Sunday, September 30, 2012

Jupiter and Moon shoot


A clue to my inability to webcam Jupiter’s cloud belts came at 2315 GMT when I checked the planet out with the eyepiece. The belts looked faint, although it wasn’t obvious whether they had really faded or whether it was an atmospheric effect. I tried a few digital camera shots at various magnifications in an attempt to obtain a disc shot.



 I decided to have another go at the Moon and took a few full disc frames in the hope of detecting a change in appearance around an hour after the last shoot.













I went out for a lunar shoot at 2230 GMT and took a few full disc frames with a compact digital camera and a few imaging runs with the webcam.


























I also tried the webcam on Jupiter. Although I captured an unusual moon pattern, the disc detail eluded me yet again!


Second hydrogen alpha shoot September 29th

I checked the Sun again and very little had changed. I took the close-ups somewhat differently.







First hydrogen alpha shoot September 29th

At 1110 GMT I checked the Sun with the PST. There was a large prominence at the top of the image and most of the rest of the activity was centred around the sunspots. There was a nice region of faculae, though.




Saturday, September 29, 2012

White light solar shoot

At 1050 GMT I did a white light shoot with the Mak. Not only did I notice sunspot activity from the day before but new sunspot activity had emerged that wasn’t even visible in the Big Bear images.




Lunar and Jupiter shoot



I was out at 23:30 GMT. The moonlight dominated the sky, so I did some lunar shots and made a half-hearted attempt at Jupiter. The disc shots didn’t work but I managed a shot showing the moons.




Friday, September 28, 2012

Today's sunspot drawing

It cleared in late afternoon but the Sun was low down when I managed to check it with the binoculars. I was pleased to see new activity as the sunspot that had been around for a few days was rotating close to the limb and was not so prominent.





Daylight lunar shot reprocessed



With the continued bad weather, I reprocessed a daylight lunar shot from April 22nd 2010.


Not astronomy related but ...

My astronomy videos are very similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DXjZwZ8Pp0&list=PL--6h1svyG-FeycYHvs0ZwCSHl3LAi1xg&feature=mh_lolz

This is of places I visited on a business trip to Brittany. I also took a few astronomical shots while I was there, see the rest of the blog.
I reprocessed a full disc solar hydrogen alpha shot from April 22nd 2010 and some close-ups. I was able to see a small prominence that I’d previously missed plus some filaments in the close-ups.







Lunar mosaics April 21st 2010



Later, I revisited my lunar close-ups from April 21st 2010. I was able to stitch together 3 independent mosaics, each showing a different region. Again, I found much more detail than in the original photos.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Reprocessed lunar shot

I reprocessed a full disc lunar photo from the next day as my last one (April 21st 2010). Again, I was able to bring out more detail than over 2 years ago.


Solar binocular scan

I bin scanned the Sun in the morning. Despite seeing more activity in the Big Bear images, I could still only see the one large sunspot that had rotated from the day before.