Shaun captures images from outer space – as seen from Culcheth!

SHAUN Jones has lived in Culcheth for 21 years and although some may think he has his head in the clouds, he actually has his feet firmly on the ground.

He’s a big fan of astrophotography – taking photographs of the Moon, planets, stars and distant galaxies – and would like to encourage other locals to take up what he sees as a fascinating hobby.
“I know there are people who are interested and would like to have a go but think that light pollution makes it impossible.
“But this is not the case. I’m only an amateur and I am still learning. But I think some of my pictures are quite good for an amateur.”
Shaun has been interested in science and engineering since he was a youngster Now he is a graduate mechanical engineer, with a BEng in Automotive Engineering and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering.
He uses a Meade LX200 8” reflector telescope with a Nikon D3500 camera for his astrophotography
This means the aperture of the telescope is eight inches in diameter and in astrophotography the larger the diameter, the better, as it allows you to collect as much light as possible.

Shaun is at the mercy of the weather, of course, and astrophotography is quite sensitive to any sort of atmospheric disturbance, whether it be cloud cover, wind or thermals in the upper atmosphere, which can impact the final image. Because of this he uses a technique called “lucky imaging” where you take lots of short exposure frames with the hope that the atmosphere will be momentarily stable in some of them. The software then filters through them and selects the best frames to form the final image.
The Moon and the planets are easier to photograph than the more distant stars – but Shaun will tackle them all.
He has pictures of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus as well as more distant stars and groups of stars and is hoping to capture Mars this year.

Shaun’s telescope may only be a baby compared with NASA’s James Webb space telescope, which recently provided the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the Solar System, but it does provide impressive images of outer space and it should not be forgotten that sometimes amateurs make discoveries that the big boys have missed!
Pictures: Shaun’s images of the Moon and Jupiter – and the telescope he used to take them.