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Welcome to AmateurAstronomer.co.uk

A Bit About Me


I'm an amateur astronomer living in Suffolk, in the UK. I got into astronomy in 2006, after receiving a 3 inch telescope as a gift from my Wife. From that moment on, my passion for astronomy, and particularly astrophotography, has continued to grow.


Whether you are new to astronomy, or have been practising astronomy for many years, I hope that you find some of the content on this website interesting and useful.


"Quos serenitatem aeris" - AmateurAstro_UK

Recent Image

About this image


This image is made up from a stack of sixty 2-minute light frames with dark and bias frames subtracted using Deep Sky Stacker (DSS). The image was processed in DSS and then GIMP. The image was taken on the 25th and 26th of April 2020 using a Canon 450D (ISO 1600) on a 10” Meade LX90 scope with a 0.63x focal reducer and autoguider (PHD2 guiding software using a Philips SPC900NC with a 60mm scope @ f/7 and a 2x Barlow). This is the second time that I have imaged this Deep Sky Object and this time I managed to bring out some of the detail in the spiral arms. I really enjoy looking at images of M51, its orientation to us emphasises the real beauty of a spiral galaxy. It also shows us one of the Universes most calamitous events, namely a pair of interacting galaxies, and one that is in the imaging range of amateur astronomers.

A selection of other images

ISS_Musk_Sats_29th_March_2020
Moon_Waxing_Crescent_March_2020_JD
Venus_25th_April_2020_AA
Belt and Sword of Orion_24th Nov 2017_AA
Orion_Nebula_31st_March_2020_Crop
Orion Nebula_25th_Dec_2019_10s-plus-30s
Leo_24th_April_2020_Stacked_Align_Lum_Sat_GIMP_Crop
20181102_Andromeda_DSS_Stacked_Align_Processed-a_GIMP
Whirlpool_Galaxy_25th_April_2020_AA
Realm of Galaxies 2