Some takes of the Sun granulation and several Sunspots (may 5th):

Big: Grayscale - Coloured

Varuna is a transneptunian object with a diameter of about 800km: it is much smaller than Pluto and it is much more far away.

The biggest known transneptunian objects (Wikipedia)

It has yet not been classified as a dwarf planet, but some reasearchers point out that it should be included into that category. To do so it is necessary to make telescopical observations of the TNO. The most important observations occur when the object crosses over a star reducing its brightness.

Some days ago we received a notification of Varuna would be eclipsing a magnitude 16 star near the Gemini constelation. The brightness of the star would be reduced more than 4 magnitudes and what it would be better, the occultation could have been visible from our latitude.

We have been quite busy the last few months constructing a rover-like structure to be able to handle the 25'' dobsonian with its equatorial mount more easily. Until now, getting out with all these equipment was a very hard work as one had to put the telescope over the platform by brute force... and the telescope is quite heavy and bulky! 

With this last invention we have solved the main problems in handling such big equipment... we even have a table and a tent to minimize coldness!

Enjoy the video! By the way, all outdoors takes have been filmed in Chirivel, Almería, Spain.

For the last 2 weeks Zerjillo has taken a course about iOS programming (the operating system for iPads and iPhones). Altough he is no big fan of those technologies (too close for him) he has been practising to develop a INDI Client for the iPad. He has a current version that works pretty good, although some improvements can be made (specially aesthetic ones).

We don't know if the App will ever reach the Apple Store, since he is not willing to pay the developer license (at least at this moment). However, here we post some snapshots of the application for you to enjoy:

A new image from a few days ago. Good seeing allowed us to capture this still of the giant with a f greater than f40:

Iridium are a set of communication satellites for satellite phones and similar devices on the Earth. Due to their low orbit (around 800 km above surface) and their peculiar shape, with three flat and polished door sized antenna sometimes they reflect the Sun light creating a 10 kilometer diameter light spot on the surface.

As many people know, a transit occurs when one of the inner planets of our solar system (Venus or Mercury) stands between us and the Sun. This phenomenon is quite rare in the case of Venus which produces one transit every 8 and 105 years respectively.

Unfortunately on this occasion the event of June 6th, 2012 was not visible in most of the Spanish territory and only in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands were able to enjoy the final minutes of it. Living in Granada, we were resigned not to see it. The last transit of our lives and in the case of Sergio, the last chance to see his first.

Some quick photographs of some Sun spots of the past May 9th. f20 and f40 respectively. Telescope: LX200R. Seeing: 6/10.

Today we present our first images of the Sun. They are a composition of 11 takes of different parts of the Sun using a Coronado PST and a color camera IMG132E (which Lunático has lent us in order to test it). Click on them to view a larger version.

After a fairly dry winter, spring hasbe come more unstable. It is difficult to do any astronomy these days and only when there is a gap in the clouds we can photograph planets and some deep sky objects.
In the following we show some images of Saturn, Venus, the globular cluster M3 and the Eskimo Nebula (the last one was shot in February). You can find the technical data in the images.