The Astronomy Roadshow

A short film of two unusual satellites witnessed a few days ago. Anyone know what they are called? The next film to be made will be on the recent Eclipse.

Twin satellites orbiting each other This unusual...

I have attended 3 Total Solar Eclipses so far, this was certainly the finest Partial I've witnessed. Most people pack up and leave literally 2 minutes or so after maximum; including today's. I prefer to stay to the end... afterward, had another go at imaging the North American Nebula in Cygnus the swan. Two hours of stacking over 400 images...

An image taken by Mt Wilson 60" Observatory, California telescope of M31 Andromeda Galaxy around 70 years ago compared to my little effort last night with a 1" tripod mounted telescope, Isle of Wight, surrounded by cow pats... This is how we saw in our 26th wedding anniversary.

Another practice run to get to know my new Dwarf 3 telescope on the Isle of Wight. The symbols on the App don't seem to look much, but getting used to what they mean. Carried out a few shortish exposure to ensure the tracking and EQ mount is accurate. Next month, we will be out on our stargazing land in Arizona. Proper long exposures will then be employed. I hope the next version of this instrument has a wider lens so the same can be achieved faster before clouds roll in. A third lens with narrower field of view (higher magnification) would be perfect.

Managed to get a few short deep sky images last night. Smoke from New Forest fire began to creep across the sky. This was a trial run to see if I'm working the Dwarf 3 Telescope ok.

Last night / this morning, used four different types of camera... GoPro, D3 smart telescope, SiOnyx Image Intensifier, and Sony Alpha III mirrorless DSLR. The Milky Way shot was my first attempt with the smart telescope; all from the Isle of Wight... dark skies.

We now need a large flare from these sunspots to get another Northern Lights display... taken on a Dwarf Lab 3 telescope. Now I have the hang on it, I can take shots like these withing 3 minutes of stepping outside.

The gets more interesting by the day... Found a great website to show the latest info on Spot Numbering, and images using other wavelegths... https://solarham.com/regions.htm