Scientific Artist

I’ve only just realised that the Cone nebula data in the recent mosaic is lower resolution Sky 90 data compared to the higher resolution Hyperstar III data for Trumpler 5 and IC2169.  So here is just the Trumpler 5 (beautiful golden open cluster) and IC2169 (blue reflection nebula) region at high resolution on their own

Had some great imaging weather the past couple of evenings, clear, dark, cold, and – no Moon!  Managed to grab some data in the IC2169 region in Monoceros to go with some earlier data already acquired on the Cone nebula – result, a panoramic view of the Cone nebula/IC2169 region in Monoceros with the nice blue of IC2169′s reflection nebulosity contrasting with the red emission nebulosity of the Cone nebula.  And in the middle we have a beautiful golden open cluster – Trumpler 5

You can see an animation of comet Lulin moving through Leo here.  Towards the end of the clip the comet passes in front of a bunch of Leo galaxies.  Enjoy

Sitting just above M42, the Great Orion nebula, we have this region of reflection nebulosity known as the Running Man nebula.  I used the powerful software program Registar to piece together all the data I have collected over the years on this area and this was the result.  A very deep – high resolution image of the Running Man himself

I’m very pleased to announce that I have been shortlisted by the Sony World Photographic Awards 2012 for one of my HSF shots   What great news!  Thanks guys.  Go to the Sony WPA web site, scroll down to the “Open” section and then check out the “Split Second” category.  I submitted a nine microsecond image of a high speed event taken using high speed flash equipment that I have designed built and developed over the past 25 years.

Got today’s EPOD with the pinhole camera image shown below on December 21st.  Thank you Jim for continuing to show my work

This is the first mini-WASP image of 2012   If you want to know more about the revolutionary mini-WASP deep-sky imaging array then please visit the New Forest Observatory web site.

The accompanying image shows the famous Double Cluster (bottom left hand corner) in Perseus often referred to as “Diamonds on Black Velvet”.  Stock 2 is a very large open cluster towards the top of the image and it looks something like a “stick man” on his side.  I had visions of this image in my mind as I was putting the mini-WASP array together – it helped me get through the rather painful process of building and commissioning the system.  Fortunately the image turned out every bit as good as I had imagined.  There are so many stars in the background to the Double Cluster because the Milky Way passes through this region.

I was imaging the Double Cluster in Perseus when a large halo formed around the Moon.  Apparently these halos are due to light reflection off oriented ice crystals in high Cirrus clouds.  It is meant to preceed a storm, and certainly a huge bank of cloud soon came along – no storm yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it started pouring with rain soon.

The bright object next to the Moon at the 7 O’clock position is Jupiter.  Just outside the halo at 10:30 are the Pleiades, and a little further out at 9:30 is Aldebaran and the Hyades.  Over to the left (East) just rising above the trees is the familiar Winter constellation of Orion.  Bottom left hand corner is the North dome, and a little further to the right is the top of the South dome.

Boxing Day 2011 will be a day to remember for me   My New Forest Observatory web site http://www.newforestobservatory.com/ exceeded 250,000 visits this morning!  Happy New Year.

Here is another Solstice-to-Solstice image of the Sun’s path across the sky taken with a tea-caddy tin pinhole camera and FLAT film.  The beer can pinhole camera uses film folded around the inside of the can and leads to a more distorted final image.  Camera opened on 18th June 2011 (3 days before Summer Solstice) and closed on 21st December 2011 (one day before Winter Solstice).

The straight line towards the left of the image is the edge of the roof of the house across the road.  You can see plenty of trees along my southern horizon.  The two light dome-shaped regions are the two New Forest observatories in my garden.