I've set one up on an astronomy forum I'm a member of, did have a little look on here but didn't turn up much joy. Will post in some answers when we have some.

I've got a EOS 500D. I tend to use it with a 300mm lense rather than attached my scope (mainly because my scope is not up to standard). The Canon DSLRs are excellent for the long exposure work you're talking about. Fully automated controls and remote viewing of the image from a laptop. You might be able to find a second hand 500D or even 550D as they've both been replaced by the 600D now. You may even be able to find a 40D or 50D in your budget.

Report on BBC Look North shortly about seeing the Northern lights at the Tan Hill Inn last night.

hmmm, the EOS 500D looks like a good one, probably go for that one.

I also like the fact that you can load custom firmware to the Cannon cameras, seems to make them quite flexible.

Thanks.

http://spaceweather.com/

Your referring to the M-9?

That is correct.

I took a sequence of pictures, you'll see them at the bottom of this page... http://www.seeviewo.org/catalog/inde...page=page&id=3

I think the 2012 Transit would best be seen from somewhere in China, I had planned to see it from the Great Wall but I'm unable to do that now.

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I've no idea if this has been posted before, but it's a bit of fun http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf

Looks like the CME has arrived. The Kp Index has gone up to 4 so far. If you have clear skies up in the north of the UK anywhere, keep a lookout for aurora.

Gutted that it's foggy here. Even if there was the tiniest possibility I wouldn't be able to see it.

I use a Canon EOS 300D body with my 8" Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope.
The Canon's are liked by astronomers because of the low dark current (so you can take long exposures without "noise" obliterating the image) hence there is a lot of astronomy based s/w that is compatible with the EOS. I find the Canon s/w is so far good enough for me enabling me to take long exposure and repeat shots.

arrggghh, choices choices lol

I'm leaning towards the Cannon EOS 500D due to it's apparent lower noise level, though finding one under about £370 (with a 18-55mm lens) seems impossible ..

http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmod500d/...0dcompare.html

No doubt I'd want to buy a different lens at some point but the standard 18-55mm will do for starters.

Looking for the Andromeda galaxy with my daughter at around 9:30 tonight and the brightest ever meteor flew, it would appear, right over our roof in a East to West direction. My daughter saw it through binoculars and I saw it with the naked eye. It was brighter than Jupiter or Venus and really did give the appearance of being hundreds of feet off the ground. Anyone else see it?

If anyone out there is considering a Canon camera; there is a dedicated forum, for Canon users, that is worth a look.In the 'Photo Sharing' section there is an 'Astronomy and Celestial' section. You can see the results various camera and lens combinations can give.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

Or they might even unfortunately be eaten by a small dog?

I would paint my eyeballs rather than risk seeing it.

Anyone been doing any observing recently? Forecast is looking good for this evening, take advantage of the clear cold skies. Uranus is approx 0.5 degree from Venus at present and both planets should be visible in the same field of view in the early evening sky. Uranus should be an achievable binocular target for those without scopes. If you have a scope with an aperture above 150 mm you may be able to make out some of Uranus's larger moons. The planet itself will look like a giant star with a defined green hue, larger scopes will resolve the plantetary disc and CCD imagers (with large aperture scopes - ie 250 mm +) may even start to tease out cloud detail.

A free real time night sky program showing the positions of countless objects (forgot Google Sky app's etc, nowhere near accurate enough)
http://www.stellarium.org/

Jupiter - Still hanging around for a few hours after sunset and it's moons will be visible through even a modest set of binoculars. Here's a few useful tools for working out which moon is which, and also for predictimg times the Great Red Spot is visible (which actually appears a more pale pink through the viewfinder), the GRS should be visible to most of the UK approx 19:54 tonight.

Moons:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...script/jupiter

GRS:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...s/3304091.html

Mars - Still coming closer to us and rises mid evening from approx 8:30, best viewed when it's high up from 11pm onwards

Saturn - The jewel of the solar system is progressively rising earlier throughout the month, it's rings are tilted at such an angle that observers have a good chance of picking out the Cassini Division, Encke Gap, and a plethora of it's moons. A good challenge is seeing if you can pick out Mimas or Enceladus (although those two will be tough for small aperture scopes). If you hang on until the small hours of the morning it's worth looking for, it'll be low down towards the South around 2am near the star Spica

Useful tool for Saturn's moon locations: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...t/saturn_moons

Moon - It's waning now and tonight approx 75% of the surface visible, look along the terminator (dividing line between night and day) to see great surface detail.

DSO's - tough to spot faint galaxies and nebula with the moon being so bright at present, all the big hitters should be visible (Pleiades, Orion Nebula, Crab Nebula, Rosette Nebula, Eskimo Nebula). Ursa Major (The Plough) contains a whole raft of galaxies worth hunting for, check stellarium for those locations if unsure.

The Leo Triplet is a good challenge for those with good sized scopes or access to a relatives!

Nice pretty pictures from some of my astro buddies http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-...-showcase.html

Happy hunting

Quite a bit lately - apart from a few nights, this last couple of weeks has been pretty good here - just a shame about the Moon killing off any serious deep-sky viewing over the last few days.
Had a couple of exceptionally clear nights last week - very cold, but they're usually the best nights for sky transparency.

Myself and a couple of mates are currently trying to get a new local astronomical society off the ground, and tonight are going to evaluate a 'dark-site' - We've had permission from a farmer, to use a spare area of hardstanding as the society's regular observing site.
I'm actually hoping it'll stay overcast here - or at least a little hazy - that would be better to show up any potential skyglow from nearby villages.

I've been having a go at some begginers astrphotography myself. Slight schoolboy error in that I picked M42 as my first target because it's very easy to find but the nearly full moon has been very close in the sky so the results aren't great. Take a look and see what you think...
http:// http://www.flickr.com/photos...os/6811800635/

I'm off for a couple of days next week to what should be a dark sky site so if the skies are clear I'll have another go and take a few more exposures (this was 16 short exposures stacked so not a very long total exposure).

This aurora cam is good tonight.

NASA's High-Res 'Blue Marble' Image is Sharpest Ever

http://freepress.intel.com/community...th-in-high-def

Fifty years today since the first American oribted the eat. See God Speed John Glenn.

Took me by surprise that Glenn is now 90! But then I remember him going up in the shuttle as the oldest ever astronaut and that was in the late 90's IIRC.

He's one of only 2 surviving Mercury program astronauts left. In only a few years time there will be no astronauts form the Mercury, Gemini or Apollo programs. Very sad.

It's gone very quiet on this thread lately. Maybe everyone has been too busy enjoying the Jupiter - Venus - Moon conjunction?

Here's my best shot of it:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7177/6...8faa35d8_b.jpg

Lovely one it is too.

Can't Betelgeuse hurry up and explode? Or should I say, can the light get here, I want to see this in my lifetime. I bet it'll be spectacular when the obese old gal finally gives up the goat.

I thought I could see it the other night (slightly orange light in the sky, but stellarium said it was mars.