Autumn Watch

So, as the owls hooted I took my first foray into the October night and pointed my camera and scope skywards and what a delight it was!
I always love this time of year - a chill in the air, you can almost smell the snow and wood burning fires to boot - great!
Left we have "The Moon" taken with my 2.5in Petzval at Prime Focus (520mm ISO 200 1/250sec). Notice there is no colour aberration at all! - these are great scopes. You can also see the "roughness" of the mountains on the circumference.

Right we have my first time lapse photo. It is a collection of 24 stacked images (done using Registax) and finished off in Paint.NET. The "jitteryness" is caused by each single exposure not being long enough. Each frame was taken using a fixed lens (35mm) at f/1.8 ISO200 15sec. This really needs to be 30sec and may be a higher ISO - say ISO400. You get the general idea. I kept the chimney pot for reference but it also gives the image some depth of field.

Other highlights of the evening were:
Jupiter - two cloud bands clearly visible with it's four Galilaean moons.
Auriga - a new constellation for me. This really stood out as I looked North-East.
Four meteorites - one really bright to my West at around 21:00.

These images are some of my best and I hope to have much improved ones over time.
I am seeing more and more each time I go out. I have been an amateur astronomer for some years now, but I am constantly amazed by how much new stuff I am seeing.

MJ