CLEAR skies over Warrington can mean a busy night for Appleton-based astrophotographer John Morley, who recently captured a comet from his back garden!
Astrophotography is a fascinating hobby that combines photography with astronomy.
John, who has also captured stunning scenes of Andromeda, our closest neighbour galaxy, the North American nebula, the heart nebula and the moon.
He said: “Four years ago, I would not have thought that today I would be out late at night until the early hours, photographing deep space, but here I am doing exactly that.
“Looking up at a patch of sky, wondering what’s there, my curiosity took over and I dived straight in. Taking that first image and looking at the results can literally take your breath away. “Although the first images I took weren’t absolutely fantastic, it gave me something to work towards. Being able to fully understand how a telescope works, how to take long exposures, and how to take calibration frames, which, when all put together with specialised software, give you images you thought only NASA could take.
“Warrington has a few dark areas, although being in the mid-bortle scale of 5/6, Appleton is away from the bright lights of town, and I’m lucky to live where I don’t get much glare from light pollution.
“My setup is a 360mm telescope with a dedicated astronomy camera attached. This gives me a good view of the larger nebulas and our closest galaxy, Andromeda. The mount that I use is an electronic goto mount with a mini computer on it, so when it is set up and aligned with Polaris, the North Star, I can just input a few numbers of a space object and it will automatically point to it.
I won’t bore you with all the other technical stuff that goes with it, but it’s certainly been a long process to get where I am today with all the learning, reading, trial and errors. I do love this hobby and I get great pleasure sharing my images. If you like your sleep, then this hobby isn’t for you! I’ve recently captured the c2025 A6 (Lemmon) comet. Comets are a little harder to image as the comet itself is moving faster than the background stars. Pictured is my 3rd attempt, but due to poor weather here in sunny Warrington, it will probably be my last.
Also pictured are 4 of my favourite images.
The North American nebula.
The heart nebula.
Our moon.
John added: “My dream is to travel around in a camper ( with the Mrs of course) to various dark locations in the UK and Europe imagining objects that I would not be able to get here in the northern hemisphere.
So here’s hoping for clear skies, cold evenings and a mass of wonders waiting to be imaged.
John’s images can be viewed on his Instagram page Johns_astrophotography_
