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A few months ago I was asked if I would be interested in joining a party to Belize to prove a theory on the Mayans and Meteor Showers.The group comprised of Astronomers David Asher and Miruna Popescu, along with Mayan expert Hutch Kinsman. The idea was to stay overnight at the Caracol site in Belize and observe the Eta Aquariid Meteor shower from the A 3and A6 complex. We were to show that the Meteor shower was seen by the Mayans, and that it was a very important event from the Heavens for them. Hutch was able to read the...

My remote Observatory in France is almost complete. After seeking the help from the Star Gazers Lounge Forum with Mount Issues, and Communications, it turns out that I had a Ground Loop problem on the USB comms cable from the Eagle to the Mesu.I solved the problem by adding in an Opto-Isolator on the USB cable. This blocked the ground voltage that was interrupting the Comms. Some settings needed to be changed also on the Control and Settings for the Mesu SiTech Software to track the mount correctly.The observatory works remotely now from my PC at home, and a first...

I was asked if I could take a photographer out on a night shoot as a present.I had suggested that we attempt a Milky Way Arc shot from the West Coast. Given the weather and the need to do this on a weekend, the choice of dates were limited.In April we had a decent forecast of clear skies in Mayo, so we headed to Achill island. We had clear skies all night which was excellent. After a 45min hike up from Keem beach we settled in for a 4 hour shoot of the Milky Way. We had to wait 3...

The Dual Tak observatory which was available to guests in France has now been changed to a Dual TEC manual observatory where we now have two 140mm TECs with a focal length of 1m gathering data on the same Mesu mount.I did not have a spare camera to offer up so Steve Milnes has joined in as part of the team by donating his Moravian camera. We now share the data between the three of us.The guiding is excellent with this set-up, and by moving up to 1m focal length this has now opened up a whole new list of...

Congratulations to all the winning images at this years Astronomy Photography Awards in London.While we did not win a prize this year, myself and Olly Penrice were shortlisted in the Galaxy category for our "IC342 Hidden Galaxy photo taken last December.Further to this, our 400hr Orion mosaic was selected for the 10 year Anniversary exhibit which will be on show until next year, along with the winning images from this years competition. Click here to see them