Chris Curtis Web Site

It is very difficult for me to keep running regularly. There are lots of excuses, and they are genuine, but I suffer without that regular exercise, and without the concentrated way that being out there, on your own, pushing your physical limits brings things back to utter simplicity. I do need a programme or plan to follow: it helps to keep the excuses in perspective and raises the priority of getting out there.

I am using “getrunning” on my iPhone. A pleasant sounding, but very bossy (and encouraging), woman’s voice cuts over whatever is playing to tell me when to run and when I can rest. After a long lay-off I have gone from 6 minutes of slow running to 16 minutes of reasonable running within a half-hour framework all in four weeks. Each “step up” is hard but possible and each success makes you more determined. Ten weeks should see me back to running full 5Ks and I will then need a new programme to take me on towards 10K which I want to run for real in the autumn.

M13 again, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

I think this one is a keeper!
I spent a happy couple of hours reprocessing this (actually doing much less to it than I might normally do) and then calculating the colour correction to make my raw frames match a reference image from the Hubble Space telescope.
I am particularly pleased that the two populations of stars are clearly visible. The majority are old and turning gradually yellowish as they begin to use all their fuel. The “blue stragglers” are a mystery, but the latest thinking is that they might be formed where two old stars collide and merge, effectively creating one new, hot star.

• Just finished my 1st run of week 4 with #getrunning – 31½ minutes of exercise and 16 minutes of running. Next run: Sunday 30th. #
• Just finished my 3rd run of week 3 with #getrunning – 25 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Friday 28th. #
• Just finished my 2nd run of week 3 with #getrunning – 25 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Tuesday 25th. #

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M13 – first light new scope, originally uploaded by ThinkingCamera.

This is the first image I have made with the new telescope. So much more depth and so many more stars than with the old one. I am not sure I have finished playing with this – the colour is not right yet and it looks a little over-processed (and has probably been enlarged too much) but I am very pleased with this, especially as there is no guiding (just the normal tracking of the telescope) and the telescope is in alt-az configuration which makes it harder to track the stars.

This was 40 x 30second exposures on an Atik16IC camera. Processed and aligned in Maxim DL.

Now I will have to study a chart I have showing magnitudes to see just how faint some of these stars are.

• Just finished my 1st run of week 3 with #getrunning – 25 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Saturday 22nd. #
• Just finished my 3rd run of week 2 with #getrunning – 29 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Friday 21st. #

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I was thinking about upgrading my telescope in time for the dark skies of winter but a very good deal indeed from Astronomia meant that I was able to do it now. I had fun with the six inch, but was frustrated with how long it took to set up and align as a visual scope and with trying to get it to track smoothly for photography.

The new scope is a Celestron CPC 800. I was able to use it visually last night between the clouds. It is easy to set up. You put the tripod out then pop the scope on top. It uses GPS to get time and position. You then aim it at the three brightest “stars” (you can use planets) you can see and it aligns itself. After that, pointing at objects you choose with the handset was spot on and tracking was rock-solid.

In the twilight, M3 (globular cluster) looked granular right to the centre but M13 was literally breathtaking. I looked at it for ages. Resolved all the way to the core at x57 and x150 magnification. Saturn’s edge-on rings were knife sharp and there was some vague detail on the planet, and a whole lot of moons. The sky was too bright to see any galaxies. Everything else I tried popped up in the middle of the eyepiece, so I am sure they were there!

The longer term plan is to put it on a wedge for photography and even longer term plan is to find a way so it is permanently set up. I am not looking to upgrade this scope – my suburban sky does not merit anything bigger or fancier – but I am delighted with it. It just feels right – precise and smooth and everything where it should be. The only niggle is a searchlight-like power LED, often in the eyepiece eye-line, but a careful dot of black paint will fix that.

Astrophotos will follow, I am sure.

• Just finished my 2nd run of week 2 with #getrunning – 29 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Thursday 13th. #
• Just finished my 1st run of week 2 with #getrunning – 29 minutes of exercise and 9 minutes of running. Next run: Tuesday 11th. #

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