Milton Keynes Astronomical Society

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From Pierre Girard on 26/01/2020.

2020-01-20@1852UT, 26 x 1 minute subs stacked in DSS and enhanced with Faststone. Telescope and camera: 10-inch f/4.3 Newtonian with coma corrector, Canon 70D @ISO3200. The comet passes open cluster NGC 957 on its way to meet with the famous Double Cluster in Perseus. The comet is at magnitude +9.3 and a difficult telescopic object but easy on the eye with imaging techniques.

From Dilip Sharan on 25/01/2020.

NGC6960 - Witch's Broom part of Veil Nebula in Cygnus. The bright star is 52 Cygni. The Veil Nebula is a super nova remnant. Taken on 18-11-2019 using a Canon 600D with a Optolong L-eNhance Filter attached to a Skywatcher 200 PDS (8 inch Newtonian) mounted on a Skywatcher EQ6-R PRO from my backyard in Milton Keynes

From Dilip Sharan on 18/09/2019.

Full moon as seen from Milton Keynes, UK at 02:44 BST on 15-Sep-2019

From P Girard on 19/07/2019.


Montage of 3 frames to show the shadow as the Moon moves Eastwards across it. 10-inch Newtonian with Canon 1000D.	This was obtained with a Canon 70D, 100mm lens mounted on a static tripod and exposure of 1/5 second.

From Pierre Girard on 23/06/2019.


@2121UT, Canon 70D handheld, 18mm f/3.5, 1/21sec, azimuth: 35degrees	@2137UT, Canon 70D handheld, 62mm f/5, 1/25sec, azimuth: 35 degrees	@2137UT, Canon 70D handheld, 62mm f/5, 1/25sec, azimuth: 35 degrees

From Pierre Girard on 16/06/2019.

10- inch f/4.2 Newtonian with x4 ImageMate, DFK21 AU webcam, 0034UT, 1 min AVI captured with Sharpcap, Image processed with Auto-Stakkert and Registax. Altitude of Jupiter: 15 degrees. Seeing was bad.

From Pierre Girard on 13/04/2019.

Also described at the Great Globular Cluster situated in the Keystone of Hercules and easy to find. This image was acquired in the early hours of April 11 2019. 5 subs of 1 minute each were stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Faststone. 10-inch f/4.9, Canon70D, ISO3200.

From Dilip Sharan on 10/04/2019.

Messier 81 & Messier 82 - Bodes Galaxy & Cigar Galaxy. Taken on 27-02-2019

From Pierre Girard on 16/11/2018.

From a run on 20181101, 14 x 90sec on my 10-inch f/4.3 working at f/4.9 with coma corrector. Canon 70D set at ISO3200. Setup guided through a 89mm f/5.8 newtonian hooked to a PhillipsToucam. Stacking on DeepSkyStacker and post-processing with Faststone software.

From Dilip Sharan on 14/11/2018.

Saturn in July 2018

From Dilip Sharan on 09/06/2018.

Taken on the 2nd June 2018 with an Altair Astro GPCAM; 8 Inch Newtonian using SharpCap, AutoStakkart & RegiStax

From Dilip Sharan on 26/02/2018.

Image of the area of the Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42) and the surrounds

From Dilip Sharan on 17/08/2017.

Waxing Half moon - 60% Illuminated - As seen in Milton Keynes

From Pierre Girard on 26/03/2017.

A desperate image in heavy atmospheric turbulence. Taken through a webcam with a x 2 Barlow lens on my 10-inch Newtonian. The AVI stream was then processed through Registax6 to produce a final image.

From Pierre Girard on 26/03/2017.

A difficult capture with webcam through Powermate x 4 on 10-inch Newtonian. Capture software wxAstro Capture, Regisstax6 and final adjustment with Faststone.

From Alan Piggott on 13/12/2015.


Venus November 28th 2015 at 8-10 am. Phase increasing as it starts its journey heading round behind the sun.	Venus. 22nd August 2015 at 1-22pm. A week after the (Aug 15th 2015) inferior conjunction.	Taken a week before the 15th August inferior conjunction.

From Dilip Sharan on 09/11/2015.

