January 2025

January 15th 1955 GMT Moon and Mars 

 

I was going to do a Moon shot with my Mak and DSLR but fog had started to roll in. I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. 

 

I snapped the Moon with Mars with my phone camera at default settings.

I combined the two to produce a composite image.

January 15th 1730 GMT Planetary Shoot

 

Venus and Saturn were close. I could even get them into the field of view of my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length. I set the ISO to 6400 and 1/50 second exposure.

I used the same settings on Jupiter, hoping to catch some moons. Only one shot was sharp enough but the Exposure function in GIMP did the trick.

 

I rest the ISO to 100 and exposure to 1/200 second to try Jupiter. I caught the main cloud belts in one photo.

I combined the two photos to show Jupiter with moons.

I tried Mars with an exposure of 1/100 second. Unfortunately, the resulting disc was too small to show any detail. 

I ended up increasing the exposure to 1/50 second to try Saturn. This did not work either, for similar reasons. 

The Venus and Saturn shot was the only one I realistically expected to work but I'm not adverse to trying things out. I managed to get some cloud belts on Jupiter, which as happened before but is rare. I think the quick shot showed it is potentially possible to catch its moons without any need for a tripod. Cause for more experimentation.

January 15^th 1635 GMT Venus

Venus was high in the west. I snapped it with my  DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

January 15^th 1525 GMT Sun

The sky was clear but the sun was low in the south west, barely above our fence. I checked it with my binoculars and filters and saw what looked like a single, large sunspot.

January 12th 1920 GMT Venus, Saturn, Moon, Jupiter and Mars 

Conditions were somewhat hazy but I was able to do a shoot with my phone camera.

The first was Venus with Saturn at default settings but a zoom of 2.5 times.

 

I reverted to zoom level of 1.0 and took photos of the Moon with Jupiter, Moon with Mars, then all 3 together.

January 11th 1105 GMT Sun 

I photographed the Sun from inside the house, with the back door open. I used my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I only saw small sunspots.

January 10th 2035 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 I tried the shot again later when the sky had cleared.

January 10th 1845 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

I was recovering from illness, so I wasn't ready to go out. I snapped the Moon and Jupiter with my phone camera at default settings from an upstairs window.

January 6th 1655 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

It was dusk and there was some moving cloud around. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure and took some separate shots of the Moon and Venus.

January 3rd 1630 GMT Moon and Venus 

After putting the shopping away, I took my telescope and DSLR camera out.

I photographed the Moon at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I stacked 5 images in Autostakkert and finished in GIMP.

 

When I photographed Venus, I reduced the exposure to 1/500 second exposure. Despite it being theoretically better than the overexposure of the evening before, it did not work.

I disconnected my DSLR camera from my telescope and attached a zoom camera lens. I set my camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure to capture the Moon and Venus. The stack did not work, so I processed a single shot.

January 3rd 1520/1605 GMT Moon and Venus 

I did some shopping and. when I arrived at the car park, I could see the moon very clearly. I could see Venus above it, even though the sun was above the horizon. The sun was still above the horizon when I got back, so I snapped the together with my phone camera at default settings.

January 3rd 1130 GMT Sun 

I had some clear sky again, so photographed 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.

January 3rd 0225 GMT Mars in Gemini 

 I took a few shots of Mars in Gemini with my phone camera at default settings. The images were out of focus, for some reason.

January 2nd 1835 GMT Saturn and Venus 

I used my phone camera at default settings to capture Venus with Saturn. Unfortunately, this did not work.

January 2nd 1640 GMT Moon and Venus 

 The sky was still clear at dusk. Venus and the moon were close. I took some Moon shots with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/125 second exposure.

 

I used the same settings for Venus, perhaps unwisely.

 

I switched to my DSLR camera alone and snapped the two objects together at 45mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/40 second exposure.

 

I tried Jupiter at 45mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/40 second exposure, in the hope of catching something. I( didn't capture any moons (as hoped) but did catch a hint of the cloud belts. This did not load in Blogger.

January 2^nd 1020 GMT Sun

 

I awoke to bright sunlight and got into action immediately. The Sun was showing lots of small sunspots and I photographed it with my 127mm Maksutov telescope and DSLR camera. The settings were 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

January 1st 2250 GMT Sirius, Orion and Jupiter 

I took a few shots of Sirius and Jupiter each side of Orion with my phone camera at default settings. 

