Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph (Brian Boyle)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Monoceros (Mon) · Contains: Christmas Tree Cluster · NGC 2259 · NGC 2264 · The star 15 Mon

Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph, Brian Boyle

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Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph

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Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph

The first decent night in 2021. IrRaced 250km home from a backcountry trip in the Hollyford Valley, to let my partner's bright 13-yr old niece (Charlotte) take some astrophotos with my telescope.

We took quick (20 x 60sec subs) snaps of the Horsehead, Rosette and M42 in twilight. While not up to the standard of this site, she was delighted to see the images of these objects on my iPhone as they came in - with all targets easily visible.on my iPhone. Charlotte was keen to learn about each object; taking in stories of star birth and death, gas and dust in the galaxy and Universe more broadly. All to the backdrop of images and visual observing using a pair of 8x40 binoculars.

We then went on to do a deeper image of the Cone and Fox Fur, with Charlotte eager to learn how "proper" astroimaging - including the processing. By this time it was past midnight, I was simply left the telescope to "do its thing". I was going to get back up at 3am to close things down and shut up the observatory, but my long day got the better of me, and I rescued a telescope pointing below the horizon around 7am.

The first result is here. And I think it is pretty good for a first attempt - albeit with a bit of help.

Nevertheless, we now have a 13-yr old girl who wants to be an astrophysicist.

And that was the best - and most important - part of last night. We are so lucky to be able to do this.

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Status	Advanced failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8990975
PixInsight job	7NGNHSHQ6ERNPYT7997TYC4G7WUZMEHR
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph

Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph

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Cone and Fox Fur: Charlotte's first astrophotograph

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