March 31st 2215 GMT Deep Sky Session
My final action of the month was a Deep sky Session with my Seestar S50. It was amazing, taking in objects in Ursa Major, Virgo and many others.
First was the Owl nebula, a planetary nebula in Ursa Major.
Next with the S50 was a stack of 3 images of the galaxy M108.
I stacked 3 images of the galaxy M109 from the Seestar S50.
My next target with the Seestar S50 was the galaxy M94.
I stacked 3 images of the spiral galaxy M100.
I had another go at M94, stacking 2 images.
My next target was the galaxy M102.
I moved to the next S50 target, the galaxy M85.
The Seestar S50 found the Black Eye Galaxy (M64) which has a dark dust lane near its core.
I then used the S50 to capture M98.
I captured M99 and stacked 3 images.
I captured the galaxy M88 with the S50 and stacked 3 images.
The last image from the Seestar S50 was a stack of 3 images of the galaxy M91.
The Seestar S50 found the Black Eye Galaxy (M64) which has a dark dust lane near its core.
The last image from the Seestar S50 was a stack of 3 images of the galaxy M91.
March 31st Moon and Jupiter
I photographed Jupiter's moons with the Seestar S50.
I then photographed the Moon. taking several photos at zoom levels 1x, 2x and 4x.
March 31st 0825 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second, as usual.
March 30th 2100 GMT Seestar Session
Conditions were clear when I looked out but clouded over once I was ready. I was unable to find Jupiter.
I snapped M108 and M109 but was unable to expose for long.
I tried M97 but could not take an image, even though I could
see it on the screen.
At least the cloud cleared near Jupiter and I was able to
have another go.
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure, as usual.
March 29th 0900 GMT Solar Eclipse
There was some cloud around. I did a normal solar photo with my Maksutov telescope and DSLR camera at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.
The plan was to take a few photos every few minutes during
the eclipse.
At 1015 GMT the sky cleared enough for me to photograph the eclipse.
At 1030 GMT, the moon covered a bit more of the solar disc.
At 1045 GMT, the eclipse reached its greatest coverage, at least according to my photos.
Just after 1100 GMT, I switched to my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length.
By 1115 GMT, the moon was noticeably disappearing from the solar disc.
By 1130 GMT, the eclipse was nearing the end.
My last eclipse photo was at 1145 GMT and that was that, until the next time.
March 28th 2030 GMT Seestar Session
It was a clear night, so I had a long go with my Seestar S50. My main target was deep sky objects but I also had a go at Jupiter. I started the session outside near the front of our house then brought it to our back garden to aim at different objects. At the end of the session, I ran out of battery but not before taking a bucket load of images.
My first target with the Seestar S50 was M31. The image did not enhance after 2 minutes, so (for the first time), I stacked 3 images to get this result.
I tried to photograph Jupiter with the S50 but did not get any detail on the planet's surface. I got s nice, clear shot showing three of its moons.
M42 showed well with a 2 minute exposure and I also caught the nearby M43 (on top). I was especially pleased with this image.
By contrast, M78 was a disappointment, although I did capture it. I used 2 minutes exposure with the S50.
The S50 took two minutes for M36 and I used GraXpert to remove the background before processing.
The S50 took one minute to enhance M37. I also used GraXpert.
The S50 also took one minute to enhance M38. I also used GraXpert.
M50 took two minutes to enhance with the Seestar S50.
I caught the Rosette Nebula with the S50 but not all of it. This was a stack of 3 images.
The S50 took 2 minutes to enhance the open cluster M67 in Cancer. Again, I used GraXpert.
I went for the galaxy M82 with my Seestar S50 and took a 5 minute exposure. Pleasantly surprising, GraXpert did not mess with the galaxy details and I also caught M81 in the same image.
The galaxy M63 took 7 minutes of enhancement with my Seestar S50.
I imaged the galaxy M101 with the Seestar S50 before the battery ran out. It took 5 minutes exposure.
March 26th 2130 GMT Deep Sky Session
I took my Seestar S50 outside to shoot some deep sky objects. There was cloud around but some objects showed better than others.
First was a 4 minute exposure of the galaxy M81 in Ursa Major. It was badly affected by cloud but I still managed to capture it.
I tried to photograph the double star Cor Caroli but it only appeared as a single star.
There was less cloud in Leo. I aimed for the galaxy M65 but caught the galaxy M66 (lower left)n with it. I used 6 seconds exposure.
Staying with Leo, I photographed the galaxy M95 but the image did not enhance after a minute.
