Strange Object Near Arcturus

While setting up and monitoring Arcturus a strange object came into view travelling Right to Left. It took me by surprise so I only videoed the second half of the transit. I've no idea what it can be, but it's about 7 ArcSec diameter travelling at about 68 ArcSec/Sec.

Update 21/05/2019. Almost certainly a balloon of some sort.

Time stamp: 17:39 UTC May 16th 2019

M13 - Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 2h 28m exposure

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy

The latest image of M101 taken over 2 nights

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 1h 30m of 2m exposures.

 

Latest Whirlpool Galaxy - M51

The latest image of M51 taken over 4 nights

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Celestron Advanced GT mount
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

Total of 6h 22m exposures comprising:

34 x 3m 28s Lights & Darks
25 x 3m 39s Lights & Darks 
10 x 5m 54s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 34s Lights & Darks
10 x 5m 49s Lights & Darks 

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements.

Last Orion Nebula for the 2018-19 season

This will be my last image of the Orion Nebula for the 2018-19 season, it's now disappearing behind nearby houses and every night it gets a little further west and the sky gets a little brighter. I decided to concentrate on this one object over a period of 5 nights rather than a single night and it has paid off in getting a much smoother image.

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2 

166 x 2 min plus 41 x 1 min exposures. 

Stacked in DSS and finished in PS Elements.

Pleiades 1962 to 2019

A few weeks ago a friend gave me a book on astronomy published in 1962, in it was an image of the Pleiades. Luckily it was of a similar scale to my images, so as an experiment I overlayed and aligned one of my images with a scan from the book and it shows some stars that have moved in the intervening 57 years.

The alignment isn't perfect but the stars that move do so contra to others nearby so must be real. The image with the spikes on the big star (Alcyone) is from 1962 overlaying my image from 2019 with a 50% transparency. Play it full screen and take a look at the stars at the top, left of centre. Look closely and you'll see others that also seem to have moved.

Latest Pleiades

The latest image of the Pleiades. There's a bit more detail and colour graduation in the nebulosity than in previous images.

Scope: Sky Watcher ED80 DS Pro
Mount: Sky Watcher CG4 motorised with modified controller for guiding.
Camera: Altair Astro Hypercam 183C
Guide cam: QHY 5L-II-C
Guide software: PHD2

25 x 5min Light
24 x 5 Min Dark 
24 Flats

Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop Elements and GIMP.