by yaska77
We’ve had some good clear nights in south east UK of late. Really clear.
They’re also forecasting this warm clear weather will last over the weekend, so I plan to take advantage and will be out in the dark again tonight. Thankfully it’s now nearly the weekend, so I won’t have to drag myself through a whole day of work after staying up far too late looking at astronomical objects and taking hundreds of photos.
There will undoubtedly be more pics on the way, but for now here are a small selection of some of my favourites from earlier this week.
Sunspot 1302 clearly visible (just left of centre) from 27th September (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn
The massive sunspot caught above is several times larger than the Earth (it’s been measured at around 62,000 miles) and has already caused stronger aurora than usual. It’s expected to grow further, increasing in size and energy emitted and has already released some powerful solar flares. Also our first ever attempt to image the Sun!
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57) is found in the constellation Lyra (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn
M57 is located south of the bright star Vega (the brightest in the constellation Lyra), which forms the northwestern vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism (pattern of stars). We’ve snapped it before but are hoping to get a sequence of images together for stacking.
Fair bit of light pollution but not enough to ruin our look at Andromeda (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn
If you draw a line up through the centre of the telescope eyepiece you can see a “smudged star” that is actually the spiral galaxy Andromeda. It was while taking this photo I decided I’d set up for a quick time-lapse attempt!
With the scope tracking Jupiter it provided some foreground movement as the stars marched across the sky, so in this short film you can see Andromeda, Jupiter and the Pleiades cluster! Switch to HD and fullscreen for the full effect. I really need to get out somewhere with darker skies 
Tonight then I’m aiming to get some more shots of the Pleiades (Messier 45), and hopefully another good look at Jupiter using the CCD camera.
And yeah, I’ll be laying in tomorrow morning!