The nearby M66 took 6 minutes exposure.
To complete the lesser-known Leo galaxy triplet, I photographed M105 (to the right) and was pleasantly surprised to capture two companion galaxies to the left.
I made a brief visit to the Virgo supercluster and captured the giant elliptical galaxy M87 with my Seestar S50 at 6 minutes exposure.
Next was the double star Algeiba, in Leo. The bright star at the top of the photo is the primary star and the one at the bottom, just to the right of centre is the secondary star. All other stars are background stars and there is a mystery object to the bottom left that needed further investigation. It was 3 minutes exposure with the Seestar S50.
My attempt to split the double star Cor Caroli failed. So did my attempt to split Castor. I think it was overexposure.
I did not catch any detail on Mars, as it was well past opposition and showing a very small disc.
I had one success in Gemini with my Seestar S50, as I captured the excellent open star cluster M35 with my Seestar S50 at 3 minutes exposure.
March 26th 1000 GMT Sun
The professional observatories showed a nearly blank Sun. I
had a go anyway with my Maksutov telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. I only captured a cloud.
March 25th 0535 GMT Moon
I snapped the dawn Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.
March 24th 2235 GMT Deep Sky
It was first light for my new Seestar S50. I started off with the Beehive cluster (M44). I used 2 minutes exposure with no complicated settings.
Next was the globular cluster M3 at 5 minutes
exposure.
I finished with the galaxy M51 at 10 minutes exposure.
March 20th 2030 GMT Jupiter
The weather forecast was for clear sky but it was lying. I
could see Jupiter and Mars, well barely.
I tried to capture both together with my phone camera at default settings. I actually, did, despite the conditions.
I tried to capture Jupiter's moons with my DSLR and new
intervalometer at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. My first
look suggested I had caught just haze. I found a single moon in the photo.
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 19th 0830 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 19th 0005 GMT Moon
I photographed the waning gibbous Moon, low in the east with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure.
March 18th 2210 GMT Leo
I photographed the constellation of Leo with my DSLR camera at 18mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds exposure. Unfortunately, when I tried to stack the images, it did not align them properly, introducing some "double stars" that did not exist. I used GraXpert to tidy up before finishing in GIMP. I did the same with Virgo.
March 18th 0940 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 16th 0945 GMT Sun
There was moving cloud around but I managed to photograph the Sun at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The stack did not work, so I processed a single frame.
March 15th 2210 GMT Moon
I photographed the Moon with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and1/1000 second exposure.
I kept looking for Venus but I finally found it low down in the trees. A binocular scan showed a thin crescent but the trees made it very difficult and decided it was not worth trying a photograph.
March 15th 0845 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my PST and DSLR at automatic settings then 45mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/40 second exposure. The PST was at 12.5x magnification The automatic settings showed some detail in read and green but the manual settings did not.
March 14th 1200 GMT Sun
There was a lot of cloud around, so I checked it out with my binoculars and filters and recorded three sunspots.
March 13th 2220 GMT Moon
The sky finally cleared enough for me to photograph the Moon. I took a series of shots at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.
I added a Barlow lens and changed the settings to 4.62m
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure to take some regional
close-ups.
The first close-up showed Grimaldi, a lava-flooded crater.
The second shows Tycho, a crater famous for its ray system.
The third image was of the "sea" Mare Crisium.
The fourth image was of the walled plain Plato and the semicircle Sinus Iridum, translated as "Bay of Rainbows".
March 13th 0855 GMT Sun
There was a period of bright sunshine that turned out to be temporary. I had enough time to photograph the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 13th 0855 GMT Sun
There was a period of bright sunshine that turned out to be temporary. I had enough time to photograph the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 12th 2200 GMT Moon
After a wet day with hail, the Moon was dominating the night sky. I snapped it with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
March 9th 1915 GMT Moon and Mars
I was hoping to do a lunar shoot later in the evening but it had started to cloud over.
I photographed the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
I photographed the Moon with Mars with my DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/40 second exposure. I was not sure whether I had caught Mars, so I tried another set of shots with 1/20 second exposure.
Nothing worked as all photos were too fuzzy in the conditions.
March 9th 1840 GMT Venus
Venus was low in the west in the twilight sky. With a bad weather forecast for the next few days, it could have been my last photo opportunity before it got too close to the Sun.
I photographed it with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
March 9th 1110 GMT Sun
There was a lot of thin cloud but it appeared even. I used my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I used a longer exposure to counteract the cloud.
