Planned photography in the next few months
Moonrise over Bridgwater
If the weather permits, I hope to capture the moon rising over a backdrop of my hometown. There are only 1 or 2 evenings a month when the near full moon rises at just the right time when the sun is still up to light up the background landscape
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
The most well known and easily recognised spiral galaxies in the heavens. It requires a lot of exposure time to bring out detail. This will be my second attempt to improve on it. The galaxy is visually smaller in size compared to all other galaxies I've imaged. With this in mind, Im going to need a decent quality image in order to zoom in on the image and crop it a bit.
Virgo / Coma Berenices galaxy cluster Widefield
In the area of sky between Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices there is a large cluster of countless galaxies some of which I hope to capture in a widefield shot
Globular Clusters (M3, M92)
As well as galaxies, springtime brings round the first of the globular cluster season. M3 being my first target which I suspect will be followed by M92 for a photographic comparison. Thankfully, globulars are easier to photograph than Galaxies and Nebulae
Planned Summer 2008 Photography
-Partial Lunar Eclipse
-Milky Way Widefield
-Great Hercules Cluster
-Telescopic shot of Arcturus (a bright spring/summer star)
-Telescopic shot of Vega (another bright summer star)
-Veil Nebula Widefield
-Perseus Double Cluster Widefueld
Planned photography history
The Bubble Nebula
Semi-Successful
When I say semi-successful, I mean that I found my target and got the camera snapping away at it. However I only managed to get a tiny hint of the elusive object on the picture. Even with a whole bunch of 90 second exposures you can hardly make out the bubble and have decided not to upload the result. I'll have another attempt at it next winter but it does seem a difficult target for SLR camera's which are not very good at showing Hydrogen Alpha (which the bubble nebula is primarily made of).
Pleiades (aka The 7 sisters)
Successful see Deep Sky Section
Jupiter's Red Spot
Successful see Planets Section
The Sombero Galaxy (M104)
Unsuccessful Too low on the horizon from my location
Milky Way (Cygnus area)
Successful see Here
Sunrise on Plato
Successful see Moon Section