Les

Earwigs are not much to look at but they are very caring of their young nurturing them into adulthood and must be given kudos for that. The more I see of humanity the more I respect the Earwig (present company excluded of course)!

The lower star of Orion's Belt is Alnitak at over 10,000 times brighter than the Sun and is capable of illuminating this dark cloud of gas over many light years. This is the Flame Nebula (sometimes nicknamed The Tank Track ) has no light of its own but it may in the far distant future. Over billions of years it might contract into a bright star to rival Alnitak itself, assuming Alnitak is still around both in position and in time. Taken with a Nikon D3200 DSLR, prime focus on a 406mm f1800mm Newtonian(driven) 3200ISO 30" exposure.

What was the rust on? Looks like from a boat. Reminds me of the underside of a Ford Transit van I once had!

When medium massed stars use up their nuclear fuel they often go nova. The explosion blows of the stars outer layers leaving the lower layers and core. The star is not destroyed but is dying. The cloud shell which expands at 100's of kms a second and fluoresces giving distinct green and blue tinges. Its sobering to think in a few billion years from now our Sun may also have such a beautiful expanding shroud. It means toast for us but delight for any far off alien astronomers that may be watching. These are call Planetary Nebula even though they a neither and dozens are visible to the amateur. These are just two in the Summer/Autumn sky. The Ring Nebula and Dumbell Nebula. Taken last night with a 400mm Newtonian prime focus using a Nikon 3200 3200ISO 20 sec ex. DSLR's are particularly good at picking up nebulae in general.

This is one from 2013. It is the impression left by a Tawny Owl after it crashed into a window. The house is opposite a golf course with trees in the Duddingston area of Edinburgh. The reflection of the trees made the owl think there was a way through. A good reason(and excuse) to leave your window a bit dirty. Taken with a Nikon Coolpix L23 compact.

Thanks for all the comments. During its 30 year journey across the sky the wonderful Saturn can languish very low in the sky from northern temperate regions such a the British Isles for several years. It is now emerging from on of these episodes but it will still be a couple of years before its well seen again, until then seeing will be difficult for Northern Europeans even for visual viewing let alone photography. I looked through one of my old memory sticks and came across this image of majestic Saturn taken with a Concord 4mp compact (my first digital camera) using a digiscope bracket on a 200mm f5 Newtonion and a 20mm eyepiece, when Saturn was riding much higher in the sky in April 2006.

Hi Clicker, Thanks for that. Its amazing the results you can get imaging astronomical targets with a DSLR attached at prime focus to a telescope or to the eyepiece. Good results on the lunar landscape can also be gleaned using a compact held at a low power eyepiece using a digiscope bracket. I use a 406mm Newtonian telescope with a focal ratio of 4.8 or focal length of 1.8 metres. On planetary targets I use prime focus but with a 2X barlow increasing the focal length to a whopping 3.6 metres. For fainter objects I up the ISO up to 3200 and a exposure of 30 seconds, that can reveal objects fainter than magnitude 15 or close one thousand times fainter than the naked eye. Amazing for ordinary equipment. Of course proper astronomical cameras give far better results than the humble DSLR, but for nebulae and galaxies in particular the DSLR is not to be despised. The following images are of Jupiter with its largest moon Ganymede(note its shadow on the planets surface) and the M101 spiral galaxy were obtained recently using the 406mm Newtonian(driven) and a Nikon D3200 at prime focus.

Lovely photos. I took the photos of my uncles wedding back in the 70's using a Zorki rangefinder. The Zorki gave lovely pictures but the range finder system made close ups tricky. It was nerve racking but they turned out OK. Parallax took a toll on composition on a few of them but non were headless! It saved them some money and they were pleased with the results.

Being a keen astro photographer (not with dedicated astro gear) I found some of my astronomical equipment can also be put to good use for microscopy too. Here is my setup its a Celestron telescopic Ulta Duo M42 threaded eyepiece attached to my vintage Vickers microscope. A astro Barlow (with the lens removed) happens to fit neatly over the microscope eyepiece tube ,the Barlow is M42 threaded so I can fit my Canon and Nikon DSLR's onto it. If I add the lens of the Barlow it doubles the magnification but this is unnecessary. The other image is of a butterfly antennae using the setup.

HI, Les from Midlothian here, I'm back after at least five years (probably closer to seven) after receiving a Email from you about trouble with the forum. I must confess I totally forgot about you or even that I was a member. I put in a old password that I haven't used in ages and it worked. I'll certainly contribute again. My equipment has change since the last time and my main cameras are now a Nikon 3200DSLR and a Nikon L29 Compact. I also have a Canon 1100D which has a couple of issues which I may tell you about. I've also ordered a vintage 3mp compact from ebay for under a tenner that is supposed be in good working order(fingers crossed) which you may find interesting when it arrives in the next week or so.

I've really enjoyed the radio today about D Day and the remarkable bravery of the men the allied forces that made the miracle of the reclaim of Europe happen. My dad was in the Home guard in Perthshire mainly on duty at one the bridges over the River Tay.Although he was never abroad during the war and by day he was a farm manager he did come into contact with the enemy.German POW,s who were deemed to be low risk were often sent to the farm to work.Some were just Nazi's and not good characters and were soon moved on but one called Johanne was at the farm for quite some time,he was a Luftwaffe pilot,who worked hard was friendly and became well liked locally.He carved two wooden birds for my mother,one swooping and one with its wings out stretched (now missing).The image is of the surviving Bluebird. Regards Les.

I cant help coming back to this,and no wonder,you should be rightly proud of this truly fine example of the photographers art .

A lovely example Fuzzy.I have a British made Kodak Six-20 'Brownie Junior.Its a simpler unit and not in such nice condition as yours but it still seems to work.It has 2 settings a fixed exposure and a 'B' stop for user customised exposure and a fixed lens.

Swings