Paul & Lorraine's Picture of the Month pages

Our Picture of the Month page began with the June 2002 image of a Peacock Butterfly and each month a picture taken by one of us (mainly by Paul but occasionally taken by Lorraine) is selected to be the current months image. The pictures can be of a wide range of subjects but as you can imagine Astronomy, Nature and Butterflies do tend to dominate! The current months image is below and and below that lies the current years images as a slide show. Past years can be viewed by the buttons at the side of the current months image or in mobile view .

We hope you enjoy the many images and continue to watch out for what images we select for future months and years to come.
Paul & Lorraine

Current: July 2026

Friday June 26th, hottest day of the year for us as our garden reached 35°C and on a brief ​foray into our garden Paul spotted something quickly flutter up and settle on a leaf in the shade of our Lilac bush. First we've ever seen of this but it is a ​Swallow-tailed Moth, Ourapteryx sambucaria. About the size of a Large White Butterfly but quite striking with its 'tail' setting it apart and the thicker body and head. It stayed long enough for Lorraine to come out on her mobility scooter and see it before we both headed indoors as it was too hot outside! This one must be towards the end of its life as it begins with pale yellow wings with slightly darker lines but gradually fades to a white with age.

2026

January

This is a composite image of the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas taken with the StarGate 500 GoTo Dobsonian and Canon R8 camera, cropped from the original. This is only the third confirmed interstellar visitor to our solar system and was confirmed countless times over the last few months to be a comet, not an alien vessel! This image was captured on Dec 20th at 3am 2025 just after closest approach to earth (yet still twice as far away as our sun!) and the same captured data is firstly stacked to give pinpoint stars but a trailed comet, then the same data is stacked on the comet to give trailed stars. The trailed stars are removed from one image and the trailed comet from the other, then the resulting images merged to give a better representation of it against the background stars.

February

February

A wide view of the Veil nebula, a supernova remnant in Cygnus. Taken with the Canon R8, Redcat 61 Apo refractor and Quad filter from Fieldhouse, Borrowdale. Lake District.

March

March

An atmospheric view looking towards Skiddaw, northern Derwentwater and in the distance Bassenthwaite Lake at upper left. Taken with an iPhone 13 Pro max, September 2023 from Surprise View, Borrowdale.

April

April

This is the California Nebula, NGC 1499 just above the star Menkib, Xi Persei. It is a mega stack of 699 images from multiple nights imaging sessions using the RedCat 61 Apo refractor, Canon R8 mirrorless camera and a Quad band filter, stacked in APP and post processed in PSP 2023.

May

May

Not often that I (Paul) catches butterflies 'in the act' but something blue caught my eye on the hedge and naturally I investigated. Two Holly Blue's, naturally a male and female, for once still enough for me to photograph with my iPhone 13 Pro max. A very pretty butterfly, not to be confused with the male Common Blue which we don't see until later in the year. The blue underside with flecks of black are the give away signs of being a Holly Blue.

June

June

Astrophotography has never been easier with the advent of smart telescopes. This image shows the Elephant Trunk nebula in Cepheus, close to the Garnet star. It was taken over several nights with a Dwarf 3 Smart telescope from Horncastle and is a total of 393 images, 30 sec @ gain 80 and final processed image produced on April 23rd 2026. The wide field view taken with a RC61 Apo Refractor and Canon R6 with a Quad filter was featured as the POTM for August 2024. 

July

July

Friday June 26th, hottest day of the year for us as our garden reached 35°C and on a brief ​foray into our garden Paul spotted something quickly flutter up and settle on a leaf in the shade of our Lilac bush. First we've ever seen of this but it is a ​Swallow-tailed Moth, Ourapteryx sambucaria. About the size of a Large White Butterfly but quite striking with its 'tail' setting it apart and the thicker body and head. It stayed long enough for Lorraine to come out on her mobility scooter and see it before we both headed indoors as it was too hot outside! This one must be towards the end of its life as it begins with pale yellow wings with slightly darker lines but gradually fades to a white with age.

Current and previous years

Current 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
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