For the first time in a while, we were able to open on Friday 4th April.

Mark had the SeeStar S50 and Chris was using the RASA 8. Despite the quarter-Moon and fairly poor seeing, decent images were made.

Mark’s shot of the Moon was a single imageand without processing.

Chris had the Rasa 8 telescope with an Apc Imx571 colour camera. He took 109 30-second images and processed them with different filters to bring out the Ha and Oiii wavelengths.

The third image is a composite with the addition of 20 120-second images taken with an NBZ uhs filter, specifically designed to enhance the contrast of Ha and Oiii emission nebulae.

Saturday 29th saw a partial solar eclipse, starting at 10:06 in High Legh. Luckily, the clouds were not too heavy and we had sight of most of the eclipse.  Many thanks to those who turned out to share the experience.

We had solar spectacles for our visitors and there were several telescopes observing the event. Here are a few shots taken on the day.

The first set were taken by Terry using a mobile phone camera to capture the images from the solar projection telescope.

The second set were taken by Mark with a SeeStar S50 telescope. The images are unprocessed.

Eric was using a Dwarf II telescope with solar filters. This image was captured at 10:16, soon after the start.

Auto exposure, processed in Affinity with upscale in Topaz.

COSMOS (our sister site on St. Martin’s, Isles of Scilly) had no trouble with clouds.

This image was taken with a mobile phone attached to an130 Altair EDT APO refractor using a 20mm 68° explore scientific eyepiece.
It’s a single shot taken at 10:19:52 am, aperture F1.75, exposure 1/500 sec, ISO125 with some minor processing to bring out the details.

We opened exceptionally early at 18:30 on Friday 28th to take advantage of the clear skies and 4 naked-eye planets. Thanks to all for coming along to support our efforts to share the wonders of the night sky; though we were somewhat overwhelmed by the numbers turning out for the ‘planets parade’!

Sadly, Saturn had already set but Mercury was still visible above the trees for half an hour. Venus was the brightest object in the sky for the whole session. Jupiter and Mars appeared out of the dusk before 19:00 so that, at one point, all 4 were visible at the same time.
Later on, as the sky darkened, we did some constellation spotting in the field outside the compound and used binoculars for spectacular views of the Pleiades and the Orion nebula.
Later still Uranus was visible with a telescope, as was a beautiful crescent Venus. Meanwhile, in the compound, some imaging was done with the SeeStar.

We can only apologise for the problems we had with the two larger telescopes, noting that things are in a much better place for future openings…please feel free to come back and take a closer look!

Messier 31, the great Andromeda Galaxy, a remarkable object sitting 2.5 Million light-years away from our Milky Way.

The image was created from 5-minutes’ data collection, with much longer times being the norm.

Messier 42, the great Orion Nebula, a vast collection of gas and dust slowly creating new stars.

The image was created from 5-minutes’ data collection, with much longer times being the norm.

Jupiter, showing the four Galilean Moons, taken with the little robot telescope

Jupiter, taken with the main telescope once this was brought into service.

The strom caused considerable damage to the dome and compound. Fortunately, the warm room (subject of major renovations over the summer) survived intact.

With more sterling work by our construction wizards Eric and Chris, repairs to the dome were completed in days.

Repairs to the compound fence will start in February.