CDAA

Hale Bopp in Perseus 21.24 - 21.28UT 6 April 1997.

The comet was truly spectacular that night. The dust tail curving to the north-east was seen for over 10 degrees with the naked eye and the nucleus appeared virtually as bright as Sirius the other side of the sky. Note also the blue ion tail, not seen visually, composed of ion particles and extending northwards towards the Alpha Persei Association. 50mm Zuiko lens at f2.8 mounted piggyback on driven 10inch LX200. 4 mins exposure.

Hale Bopp below Cassiopeia low in the northern sky. 22.30UT 19 March 1997.

50mm Zuiko lens at f1.8 mounted piggyback on driven 10inch LX200. 30 secs exposure. Rated at 400 ISO. (The overall 'blue' appearance of this shot, we think is due to the sensitivity of the film used)

Hale Bopp and M34 22.02 – 22.09UT 6 April 1997.

This close-up image captured Hale Bopp as it was passing between us and the open star cluster Messier 34 in Perseus due to a line of sight configuration. Note the concentrated streamer of ion particles in the centre of the blue ion tail appearing to flow directly across the core of the star cluster. 200mm Zuiko lens at f4 mounted piggyback on a 10inch LX 200 which was being guided on the comet nucleus. 8 mins exposure.

Hale Bopp and the author's telescope 20.10UT 9 April 1997.

An improvised shot taken with an OM1 on top of a stepladder when the author realised a photo opportunity of silhouetting his LX200 against a beautiful western twilight sky containing Hale Bopp, the Moon, the Pleiades and Hyades! The comet's tail is visible on the original but unfortunately has not slide-copied well. 28mm Hannimex lens at f2.8. 25 secs exposure.

Signpost to Hale Bopp (About 100 million miles this way!) 22.02UT 14 April 1997.

Some artistic licence was employed to compose this shot of Hale Bopp and a public footpath sign in the countryside, taken in moonlight. 50mm Zuiko lens at f1.8 on a tripod. 30 secs exposure.

M27 Dumbbell Nebula 27 Sept 2011

27x30sec exps Canon 350D 1600ISO through unguided 10 inch classic LX200 working at f6.3. Then stacked in DeepSkyStacker with dark, bias, and flat frames and processed in Photoshop.

M57 Ring Nebula 1 Oct 2011

51x30sec exps Canon 350D 1600ISO through unguided 10 inch classic LX200 working at f6.3. Then stacked in DeepSkyStacker with dark, flat, and dark flat frames and processed in Photoshop.

NGC 7000 North America Nebula and IC5067-70 Pelican Nebula.

Canon 350D 200mm Zuiko lens at f5.6 with Astronomik CLS filter on Astrotrac at 1600 ISO. 11x 7min exps stacked in DeepSkyStacker with darks, bias, flats, and dark flat frames and processed in Photoshop.

M42/43 Orion Nebula 18/19 Dec 2011.

75x20sec exps unmodified Canon 350D 1600ISO through a "field set up" unguided 10 inch classic LX200 working at f6.3. Then stacked in DeepSkyStacker with dark, bias and flat frames and processed in Photoshop.

M81 Galaxy 03 April 2012.

35 x 2 min exps unmodified Canon 350D 1600 ISO through an unguided 10 inch classic LX200 working at f6.3 on field tripod. Then stacked in DeepSkyStacker with dark, flat and dark flat frames and processed in Photoshop.

Core of M31 Andromeda Galaxy 03 April 2012.

69 x 20 sec exps unmodified Canon 350D 1600 ISO through an unguided 10 inch classic LX200 working at f6.3 on field tripod. Then stacked in DeepSkyStacker with dark, flat and dark flat frames and processed in Photoshop.