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 curent 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

2024

January

We had a stunning display of Nacreous Clouds on December 21st 2023 and this is a panorama stitched from 4 iPhone 13 Pro images. I (Paul) even got several neighbours out looking and some passer-bys walking their dogs! Nacreous Clouds (also known as Mother of Pearl) or more properly Polar Stratospheric Clouds form in the lower stratosphere over polar regions when
the Sun is just below the horizon. They can only be seen over the UK when a large mass of extermeley cold polar air moves south over us.

February

With light pollution slowly eroding the night sky to the south, it was time to invest in a Quad band Astrophotographic filter from Altair Astro and this is part of the frame from an image taken on January 30th 2024 using the RedCat 61 WIFD refractor, Quad filter, Canon CR6 mirrorless camera on the Skywatcher Star Adventurer II tracking mount. It is a stack of 298 x 30 second exposures @ ISO 3200 stacked with AstroPixels Processor and post processed in PaintShop Pro 2023.

This has, to date, to be the best image Paul has taken of the Horsehead and Flame Nebula region!

March

After the wonderful Nacreous Clouds display in the afternoon of Dec 21st, reports began circulating on social media on the evening of December 24th that there were Nacreous Clouds affecting the moon and creating an unusual and rare spectacle. This is the view taken with an iPhone 13 Pro Max of the colourful display. The green dot just lower right of the overexposed lunar disk is a reflection of the moon in the camera lens whilst the bright star to the upper centre right is actually Jupiter.

April

This is a recovered image from a hard drive crash a few years ago which I thought I'd never see again. I lost 2 years worth of astro images for 2012/13 and in that selection were also daylight images taken when I was away doing the Northern Lights Flights with Omega Holidays.

Recently I was able to retrieve some images and low and behold, there was my panorama of the two original Forth Bridges taken on March 21st 2012. The construction of the latest bridge, the Queensferry Crossing, was just in its initial stages so only the two original bridges can be seen here. On the left is the Forth Road Bridge whilst on the right the iconic Forth Railway Bridge.

May

Looking forward to the summer astro targets and this region is always worth going back to. It's the North America nebula (NGC 7000) with the smaller Pelican Nebula to it's right and to their upper right the brightest star in Cygnus, Deneb.Taken on July 8th 2023 with the WO RedCat 61 refractor on a Star Adventurer tracking mount, 103 images @ ISO 3200 and 20 seconds exposure with the Canon R6 camera.

June

This months POTM had to be about the stunning auroral storm of the night of May 10th/11th 2024. The image shows the Auroral Corona, the aurora crown which Paul has a seen on just three previous occasions but finally photographed with the Canon R6 and a wide angle 16mm f4.5 lens 10s @ ISO 200. The aurora was so good Lorraine came out on her mobility scooter to witness it although Paul had to steer it as she can't see well in the dark. But even with Lorraine's eyesight, she could describe it and indeed some colour, it was that bright. Our neighbours, Richard and Ellie also came round and we all marvelled at the display that covered much of the night sky, a night to remember!

July

A view across Ennerdale Water in the Lake District taken back in April 2022 with the iPhone 13 Pro Max.The distant snow capped peak towards the centre is called 'Pillar' standing at 2,927 ft

August

This the Garnet star and the nearby nebula which includes the Elephant Trunk Nebula. It was taken with the WO RedCat 61 WIFD refractor, Quad band filter and Canon R6 camera mounted on the Star Adventurer 2i tracking mount. It is a stack of several imaging sessions taken in early June despite the light nights and is a total stack of 256 images x 60 sec exposures at ISO 10000, processed with APP and post processing with PSP 2023.

September

Although Lorraine and I enjoy seeing our Butterflies return each year, we do look out for interesting moths too and this one was spotted in the house on August 13th and turned out to be fairly rare for Lincolnshire. It is an Orange Swift Moth, Triodia sylvina.

October

I (Paul) had a surprise on August 26th 2024 when he spotted a caterpillar (Large White) climbing up the garage side door and thought to himself, 'you won't find much to munch on up there'. 2 days later it had become a Pupa (second panel from left) so we kept an eye on it. By September 17th it had darkened considerably along with clear cut signs of what we assume must be the wings forming. Then on the next day we were caught out as the Butterfly had emerged from the pupa and had already unfurled its wings. It was a male Large White and next thing just an hour or so later it had flown. Nature at its most awesome!

November

This is Messier 16, the Eagle nebula in Serpens and has been featured before as a POTM but this is a new view taken over several nights in August 2024. It was imaged with the StarGate 500, Canon R6 camera using Tri and Quad band filters to help enhance the nebulosity, 430 images @ 10 sec exposures and ISO of 20000 stacked using AstroPixels Processor and final post processing with PaintShop Pro 2023.The famous Pillars of Creation stand out well along with plenty of other features.

December

This is Honister Pass in the Lake District taken on our most recent holiday there on October 30th 2024. This is the view looking back up towards the slate mine and so we're on the Buttermere side of it. Taken with the iPhone 13 pro max.