January 1st 2050 GMT Jupiter and Mars 

 

I was putting a bag of rubbish out when I noticed that there was some clear sky from Betelguese upwards. I snapped 20 frames of Mars and Jupiter and a few more dark frames.

December 2024

December 29^th 1115 GMT Sun

After what seemed like months but was actually only six days, I saw some faint sunlight coming through a window. Further investigation showed clouds moving across the solar disc. I checked the sun with my binoculars and filters and saw two sunspots. The larger one was accompanied by a smaller one. I produced a drawing of the sunspots.

December 23rd 0805 GMT Moon 

It was clear as dawn was ending. The waning crescent Moon was in the south west. I snapped it with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. However, the images were out of focus.

 Unfortunately, it clouded over after sunrise, so I could not take any photos of the Sun.

December 22nd 2310 GMT Binocular Session 

 The sky was clear but there was a strong, cold wind. I hadn't seen many objects visually for a while. Where better to start than the Pleiades, better known as the Seven Sisters. They looked superb, showing about 80 stars. The star cluster Melotte 20 was striking, too, although their height above the horizon not doing my neck any favours. I also saw the star clusters M34 in Perseus and M36. M37 and M38 in Auriga. I  also saw the Perseus Double Cluster and M35 in Gemini.

I saw two galaxies: the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pinwheel (M33). These clearly showed their bright nuclei and fainter outer arms.

I ended up estimating the brightness of Betelguese as magnitude 0.5.

December 22nd 1655 GMT Venus and Jupiter 

 

I set my DSLR camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure.

I snapped Venus then Jupiter. The Jupiter shots were underexposed but the Venus shots showed a phase. I stacked 5 images in Autostakkert and finished in GIMP.

December 22nd 1100 GMT Sun 

I snapped  the Sun with my DSLR and filter at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. I caught some shading due to sunspots but the image was out of focus.

December 20th 2315 GMT Moon and Mars 

I took some shots of the Moon and Mars with my phone camera.

December 20th 2215 GMT Mars with Jupiter and Orion 

 

I had a quick session with my phone camera. The first set of photos were aimed at Jupiter and Mars. For some unknown reason, the images were out of focus.

The second set of photos was of Orion. I also captured Sirius, a.k.a. the Dog Star.

December 19th 2245 GMT Moon and Mars 

I photographed the Moon with Mars using my phone camera at default settings.

December 19th 1625 GMT Venus 

Venus was visible in the dusk sky. I photographed it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure. Unfortunately, the images were out of focus.

December 19th 0915 GMT Moon and Sun 

There was cloud around but a few clear patches allowing me an opportunity to grab some quick shots of the Moon and Sun.

I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1,/500 second exposure.

I added a solar filter to snap the Sun at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

December 16th 2055 GMT Moon 

I photographed the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

December 16th 2025 GMT Moon with Jupiter and Mars

I used my phone camera to capture the Moon with Mars and Jupiter.

December 16th 1820 GMT Jupiter, Aldebaran and Capella

I caught Jupiter with the brightest stars in Taurus and Auriga. I caught some other stars in both constellations and a hint of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) near the top of the photo.

     

December 16th 0900 GMT Sun 

After a few days of bad weather, I finally had some clear sky and took some full disc snaps of the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

December 13th 1930 GMT Moon 

I tried to capture the Moon with Jupiter. It didn't work.

 I then took some Moon shots with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure, given the very poor conditions. It was not pretty but I was lucky to catch anything at all.

December 6th 0955 GMT Sun 

 

It was almost clear, so I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

December 6th 0130 GMT Jupiter and Mars 

 

As the images on 3rd did not stack. I took several photos with my phone camera again. These almost stacked but not quite.

December 3rd 2315 GMT Phone Camera Shots

I took several images with my phone camera at default settings. The first set of shots did not stack but, by processing a single image, I was able to capture Jupiter, Mars and the constellations of Orion, Gemini and Canis Minor,

I stacked over 20 images of Orion and this worked well. I even managed to show the Orion Great Nebula (M42).