View of Jupiter and Venus at dawn on 9th Nov 2015. The waning Crescent Moon can be seen at the bottom of the frame. The cloudy conditions mean that Mars is not visible. This marks the tail end of the conjunction of the planets Venus, Jupiter and Mars in Leo that began in Sept 2015

From Dilip Sharan on 19/10/2015.

Imaged during the Oct 2015 MKAS weekend to Lower Dinchope in Shropshire - 11 Oct 2015

From John Knight on 31/07/2015.

The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter over three days at the end of June 2015

From Alan Piggott on 09/10/2014.


Three gravitationally interacting galaxies form the Leo Triplet or Leo Trio. Top is NGC 3628, left is Messier 66 right is Messier 65. Also in this picture (but not related) is NGC 3593 lower far right. These can be found in Leo's back leg. The distance from NGC 3628 to M66 is about 500 thousand light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years. Canon 450d on tracking mount."	Found in Ursa Major. This is a fairly bright and easy to find spiral galaxy. Its distance from earth is estimated to be about 22 to 25 million light years. There are several other much fainter galaxies recorded in this picture. Canon 450d on tracking mount.	Markarian's Chain This is a curved chain of galaxies in the constellation of Virgo. Messier 84, 86 and 88 plus several IC (Index Catalogue) galaxies make up the chain. This is an area of sky rich in galaxies. I have counted 36 in this picture but a deeper image would show many more. See the labelled version. Canon 450d on tracking mount.	Markarian's Chain	Moon, waxing gibbous. The main detail can be seen close to the edge of the shadow (terminator). Visible top left is the Bay Of Rainbows (Sinus Iridium). Head to the right and follow the edge of the "sea" Mare Imbrium around to the crater Plato. Crater Copernicus is centre left and is displaying its rays. Prominent at bottom left is crater Tycho with a nice central peak. The ejecta from Tycho created the rays that are so visible at full moon and starting to show at this phase. Nikon D300 on 150mm astrograph. Single frame.

Moon Crater Plato. This image was taken using a converted web camera connected to a telescope. The resultant video file is processed by computer software to pick out the sharpest frames and produce the final still image. The large crater on the left of the picture is called Plato and has a diameter of 61 miles. Follow the Alpine Mountains to the right to the Alpine Valley. This feature is 79 miles long by 7 miles wide. Normal binoculars will show nice detail on the moon. Best time is when it's not full as the best details are brought out by the shadows.	Saturn This is a web cam image taken 08/06/2014. The Cassini division, a gap between the inner and outer rings, is visible in the rings to the sides of the planet. A shadow from the rings is visible on the surface of the planet and above that a cloud band. The dark separation of the planet from the rings at the back is the planet casting its shadow onto the rings.

From Alan Piggott on 15/01/2014.


10th Nov 2013. 8-09pm. 150mm F9 Astrograph. 100th sec.iso400 (Nikon) p1	16 Oct 2013 8.25pm. 150mm F9 Astrograph. 400th sec.iso250(Nikon). Note how the surface brightness increases as the phase increases	Auriga with M36, M38 and various New General Catalogue (NGC) objects. 50mm. f4.iso800(Astro modified Canon)	Comet Lovejoy. 5.07 to 7.23 am 5th Dec 2013. 300mm.f5.6.iso800.92x45sec(Astro modified Canon)	M13 (Messier 13) Globular cluster in the Hercules keystone asterism. M13 is about 145LY across and 25,100LY away. Also note the faint fuzzy galaxy NGC 6207 up and left from M13.

From Alan Piggott on 14/10/2013.


Crescent Moon	M42 The Great Orion Nebula	North America Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus	Packman Nebula in Cassiopeia	Startrails centred on Polaris

From Nick Evetts on 14/10/2013.


Comet Grigg-Skjellerup (26P)	Comet Lemmon C 2012 F6	PANSTARRS C 2011 L4	The Moon on June 19th 2013

From John Bell on 26/12/2012.

The Moon and Jupiter imaged by John Bell 26 Dec 2012. (Colour saturation adjusted to show the mineralogical features on the moon)