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

2025

January

Moss Force Waterfall, Newlands Pass, central Lake District. Two views, left hand view is from close to the car park where you can then walk and climb up the path to see the rest of the higher sections of the waterfall and the right hand picture is when I (Paul) did that walk up to the first bend shown in the first picture as the path reaches the waterfall and walking just round the bend gives the second view of the higher sections.

February

Our Jade plant, also known as the Money plant (no relation!) surprised us by showing signs of flowering back in November and by January 2025 we had multiple flower heads blossoming as shown here. Very subtle colours on what initially looks like delicate white flowers.Our Money plant acts as a nice reminder of our former neighbour, Paul, who passed away suddenly in March 2022. It was from a small piece that had dropped off his plant and he let me have a couple, this one survived as they are pretty good at being left alone as I (Paul) am usually hopeless at looking after house plants!

March

At the feet of Castor. As the heading implies, this region of space is found where the stars of Gemini form the feet or in this case, foot of Castor, the twin of Pollux. It is a deep image showcasing the various nebulae in the region including a section of Orion at the bottom. The two orange looking bright stars are Propus (Eta Gem) upper centre with the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 433) to its left and further to their left Tejat Posterior (Mu Gem) which has several fainter patches of nebulosity above it. At the very top, half in the shot is M35 and it's smaller companion cluster, NGC 2158. Towards the bottom right is the bright nebula called the Monkey Head Nebula, NGC 2174, technically the monkey head is upside down! Image taken with the RedCat 61 WIFD Refractor, Canon R8 and Quad filter, stack of 208 x 1 minutes exposures @ ISO 10000 taken on Feb 2nd 2025.

April

This patch of nebulosity lies in Cepheus and was imaged with the RedCat 61 WIFD Refractor, Canon R8 and Quad filter, stack of 178 x 1 minutes exposures @ ISO 10000 taken on March 28th 2025. The bright nebula at left is Cederblad 214 (NGC 7822) and the arc shaped nebula to its right is NGC 7762 including a star cluster at the lower end of it in this image. At bottom left is a small nebula nicknamed the Little Rosette nebula and all together some reckon it all looks like a cosmic question mark but I think a deeper image may show more of the nebulosity that gives it that nickname.

May

One from our archives showing the impressive front of Kidwelly Castle. It is an impressive Norman Castle dating from the 12th century and located in the town of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Lorraine and Paul visited it back in June 2004. Lorraine was by then using a walking stick and couldn't climb up to the top battlements but we had a great day there. Our POTM for December 2005 shows the view from the riverbank to the right of this picture giving a good idea of how impressive this castle is.

June

Our POTM this month is a memorial and tribute to Pat, Paul's mother, who passed away on May 25th 2025 aged 84. She will be sorely missed but we will remember the vast number of happy times we shared and this one is the full picture taken of Mum and myself overlooking Haweswater in the Lake District sometime in the early eighties. It was taken by my Dad and also shows Mum's dog, Mitch a Yorkie, at lower left and Dad's dog, Shandy, a Pomeranian. RIP Mum - Paul & Lorraine xx

July

In a double blow, my Father, Keith, passed away a day after we cremated my mother, Pat. Dad made it to 88 yrs old and as a car mechanic pretty much sorted and repaired/maintained almost all my cars from the day I began driving until the mid 2010's. Here he is with me on my wedding day at our reception back in 1998. RIP Dad - Paul & Lorraine

August

Taken back on May 12th & 13th this is a composite of 1052 images stacked and processed in APP and PSP 2023 of the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631. A smaller galaxy lies above right in this image, NGC 4627 and together they remind me of the Whale and bowl of Petunias from 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' 😊
The images were taken with the StarGate 500 with the Canon R8 camera and a Tri filter to reduce background light pollution.

September

This is a wide field view of M16 and M17 with the star cluster M18 near the bottom. It was taken with the Redcat 61 and Quad filter with the Canon R8 camera and is a stack of 110 images @ ISO 10,000. It was taken on August 17th from the dark skies of Fieldhouse Borrowdale where we stayed for the fifth time and had good weather for the first few nights as well as having a good holiday.

October

This is a view of Lowther castle south of Penrith in Cumbria taken with the iPhone 13Max Pro. We were taking a drive out in that general area with the aim of going to Haweswater but found the road closed so turned back then saw a sign for the Castle so followed Askham road and were amazed to see such a good view looking at the north facing side. It was originally Lowther Hall before being rebuilt in 1806 and and is a grade II listed building. We hope on our next visit back to the Lake District to go and see it close up as the gardens look accessible for Lorraine's mobility scooter.

November

Following on from last months Castle photograph reminded me that I had taken a panoramic photo of Tiverton Castle, with St Peter's Parish church at left, back in 2015 when I (Paul) did a speaking tour in the SW. The castle was originally built in 1106 and was converted into a country house after the English civil war. It is open to the public from Easter Sunday until the end of October.

December

As it's December this seems appropriate: The Christmas Tree Nebula. Technically it is upside down as a Christmas tree and is several objects, a star cluster, a bright nebula and the Cone Nebula at the bottom of it or should that be the top of the tree 😊It was taken over multiple nights back in January of 2025 using a Dwarf 3 smart telescope in EQ mode and consists of 947 stacked images taken using the inbuilt duo band filter.