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Visitors since 2004
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I have been interested in Astronomy all my life and decided to take it up seriously at the start of 2004. My main interests are imaging the nights sky and I currently own a Skywatcher 200mm Reflector on HEQ5 (Synscan) mount, Orion ED80 & 70mm guide scope. This site has been put together for an online archive of all my digital Astrophotography images and observation reports. It shall be updated regularly with new images and reports. Contact me : Chris @ backyard.8m.net |
The Birch Tree Observatory - Webpage dedicated to the construction of my own backyard observatory (completed May 2007).
30/12/07
Much better images of Mars and two new images of Saturn
22/12/07
Some new webcam images of Mars and the Moon
Merry Xmas everyone!
06/12/07
Added another few images of Mars, taken on 3rd Dec 2007
Also scanned the paper article of my Comet Holmes viewing and added this to the site.
28/11/07
New report written
25/11/07
New images of Mars have been uploaded.
12/11/07
I stumbled across Comet Holmes last night and here are a few images.
08/10/07
Managed a great image of The Iris Nebula - 1h12mins @ISO800
05/09/07
New image of NGC7331 & Stephan's Quintet
09/09/07
I have been very lucky over the last few nights as it has been very clear.
Here are a fe new images.
NGC7000 - The North American Nebula
12/08/07
New solar images of Sunspot 966
09/08/07
Another clear night out and a new better image of M13
08/08/07
First images taken from my observatory.
15/07/07
First light report for the Birch Tree Observatory
New solar images
09/06/07
Managed to use the observatory for the first time and captured a few images of sunspot 960.
03/06/07
Equipment moved in and ready to go.
See pictures here
31/05/07
Working on the internal layout now of the observatory.
28/05/07
Had a very busy weekend and managed to get the observatory finished!!!!
Here are the images.
21/05/07
A bit more progress.
20/05/07
Pier is now built - see pics here
16/05/07
I havent had a chance to get out much as my observatory is being built.
The metal shed arrived today and this week, if the weather clears, I'm going to build the floor.
04/03/07
I viewed my first Lunar Eclipse last night and took a few images.
24/02/07
Update to my Observatory page as I have my new mount plate finished.
15/02/07
A new image of M45, 44mins of exposure and my best image of this target yet.
08/02/07
Another new image of The Orion Nebula.
Tried for The Horsehead Nebula but the image wasnt that great.
03/02/07
Added a new page about my backyard observatory, see above.
30/01/07
For a change I used my 200mm Reflector and captured a few frames of M44 - The Beehive Cluster in Cancer.
24/01/07
Managed 2h & 8mins on M81 & M82, new image here.
10/01/07
Well its 2007 and my first image of the year is The Orion Nebula & Running Man.
A much better image than my last attempts
Happy New Year !
31/12/06
Merry Christmas & A Happy New year
Some new daylight images of lunar detail, Plato, Bay of Rainbows & The Alpine Valley
24/12/06
New images of Saturn and you can see that the rings are beginning to close up.
10/12/06
Wow its been busy.....
Two nights in a row of clear skies.
New images of:
NGC1499 (very faint, not that great)
28/11/06
A new better image of M33 total exposure of 1hour 18mins !!!
22/11/06
Yet another try at M45, but this time a lot better. 40min total exposure.
10/11/06
Tried M45 again, but this time with the Orion scope.
08/11/06
Another new object imaged - NGC 891 - side on view galaxy. I'm not getting very long image sessions to capture more frames. Just hope the weather holds.
02/11/06
First image of M33 - The Pinwheel Galaxy and a new report of the night.
Also updated the M45 page with one new image.
29/10/06
A starry, very windy night of visual observations. The report is here.
28/10/06
Reprocessed the Double Cluster images and they look a lot better.
Added another report using cheap binoculars.
23/10/06
New image of The Double Cluster and I have updated my report section.
22/10/06
I have just bought a Baader MPCC (Multi Purpose Coma Corrector) for my Newtonian Reflector. I shall be using this with the 350D but had to modify a 2" Eyepiece adaptor.
See the equipment section for more info on how this was done.
Hope to get out soon as I have also bought a GPUSB adaptor so I can now use my laptop for guiding and taking long exposures.
10/10/06
Second night of guiding and a new image of M57. This guiding is difficult!
Also added my report of the night.
18/09/06
A couple more updates.........had one of my darkest and best viewing nights ever, the report is here
A new image of M45
Created a roll-over image of The Milky Way from by back garden, it shows details of constellations and other objects. Take a look
16/09/06
The dark skies are finally back !
But, just for a change I captured some new sunspot images.
We have just arrived back from our visit to Prague and we also took a look at The Stefanik Observatory (images and more detail are found here)
17/08/06
Nights are getting darker and at the weekend I managed my best image to date.
The Dumbbell Nebula - M27 using autoguiding
30/07/06
22/07/06
Uploaded some reports from the past few nights out. First time trying to autoguide and finding it really hard!
July reports are here.
16/07/06
I finally managed to get out with the scope again. Its been ages and i have now almost all the equipment i need for guiding.
I have been learning how to drift align the mount and find it quite difficult but just need more practice.