December 3rd 1110 GMT Sun 

The Sun was behind some thin cloud. I snapped it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. I used a slightly longer exposure than usual to counteract the conditions. There was just a hint of a sunspot,

December 2nd 1210 GMT Sun 

I bin scanned the Sun through moving cloud and saw 3 sunspots.

November 2024

November 29th 1250 GMT Sun 

 

There was a fleeting passage of clearish sky. I photographed the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1600 second exposure. I would have been clouded out had I set up my Mak telescope.

November 29th 0740 GMT Moon 

The slim waning crescent Moon hung low in the south east. I snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/100 second exposure.

November 28th 0915 GMT Sun 

The sky was clear, so I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 28th 0650 GMT Moon 

I photographed the thin waning crescent Moon in the dawn sky with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/50 second exposure.

November 27th 2350 GMT Jupiter and Mars 

I used my default settings on my phone camera to take some photos of Jupiter with Mars. I stacked 10 images in Sequator, using dark frames and finished in GIMP.

November 27th 2040 GMT Hyades by phone camera

 

OK, this was an experiment! I used default settings on my phone camera but zoomed by 3x. The idea was to stack about 20 images. It didn't work as well as I hoped but I did catch the main V shape of the cluster.

November 27th 2035 GMT Jupiter in Taurus

I wasn't well enough to do a proper photo shoot so I had a go at capturing Jupiter in Taurus with my phone camera. I was hoping to stack a few images as I had before. The result was not perfect but using Sequator with dark files proved the method.

November 26th 0840 GMT Sun and Moon 

I woke up to clear sky. I snapped the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/200 second exposure.

November 25th 1150 GMT Sun 

I woke up to clear sky but my optimism was quickly extinguished when a shower moved in. However, it passed and I snapped the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure, or so I thought! I had left the ISO setting on 400 from a previous session. I could extract sunspots from a  single image but could not stack.

November 22nd 1010 GMT Sun and Moon 

I woke up to proper clear sky. I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR back to my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

The Moon was high in the west and needed me to be a contortionist to find and photograph. I used my DSLR only at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/500 second exposure.-

November 22nd 0130 GMT Moon 

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. All images were too fuzzy to use.

November 21st 2315 GMT Sirius and Orion 

 

I snapped Sirius and Orion with my phone camera. I stacked six images and captured the main parts of Orion but could not get rid of the haze. I tried GraXpert but it crashed.

November 21st 2310 GMT Moon and Mars 

I snapped the Moon with Mars using my phone camera at default settings. I also caught Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars in Gemini,

November 21st 2230 GMT Jupiter with Betelguese 

 

I took several images of Jupiter with Betelguese with my phone camera at default settings. I also caught Rigel and some other stars in Orion.

November 21st 1630 GMT Venus 

Venus was low in the south west. I tried to capture it with my phone camera at default settings. Whilst I could see the planet visually with ease, it did not record on my camera.

November 20th 1850 GMT Jupiter and Capella

I used my phone camera to capture Jupiter with Capella, the brightest star in Auriga. By stacking 5 images and using GIMP to enhance the image and reveal some fainter stars.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/54157485627/in/dateposted-public/

November 20th 1640 GMT Venus 

Venus was slightly better-placed than it had been the last time I saw it. I snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. Against expectations, I got 3 images to stack and the result suggested an 80% phase.

November 20th 1155 GMT Sun 

 

There was some blue sky about but the Sun was low, in the mist. I photographed it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. I used a slightly longer exposure than normal to counteract the mist.

November 17th 1200 GMT Sun

I bin scanned the Sun through moving cloud and saw the same two sunspots I had seen two days before. They had rotated but were still clearly visible.

November 15th 2030 GMT Moon and Jupiter with planetary moons

 

I used my Mak and DSLR to snap the full supermoon at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

 

I moved to Jupiter and increased the exposure to 1/200 second exposure.

 

I changed the ISO setting to 6400 and exposure to 1/3 second to try to capture some moons.

It was not perfect but I captured all four main Galilean moons. I combined it with the planetary photo to form a composite.

I changed my operations to my DSLR and 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. I went for Jupiter's and Saturn, hoping to capture some moons. I didn't! 

I redid the Moon, as it was a supermoon and I did not think I captured the whole disc. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure.

