Astro photography

Apr 22

Ian Morison

By KevinB Astro photography, Competitions, News No Comments

Another happy memory of Ian – as past Club President, Ian is conducting the Mayor of Macclesfield, Norman Edwards, round our Annual Exhibition at the library on the 3rd of April 2006. Ian had been President for 6 years or so by this time and previously in Committee roles. He will be sadly missed by many of our present and former members. He contributed so much to the Club with his experience and presentations to us. With his career as a respected astronomy lecturer and tutor at the University of Manchester, and in particular with his important role at the Jodrell Bank telescope, he was able to inform and enthuse many of us into this fascinating world of the stars and the universe, and how it could be recorded in photographs. He was always interesting to discuss matters with, and he had a very easy pleasant and gentle manner with all he met.

Apr 15

Love0

Ian Morison

By KevinB Astro photography, News, Night Photography No Comments

Unfortunately some very sad news from the weekend. Ian Morison has passed on. Ian was a long standing member of Macclesfield Camera Club and was always ready to help out, share his love for both photography and astrophotography. Always ready with a quick tale and to share his skills be it about photography, cameras, lenses or about the latest gear he had acquired. As well as being extremely knowledgeable and a great photographer he was always very self effacing and enjoyed the ability to pass on his knowledge, experience, skill and love of photography.

Amongst his many pleasures, as well as being an active member of Macclesfield Camera Club, Ian was also an active member of Macclesfield Astronomical Society (Macc Astro) and until recently kept a monthly update on what has happening in the night sky on Jodrell Bank web site (Monthly Night Sky).

Our thoughts are with his wife, family and his many friends and colleagues from Ian’s many clubs.

Below is just one of Ian’s many superb images from a trip to New Zealand. Many other of his images can be found on the Macc Astro web site along with those of his friends.

Ian you’ll be greatly missed.

Jun 19

Love1

Camera Club Members Exhibit at Barnaby

By Alison Astro photography, Members Successes, News No Comments

Congratulations to three of our members for putting on two great exhibitions as part of the Barnaby Festival.

Val Lear and Mark Helliwell, in conjunction with Rachael King, have an exhibition following the life of a hoarder with OCD through the medium of photography, video and personal writing. It’s on at the Gateway gallery on Prestbury Road up to and including Sunday 26th June. There will also be a presentation on OCD/hoarding on Saturday 25th from 1-3pm, followed by a mindfulness session to 4pm.

David Tolliday is showcasing his fantastic astro-photography skills with a number of his images on display at Brewtique, 8 Market place, until 26th June. You can also choose from a great selection of beers here if you’re that way inclined.

Please get along to both if you can, they are well worth a visit.

Sep 20

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David Tolliday Wins The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in Astrophotography

By Kevin Lomax Astro photography, Awards, Members Successes, News

Longstanding Macclesfield Camera Club member, David Tolliday, has won The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 competition organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The results were announced on 17th September. David’s image had already been included in a book of winning and shortlisted images.

The image was taken during David’s first serious attempt at astrophotography from a dark sky site in mid-Wales in November 2014.

Chris Bramley, one of the judges, commented ‘To capture such a delicate image of this region in Orion is impressive, but to do it on a first night imaging under the stars is remarkable! A worthy winner’.

More details of the image and award can be found here.

Jul 31

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Camera club member shortlisted for major award

By Conor Astro photography, Awards, News

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer

A photograph of the Orion Nebula and the neighbouring Running Man Nebula taken by longstanding Macclesfield Camera Club member David Tolliday has been shortlisted for The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 competition organised by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The results will be announced at an awards ceremony on 17 September 2015 and the image will be included in a book of award winning and shortlisted images. The image was taken during David’s first serious attempt at astrophotography from a dark sky site in Mid Wales in November 2014 using a Canon 5D MkIII camera and 500mm lens set on an Astrotrac borrowed from fellow Camera Club member Kevin Blake (Thank you Kevin). The time was well after midnight, the temperature was below freezing and there was ice on the tripod and frost covered the camera bag.

The image is a stack of five separate exposures taken at different settings ranging from 5 to 180 seconds at f4 to record detail the different parts of the nebula which have very different brightness levels. The images were edited and combined in Photoshop.