Astrophotography by Dave Adshead: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Latest photographs

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:47:26 GMT

Galaxies

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:43:45 GMT

Published Images

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:44:01 GMT

These are photographs that have been published in magazines or featured on other websites.

Archived images

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:50:15 GMT

Older images will be progressively moved into this folder as they are replaced with newer versions.

Emission, Reflection and Dark

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:49:32 GMT

My setup

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:55:46 GMT

I use the following equipment for my astrophotography:

Takahashi FSQ-106ED f5 refractor
Takahashi 1.6 x extender to make the FSQ, f8
TMB 80 mm f6 refractor
Canon 40D DSLR
EQ6 Pro mount
Imaging Source DBK 21AF04.AS camera
Astronomik CLS filter
Robert J. Dalby steel pier

Planetary nebulae

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:11:53 GMT

These nebulae are usually a symmetrical expanding cloud of gas ejected from a dying star, at the centre will be the remains of this star, a white dwarf. White dwarfs are extremely dense compact stars, it is said that our own sun, may well evolve into such a star via gravitational collapse and sit within its own planetary nebula, the planetary shell of gas would be ejected off as it passed through the red giant phase to white dwarf. That wont happen for a few billion years yet though, no need to panic.

The term planetary nebula was first used by Sir William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, because they reminded him of the rounded discs of planets as seen through his telescopes.

Globular clusters

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:14:49 GMT

Dotted around the galactic halo of the Milky Way are more than 100 globular star clusters, a conglomeration of stars, gravity bound into the shape of a ball.

Open clusters

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:38:20 GMT

The sun

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:22:25 GMT

The sun is our nearest star, at the centre of the solar system, 149,668,992 Km (93,000,000 miles) distance and its light takes just over 8 minutes to reach our eyes.

The sun is doing what it does best, converting Hydrogen the most abundant element in the Universe, into Helium. This nearest star is halfway through its life cycle and has another 4.5 billion years before it erupts and expires as a Planetary nebula.

The moon

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:33:59 GMT

The moon is 380,000 Km (236,000 miles) from Earth, it's responsible for the tides and stabilisers the Earth's orbit around the sun. The moon takes 27.3 days to orbit the Earth, and it spins on its own axis in the same time, therefore it always presents the same face towards Earth. This is known as a synchronous rotation.

Red Sea

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:35:12 GMT

British waters

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:13:14 GMT

Dwarf planets/Minor planets/Asteroids

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:11:41 GMT

Dwarf planet is a body orbiting the sun - not being a satellite - which is massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a round or nearly round shape. and has not cleared its environs of other objects.

Minor planet is a term used to describe objects such as asteroids which orbit the sun, and not being a planet or a comet.

Asteroids are irregular shaped chunks of rock of varying sizes, most orbit between the planets Mars and Jupiter, this is called the Main belt. But there are asteroids in other regions of the solar system, closer to Earth and some even further than the Dwarf planet, Pluto.

Further details of these classifications can be obtained here

Comets

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:06:20 GMT

Comets are members of our solar system and orbit the sun. Some of them are periodic and return on a regular basis, such as Halley's comet, others come and go, never to return.

Great Barrier Reef

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:53:29 GMT

Herschel's

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:35:59 GMT

Sir William Herschel was the most prolific telescope maker of his time, selling many of the instruments he made. Some of these instruments can be seen in the Herschel Museum in Bath, Somerset.

Jodrell Bank radio telescope

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:41:19 GMT

Sir Bernard Lovell worked on the development of radar during the war. Lovell was also a pioneering radio astronomer and visionary who instigated the construction of the large radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, now named the Lovell telescope.

The Planets

kingfisher.astro@googlemail.com (Astrophotography by Dave Adshead) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:02:25 GMT