescope’s “home position” to this stationary point (the “celestial pole”) in the sky – around which…
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A rare conjunction of the two giant gas planets – Jupiter and Saturn – makes a bright “Christmas star” in the sky tomorrow on 21 December 2020. If it’s not…
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I was having the typical intermittent issues with the Astromaster’s “StarFinder” finderscope, so instead I captured this colourful moody Moon halo instead.