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!

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

2014

January

The Horse Head region of Orion. This was taken over the night of Nov 30th / Dec 1st 2013. The view above shows the traditional view so that you can see the actual Horse’s head. The Brightest star is Alnitak the left hand star of Orion’s belt. Next to it lies the ‘Flame’ nebula NGC 2024 whilst the red nebulosity that allows us to see the Horse Head is IC 434. Stack of 60x2 min exposures at ISO 1600 with a modded Canon 300D and an Equinox 80ED Refractor.

February

A Brimstone Moth taken on July 3rd 2010 and a reminder that warmer times lie ahead for us in the Northern Hemisphere (we hope!). The Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) normally flies at night but this one was disturbed by Paul whilst cutting the hedge. It gets its name from its similar appearance to the male Brimstone butterfly. It has distinctive white spots edged with brown on the upper wing whilst the wings themselves are quite angular in appearance.

March

The frozen and Glacier covered Franz Joseph Lands in the Arctic Ocean. Taken from the Yamal Nuclear Ice Breaker on the North Pole Voyage during July/August 2008

April

Corfe Castle and Village panorama. This was taken February 2011 during a day off between travelling for the Northern Lights Flights. The Castle was a Royal stronghold during the English Civil War and Cromwell ordered its destruction but it was so well constructed that it proved impossible to completely destroy! It lies on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset and is owned by the National Trust, the castle is open to the public. More details can be found by following this link, http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/

May

A new panoramic view of the rock arches at the Ponta de Piedade, south of Lagos in the Algarve. Panorama created from images taken on May 2nd 2005 and stitched together using Microsoft ICE February 2014.

June

Mercury setting: This is a sequence carefully assembled from a set of portrait and landscape shots of Mercury as it slowly set over a tree on May 25th 2014. The first image was taken at 22:15 BST and the last at 22:27 BST. Gaps occur where other pictures were being taken of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Canon 50D, 100-400mm EF lens at 100mm.

July

A previously unpublished image taken by Paul on the morning of July 16th 2012 which captured Jupiter at top right, the Hyades star cluster with Aldebaran at right, Venus just rising above centre and the thin crescent moon with earthshine at the left. The previous morning had also been clear and the Moon lay just below Jupiter and the composite image of that conjunction was featured as the October 2012 Picture of the Month.

August

The six species of Fritillary Butterflies that visit our garden over the years since we began noticing the variety of butterflies in 2000. Top left: White Admiral, Bottom left: Red Admiral, Centre top: Small Tortoiseshell, Centre bottom: Comma, Top right: Painted Lady and finally bottom right: Peacock. Of the six we always see each year the Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Peacock, most years also the Red Admiral. However the Painted Lady sometimes misses a year and the White Admiral has only visited us 4 times since 2000.

September

A lone tree stands proud against a display of Noctilucent Clouds on July 7th 2014 just after midnight. Noctilucent Clouds occur during the summer light nights and are now associated with fine dust particles from meteors disintegrating in the upper atmosphere where ice forms round the residue making them very reflective. Although the sun has set and it is night the NLC’s are so high they are still illuminated by the sun unlike normal clouds hence Noctilucent means ‘night shining’. Each year varies but as a general rule the season begins in May and can carry on into September.

October

This is a view of the star cluster Messier 52, the Bubble Nebula and the general star field around them. It shows how the star density varies due to intervening clouds of dust blocking the light from the stars (upper right half of image) hence fewer stars plus several patches of nebulosity both bright and dark. Modified Canon 300D, Equinox 80, NEQ6 mount. Stack of 19 x 3 min exposures at ISO 400 taken on July 29th 2014.

November

Belmont Moon: This is a view of the Belmont transmitter mast, sited on the Lincolnshire Wolds, which broadcasts digital television along with analogue and digital radio to Lincolnshire, eastern Yorkshire, northern parts of Norfolk and Nottinghamshire. At night it’s bright red warning lights can be seen from a large area of Lincolnshire and some neighbouring counties. It was originally 387.5 m high putting it in the record books as the tallest structure of it’s type for a time in the world but in 2010 it was shortened to 351.65 m, but still remains an impressive site. This view was taken by Paul on November 10th 2013 with an iPhone 4 and has the first quarter moon close to the mast as the view looks over towards the SE horizon.

December

A reminder of warmer months: A panoramic view of the harbour and the Church at Ferragudo in the Algarve, a favourite location Lorraine and I always enjoyed visiting when we had our holidays at COAA, the Centre for Observational Astronomy in the Algarve. This compliments the view taken from across the estuary from Portimao which featured as our November 2002 POTM.