May 2026

May 21^st 2300 GMT NGC6882

After two attempts to capture the moon with the Seestar S50 failed, due to cloud, I photographed the open star cluster NGC6882 in Vulpecula.

May 20^th 0930 GMT Sun

Finally, a fleeting period of clear sky but long enough to capture some videos of the sun, for later stacking.

May 14^th 2050 GMT Venus and Jupiter

Venus and Jupiter were getting closer in the sky. I snapped them together with my phone camera.

May 14th 1100 GMT Sun

The Seestar S50 failed to find the sun, despite recalibration of the compass. I did a binocular scan instead and saw the two close sunspots I had seen before.

May 12^th 2145 GMT Galaxy M90

I photographed the galaxy M90 with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration run of 62 minutes before cloud covered the sky. I felt it needed a much longer integration time but would need to wait until next year for longer periods of darkness.

May 12th 1100 GMT Sun

Despite the clouds,  I managed to take full disc and closeup videos of the sun for stacking.

May 12^th 2315 GMT M99

I tried to photograph the galaxy M99 with the Seestar S50 but the image was very faint. Even stacking in Sequator only produced a faint smudge.

May 11^th 0440 GMT Moon

I photographed the moon with the Seestar S50 by taking a video for later stacking.

May 10^th 2045 GMT Venus and Jupiter

I photographed Venus and Jupiter with my phone camera.

May 9^th 2235 GMT Globular Cluster M5

The afternoon and evening had been rather hazy. As this continued into darkness, I decided to attempt to photograph a bright deep sky object with the Seestar S50. I chose the globular star cluster M5. I managed only 15 minutes integration before cloud moved in again.

May 9th 1135 GMT Sun

The weather stayed clear later than expected. I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50 for later stacking. I was having problems with Newton's Rings, so did not get the contrast I hoped for.

May 8^th 2230 GMT Star Cluster Melotte 111

This session was in parallel with my session on the globular star cluster NGC6229. As Melotte 111 is a particularly large object, it is impossible to fit in the field of view of the Seestar S50, Instead, I used the DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO6400 and 6 seconds exposure. I took multiple images, with the intention of stacking. I stacked 69 images in two stages.

May 8^th 2130 GMT Globular Cluster NGC6229

I had a go at photographing the globular cluster NGC6229 in Hercules with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration of 150 minutes in GraXpert and GIMP. The long integration and process showed a dense core but many outer stars.

May 6^th 2150 GMT Galaxy NGC2903

Despite the moving cloud, I had another go at the galaxy NGC2903, in Leo, with the Seestar S50. I had 36 minutes of integration time before being completely clouded out.

May 6^th Jupiter and Venus

I took some videos of Venus and Jupiter with the Seestar S50 for later stacking but was not convinced that I had captured the phase of Venus.

I also caught Venus and Jupiter with my phone camera.

May 6^th 1305 GMT Sun

Against the weather forecast, the sun was out from behind the clouds. I took full disc and closeup shots of the sun with the Seestar S50.

May 5th 1120 GMT Sun

I set up the Seestar S50 to photograph the sun. I saw two large sunspots but cloud rolled in before i could get any image.

I tried to stack the FITS files for M56 but the result was very faint.

May 4th Reprocessing Images

I tried stacking the FITS files on the Seestar S50 for the galaxy M100 using Deep Sky Stacker. It complained that multiple FITS files were incompatible, so I stacked one. I processed it in GraXpert and GIMP and the result was a bit better than processing the file store on the mobile app. There is also a small galaxy to the bottom right, which I have been unable to identify.

I stacked a FITS file of M31 in Framing mode with the Seestar S50. GraXpert did not work, so I just processed the stacked file in GIMP. By showing the outer arms, I overexposed the nucleus.

May 3^rd 1120 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50 for stacking to produce still images.

May 1^st 2150 GMT Moon

There was a lot of haze around and even Vega and Arcturus looked faint. I had to boost the exposure to capture a video of the moon with the Seestar S50. Nothing else was worth photographing.