March 8th 2350 GMT Moon and Mars
The Moon and Mars were very close in the sky. There was some cloud around, scattering the moonlight. I photographed the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I photographed the Moon and Mars together with my DSLR
camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 8th 1000 GMT Sun
There was a bit of haze around but I managed to photograph the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 6th 2325 GMT Moon, Mars and Jupiter
After a cloudy and sometimes wet day, it finally cleared.
I photographed the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I photographed the Moon with Mars with my DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/40 second exposure. Unfortunately, it was underexposed.
I photographed the Moon with Jupiter and Mars with my phone
camera at default settings.
I photographed the Moon with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. This was a very rare case where the image I photographed with my DSLR alone was better!
I used my phone camera at default settings to catch the Moon
with Jupiter and Mars.
March 5th 1840 GMT Moon, Venus and Jupiter
It was dusk and Venus was low in the west. I set my DSLR
camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure and
photographed the Moon and Venus separately.
I changed my settings to 70mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/40
second exposure to photograph the Moon and Jupiter together.
Venus, the Moon and Jupiter just fitted into the field of view of my phone camera, so I photographed all 3 at default settings. Although phone cameras are supposed to auto-focus, this one clearly didn't.
March 5th 1315 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera
at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 4th 2045 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Mars
I photographed the Moon with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure. The stack did not work but I was not disappointed with the result from processing a single image.
I increased the exposure time to 1/200 second exposure to photograph Jupiter. The stack worked and I caught the cloud belts, not usual for a camera-only shot.
I used my phone camera at default settings to capture
Jupiter and Mars together.
March 4th 1840 GMT Moon, Venus and Jupiter
I snapped the 3 objects together with my phone camera at
default settings.
March 4th 1120 GMT Sun
I used my Coronado PST telescope afocally with my DSLR camera at 40mm focal length and automatic settings to photograph the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. I could not detect any prominences in the red data bit the green data showed some sunspots and surface detail.
I took another set of shots at 40mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/25 second exposure. I did not obtain anything useful from these shots.
I photographed the Sun in white light using my DSLR camera
and filter at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.
March 3rd 2000 GMT Jupiter and Mars
I took some shots of Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera at default settings.
March 3rd 1810 GMT Moon and Venus
I photographed the Moon and Venus separately with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
March 3rd 1840 GMT Moon, Venus and Jupiter
I snapped the Moon and Venus with my phone camera at default settings.
I then did another series of shots with Jupiter added.
March 3rd 1420 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun in hydrogen alpha light with my
Coronado PST telescope used afocally with my DSLR camera. The first set of
photos was with my camera at 40mm focal length at automatic settings.
The second set was at 40mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/25 second exposure.
I processed a shot from each of the second and third sets but caught almost no detail in either image.
March 3rd 0845 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 2nd 2250 GMT Leo
I snapped Leo with my phone camera at default settings. It did not work.
March 2nd 1810 GMT Moon and Venus
I snapped the Moon and Venus separately with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. Only the moon shot showed a phase.
I photographed both together with my DSLR camera at 70mm
focal length, ISO 400 and 1/40 second exposure.
I could see neither Mercury nor Saturn but used the same
settings to see if either or both might appear on camera. They didn't!
March 2nd 0845 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 1st 1820 GMT Moon and Venus
The Moon and Venus were close. Mercury was theoretically visible but behind cloud. I photographed the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.
I photographed Venus with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
I photographed the Moon and Venus together with my DSLR
camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/50 second exposure.
March 1st 1210 GMT Sun
I took out my Coronado PST telescope to photograph the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. I used my 32mm Plossl eyepiece to give a magnification of 12.5x.
I took some shots with my DSLR camera at default automatic settings with various focal lengths from 18 to 45mm.
Despite my best efforts at processing, I was unable to extract much detail.
March 1st 0930 GMT Sun
When I wake up to bright sunshine and I do not have any time
constraints, there is only one thing to do! I photographed the Sun at my usual
settings with my Mak and DSLR of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second
exposure. There were some small sunspots around.
Not for the first time, I tried to capture close up images
of the Sun using my Maksutov telescope and Angeleyes electronic eyepiece. I
started off with a slow laptop and I was unable to find focus in the bright
sunlight. I needed a rethink.
March 1st 0445 GMT Lyra and Cygnus
I photographed Lyra and Cygnus with my phone camera at default settings, starting off the month. I did not capture enough stars to stack and caught just Vega and Deneb with a few background stars.