 

I tried to capture the Moon and Jupiter with my DSLR at 35mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/25 second exposure but Jupiter had disappeared behind cloud. 

I used the same settings to capture the lunar halo.

I combined the halo image with one of the Moon on its own.

November 15th 2000 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

The Moon was full and very bright. I snapped it with my phone camera with Jupiter.

November 15th 1200 GMT Sun

I bin scanned the Sun through moving cloud and saw two sunspots.

November 14th 2255 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Mars 

I used my phone camera at default settings to capture the Moon with Jupiter, then Jupiter with Mars.

November 14th 2000 GMT Moon and Planetary Moons 

I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

 

I photographed Jupiter's moons with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1 second exposure. I did not catch any. 

I tried to capture Saturn's moon Titan at the same settings. I did not catch it, either.

November 13th 2120 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

The forecast cloud thickened but it did not obscure the Moon, nor Jupiter.

I photographed the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

I photographed Jupiter at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. This was underexposed, under the conditions, and I did not capture any details.

 I photographed the moons at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure.

November 13th 1730 GMT Moon 

The forecast clouds were already gathering. I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 13th 0915 GMT Sun 

The Sun appeared to be very quiet, as I photographed it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 12th 2300 GMT Moon 

 

It cleared a bit, so I had another go at the Moon. First up was the lunar disc at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. This did not work, with no lunar disc visible. 

Next was the lunar halo at 70mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/25 second exposure.

 

Then I retried the lunar disc at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure. I only had one decent image.

November 12th 2130 GMT Moon 

The Moon was shining through some thin cloud. By the time I had returned with my camera, the clip had thickened. I ended up with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/25 second exposure and hoped!

November 12th 1305 GMT Sun 

 

It took a long time for the cloud to clear and the Sun was already noticeably low in the sky. I finally caught it with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length,  ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 12th Jupiter, Mars and Sirius 

 

It had cleared ro the south. Betelguese had appeared to brighten a bit, perhaps to about magnitude 0.4.

Mars had brightened quite considerably since I last saw it. I snapped it with my phone camera at default settings with Jupiter and Sirius. For the first time, I had managed to stack phone camera images to show two background stars.

November 11th 2030 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I took my Mak and Angeleyes electronic eyepiece out and did a lunar imaging session. Not everything worked but I saw some interesting lunar closeups on my laptop screen. I converted the movie files in PiPP and stacked using Registax 5.

Meanwhile, Saturn had sunk too low for observation from our back garden.

I turned my attention to Jupiter but cloud rolled in. I switched to my DSLR with my Mak and shot the moons at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure. It did not work, as all shots were blurred.

 I then tried for the planet with the same setup but with ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I caught the two main cloud belts.

 

I was hoping to catch the Moon with Saturn but Saturn was clouded out.

I tried to capture the lunar halo but my initial exposure with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and1/500 second exposure just caught the Moon.

I decreased the focal length to 100mm, with ISO 800 and 1/25 second exposure to catch the halo.

November 11th 1725 GMT Venus, Moon and Saturn

 

I did a quick photo shoot with my phone camera at default settings.

 

I used 8x zoom to capture Venus between two houses.

At 2.8x The Moon and Saturn both appeared in my photos.

November 11th 1650 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

I finally saw the Moon in clear sky and photographed it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

Venus was low in the west and too low to use my telescope on. I switched to my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. As suspected, it suggested a 100% phase.

 

I finally tried to capture the Moon with Saturn but moonlight and twilight conspired to make this difficult. I finally nailed the shot with my DSLR at 100mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 1/25 second exposure.

November 11th 1205 GMT Sun

The predicted clear sky did not materialise. There was lot of cloud, with varying degrees but I managed to see two sunspots through my binoculars and filters.

November 10th 1415 GMT Sun 

Some slivers of pale autumn sunlight broke through some clearer patches of sky. They were neither clear nor broad enough to reveal any sunspots to my binoculars and filters.

November 9th 2325 GMT Jupiter and Aldebaran 

 

The first tiny bit of clear sky in the month showed just Jupiter and Aldebaran. I photographed them with my phone camera at default settings before they vanished! It needed quite a lot of processing in GIMP to extract Aldebaran from the cloud.