{"id":22209,"date":"2026-02-24T21:06:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22209"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:07:34","slug":"clear-skies-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22209","title":{"rendered":"Clear Skies, at Last!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And here are some pictures from our Dwarf Mini. All taken from our light-polluted suburban back garden, with a bright half-moon. The scope was plonked down on our patio table, and left to get on with it. No special mounting or alignment needed.<br \/>\nFirst (and best!), M42 aka the Orion Nebula:<a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22210 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1029\" height=\"1056\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise.jpg 1029w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise-292x300.jpg 292w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise-998x1024.jpg 998w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/m42-2025-02-24-cropdenoise-768x788.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The scope took 32 shots each of 15-second exposure, 28 of which were usable and stacked together. Quite remarkable, especially compared to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roast.iconbar.com\/graphics\/galleries\/deepsky\/orionneb1.html\">our photo of M42<\/a> taken with a large professional telescope at COAA during our visit in 2001.<br \/>\nNext up, the Flame Nebula. A lot fainter, so needed a contrast boost:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22211\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/flameconboost.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/flameconboost.jpg 900w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/flameconboost-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/flameconboost-768x640.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/>Here&#8217;s Jupiter with the four Galilean moons, showing the Dwarf Mini isn&#8217;t really meant for planetary imaging. Left to right: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io (checked with Stellarium):<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22212\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stacked-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/>And lastly, the good old Moon:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22213 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/moonraw.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"555\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/moonraw.jpg 555w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/moonraw-292x300.jpg 292w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 555px) 85vw, 555px\" \/>A2 is rereading <em>A Scanner Darkly<\/em> by Philip K Dick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And here are some pictures from our Dwarf Mini. All taken from our light-polluted suburban back garden, with a bright half-moon. The scope was plonked down on our patio table, and left to get on with it. No special mounting or alignment needed. First (and best!), M42 aka the Orion Nebula: The scope took 32 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=22209\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Clear Skies, at Last!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22209"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22238,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209\/revisions\/22238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}