30 Seconds of Jupiter

Extreme close-up of 30 seconds of Jupiter from the
unadulterated photo of Ophiuchus in the West (below)

 Saturday night - well, extremely early Sunday morning, really - was spent larking about with a tripod up Madam's Lane!

 Yes, it was another clear night ideal for taking photos of the stars.  Somehow I managed to stay awake past 10:30pm and, just before midnight, made my way up Madam's Lane to the same field where I took the last lot of evening/night sky photos.

 Because there was no Moon, the photos are free of glare enabling the stars to shine reasonably brightly.  There are, however, some glowing artefacts on the horizon which did mask some of the lower, dimmer stars.
 And, if you haven't already discovered, these night sky photos are best viewed in a darkened room.

 Above is the view north out over the North Sea at twenty past midnight.  With the sun barely below the horizon, despite the hour, the few wisps of cloud out there glow faintly from the last of the sun's rays (this photo, along the others, has been brightened a bit). On the far left is Cromer Lighthouse, the band of lights at centre left are Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, then there's a ship of some sort before the lights of Dudgeon Offshore Windfarm, and another ship on the right.
 The sky includes the constellations Ursa Major (taking up the entire left half of the sky pointing towards the bottom right corner), Auriga (half over the horizon on the right), Lynx (between Ursa Major and Auriga, pretty much obscured by the light of the clouds), and Camelopardalis (very faint, above Auriga on the right).


 Below is the view east which includes the whacking great glow of Bacton Gas Terminal several miles along the coast.  The eastern sky has Pegasus looming into the top left quarter with part of Pisces below, Aquarius and Capricornus dancing on the horizon partially obscured by the Gas Terminal glow (Neptune's in there too, somewhere), with Mars shining brightly on the right.  Above the glow are Equuleus, Delphinus, and Aquila the eagle swooping in at the top right.     

 I pulled my finger out and labelled the next two photos.  Lucky, aren't you?!

 Above is the Southern sky with hints of the Northrepps transmitter tower thingy.  As you can see (if you've got your glasses on), the constellations Equuleus, Delphinus, Aquila, Capricornus, Sagittarius, Scutum, Serpens (Cauda) and Ophiuchus getting a look in.  Between Mars and Saturn is Pluto, but the no-longer-a-planet is too faint to be made out here.

 And below, heading West, is the full view of Ophiuchus wrangling Serpens, with Scorpius crawling over the horizon at his feet, and Libra being kept in frame by Jupiter. 

 At almost quarter to one I pointed Camera back over the North Sea and took the last photo of the night which, after much fiddling about in Windows Live Photo Gallery, turned out exactly like the image below, because that's what it is! 

Below is that 30 seconds of Jupiter exposing itself, but this time after a lengthy touch-up!  It's somewhat elongated, or smeared, because it can move quite a distance in 30 seconds...

 And here's a slightly longer exposure with some VERY enthusiastic wand waving:



 There.  That wasn't so bad, was it?