Took a few new shots, nothing that exciting but the image of Vega is really nice.
New image of a sunspot with the 70mm guide scope really just as a test.
Also a new star trail image. Best thing about this image are the amount of stars on view. Looking back at previous images the new house location is much better.
15/06/06
Whooohooo !!!
We have broadband internet back
12/06/06
New sunspot images
Still no internet at my house!!!!!
29/05/06
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we shall have the internet by Friday.
Some solar viewing was carried out on 28th May 2006. I have uploaded the images to the site.
15/05/06
Just to let everyone know, I'm having problems getting the internet in my new house and cant update the site as much as i would hope. I should have it sorted soon.
Swapped my 120mm refractor for a 70mm and new mount adaptor (see equipment section).
Images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the shadow of Europa.
Some new shots of Saturn.
Added a few more double star images and information, along with a couple of nice webcam images of stars (amazing colours).
01/05/06
New images using the Orion ED80.
22/04/06
An excellent night of viewing can be found here.
New images:
07/04/06
Its been a while since i have had a chance to update the site. We have been very busy in the new house and the place is starting to take shape.
The garden is amazing and perfect for astronomy, just as long as i can remove a large set of trees blocking the East.
My new scope has arrived and its BIG! the mount is excellent although very heavy!
Managed a few first shots of Saturn and they turned out to be pretty good.
02/03/06
3 weeks till we move house !
A few new images since it has been clear for the past 3 nights !
The Moon at 2 days old
16/02/06
Not long till i get my new telescope, but while i'm waiting i reprocessed an image of the North American nebula.
05/02/06
First new images with the Orion ED80, this is the moon taken yesterday.
24/01/06
I have updated my equipment section with some better images and i now have an Orion ED80 !!!!
Only problem is i don't have a mount yet as it has been sold, so i may have to wait till the end of March for first light.
14/01/06
Its been pretty cloudy, but that's ok, as i'm moving house soon.
I haven't had a chance to take any new shots and have just sold my EQ3/2 mount.
Getting a new scope when i move to the new house a 10" Newt on EQ6 with skyscan (I cant wait)!!!!
Please visit back for updates and new pics.
23/12/05
At last i have managed some new images of Venus !
18/12/05
New images of Mars and Saturn.
I have also created a new section in on The Moon page for crater images and uploaded two new pics.
14/12/05
New image of Mars but only managed to stack 24 frames :(
Still not too bad.
22/11/05
Quite a few updates since the sky has been very clear that past few days.
The Moon - some new images
Saturn - first shots with the Toucam Pro 2 - the planet was quite low even at 1:30am
On the first few nights it was -7 degrees !!!!!!
Hope you like the new shots.
02/11/05
Updated the Globular Cluster section and uploaded a new image of Mars, one day after opposition.
29/10/05
New images of M57 and my first shots of The Crescent Nebula
22/10/05
Two new images of star cluster M29 & M39
Another shot of the moon.
15/10/05
Some more images have been uploaded from the 13th October 2005 imaging session.
I still have a few shots to take a look at, so i'll upload them later.
09/10/05
A few updates from a very clear night.
Solar image from 08/10/05
02/10/05
It was a very cloudy night but i managed to get some better (larger) images of Mars while shooting through the cloud breaks.
Images are here.
24/09/05
Some more new images. The Moon was still pretty bright, but the shots came out quite well.
18/09/05
Harvest Moon was on 17th September 2005 and i have an image of it here.
I have also updated the Best images section and included a few more pictures of M13 & M27 in the deepsky section.
17/09/05
Last night was pretty clear and although there was a full moon i managed to capture some pretty good images.
M13 - The Great Hercules Globular Cluster
NGC7000 - The North American Nebula
As you can see it was quite a busy night.
06/09/05
It just keeps getting better.........
I have now managed to capture my best images yet. M81 & M82 were great targets and came out very well.
Here is the page of images
05/09/05
Uploaded some of my first Astro photos with the Canon 350D.
I have set them up in the Widefield section and so far this camera has proven to be excellent.
03/09/05
Great news !!!!
My Canon 350D is here.
Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be clear tonight for some shots of the Milkyway.
08/08/05
I managed to get some observing done on the night of the 6th August 2005. The report has been added to the site here.
Today I also managed some new solar shots which can be found here.
07/08/05
New image of Mars has been uploaded.
25/07/05
New toucam images of the moon have been uploaded.
16/07/05
I got up at 2am to view Mars for the first time. It was quite clear but with Mars only being 15 degrees above the horizon the seeing was terrible.
Managed to capture a few shots, nothing special but fun non the less. I hope its going to be clear tonight for some more deep sky viewing.
09/07/05
At last the skies are starting to get a bit darker. Managed to get some viewing done and i have uploaded a new report.
Also tried to image the Dumbell nebula M27, not a great shot, but gives you an idea of what you can see at the eyepiece.
03/07/05
A lot of sunspot activity today and i have uploaded some new shots from today and yesterday.
01/07/05
New shots of Jupiter, probably the last of the season.
Take a look.
All
images and text are ©Copyright Chris Graham 2004.
Please
do not copy without the owners permission.