September 30th 2225 GMT Jupiter and the Hyades
The final session of September started with a shot of
Jupiter at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. I captured two moons.
I set the camera to 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8
seconds exposure to take multiple images of the Hyades star cluster in Taurus.
September 30th 2020 GMT Saturn and Deep Sky
I wasn't expecting any clear sky but I saw Saturn in the
south east. I snapped it with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400
and 2 seconds exposure, hoping to catch Titan. As usual, I took several shots,
hoping to stack them. I had to crop the image due to satellite trails but caught Titan plus another object that could have been another moon or a star.
The sky had unexpectedly cleared to the east. I started off
by taking multiple dark shots at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds
exposure.
I tried for the galaxy M33 but, as I had no means of accurate location, caught the Andromeda Galaxy instead. Again, I took multiple images, hoping to stack.
While hunting around, I caught a faint meteor.
Next, I adjusted the camera tripod downwards and caught the
intended Galaxy, M33. I also caught the open star cluster NGC752 and the constellation of Triangulum. I was not able to remove the gradient without removing the outer part of M33.
I finished with an attempt at the Perseus Double Cluster. I
was not sure I found it but I found a rather nice patch of Milky Way.
September 28th 2140 GMT Saturn and Jupiter
I tried to get images of Saturn by various means. I tried
direct prime focus imaging and afocal projection. The frustrating thing was
that the view through my Mak, armed with a 3x Barlow lens and 32mm
Plossl eyepiece was quite superb. The magnification was 192x and I could see
the rings, nearly edge-on and two cloud belts. I had been unable to reproduce
this photographically. I produced three images.
I changed back to 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3
second exposure, trying for the moons.
I combined the image of Saturn and the image with Titan.
I switched to Jupiter, starting with the planet at 1.54m
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. I did not catch any detail on the planetary surface.
I tried for the moons with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure.
I was hoping to do some constellation shots but could only
take some more dark frames as thin cloud ruined the view.
September 28th 0920 GMT Sun
I woke up to bright sunshine, the day after night
manoeuvres. The Sun was quiet, with only 3 sunspots in my camera viewfinder. I
snapped them with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500
second exposure, as usual.
September 28th 2320 GMT Jupiter and Perseus
Although the sky was still hazy, it had cleared to the east
and Jupiter was higher in the sky. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO
6400 and 2 seconds exposure and tried again. The image was clearer but I still only caught one moon.
I reset my DSLR to 18mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30
seconds exposure. I took some dark frames.
I took a few shots of Perseus and the surrounding area.
Mars had moved into Gemini. I took a single shot of it with
Jupiter.
September 27th 0845 GMT Saturn and Deep Sky
It was clear, although I discovered during the session that
it was not as clear as I thought. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400
and 2 seconds exposure.
I started off with 10 exposures of Saturn, hoping to catch
Titan at least.
Next was Melotte 20, easy enough.
My next target was tougher and I took several attempts to
find it using my DSLR on a tripod. I went for M34. I almost missed it. It was at the edge of the view at the bottom right but it was my best ever shot of the cluster.
I had similar problems finding the Perseus Double Cluster. I
caught something but did not think it was my intended target. The images on my laptop did not show anything.
OK, something easier next! I went for the Seven Sisters.
Onto another hard object, the galaxy M33. Er, no!
It's neighbour M31, better known as the Andromeda Galaxy was
easier to find.
I moved west and probably wished I hadn't! I tried for M11
and M13. Maybe I got Albireo, the bright double star in Cygnus but it could
have been another star grouping.I caught a single frame of the globular cluster M13 and processed it.
Although it was low, I captured Jupiter, hoping to catch a
moon or four but the sky was very murky in the east, near the horizon. I caught just one moon.
So I caught some target objects but not all.
September 26th 1005 GMT Sun
There was a bit of cloud dodging to do but I managed to
catch some full disc shots of the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The stack did not work, so I processed a single photo.
September 26th 0620 GMT Moon
I did a quick Moon shoot with my DSLR at 300mm focal length,
ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
September 22nd 0015 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I took a few shots of the Moon at 1.54m focal length, ISO
100 and 1/500 second exposure. They were a bit out of focus.
I followed up with Jupiter at 1/200 then 1/100 second
exposure. All images were out of focus.
I finished with Jupiter's moons at ISO 6400 and 1/3 second
exposure. The image was out of focus, so I created an image (not to scale) showing the positions of the moons relative to the planet.
September 22nd 2310 GMT Moon and Jupiter
It was hazy and only the Moon, Jupiter and Capella were
visible. I snapped the Moon and Jupiter with my phone camera.
September 21st 1650 GMT Sun
The Sun was low and in thin cloud. I checked it with my
binoculars and saw that the sunspots I had seen two days before had rotated.
September 20th 2120 GMT Moon
After a day with thunderbolts and lightning (very very
frightening), the sky
all apart from the brightest stars and Saturn.
I took some shots of the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
September 19th 1630 GMT Sun
I bin scanned the Sun in hazy conditions and saw two sunspots.
September 18th 2130 GMT Moon
There was a lot of minor cloud moving haze and not much to
say it was more to see. The Moon was bright. I snapped it at my Mak and DSLR at
1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. The stack result was fuzzy, so I processed a single image.
I tried the Moon and Saturn with 18mm focal length, ISO 6400
and 1/30 second exposure. I didn't try hard enough!
September 17th 2245 GMT Jupiter's moons
The almost full moon was dominating the sky. I decided to
tackle the moons of Jupiter with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 2
seconds exposure. I planned to leave telescopic photography when the Moon was
out of the way and Jupiter was better placed.
September 17th 2045 GMT Moon and Saturn
I took some shots of the Moon with Saturn with my phone
camera. They did not show Saturn at all.
I photographed the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.
I increased the exposure time to 1/30 second in an attempt
to capture Saturn. It was less than convincing.
In case my stack did not cover the entire lunar disc, I took
2 sets of shots with my DSLR at 300mm focal length and ISO 100. One set of
shots was at an exposure of 1/1000 second exposure.
The second was at 1/2000 second exposure.
I set the DSLR camera to 100mm focal length, ISO 6400 and
1/30 second to capture both objects together.
Finally, I combined the last photo, with the large photo of the moon and the photo of Saturn to give the composite view.
September 17th 0846 GMT Sun
There was some thin cloud around but I proceeded anyway with
my Mak and DSLR and photographed the Sun at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and
1/500 second exposure.
September 16th 2110 GMT Moon
I started off well enough with my Mak and DSLR aimed at the
Moon at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. The stack did not work, circling forever but a single image was OK.
I also took some lunar images with my DSLR at 300mm focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. These were all out of focus but, as the shot above worked, it was OK.
I caught the Moon with Saturn with my DSLR at 70mm focal
length, ISO 6400 and 1/20 second exposure.
I struggled a bit with my Angeleyes electronic eyepiece at
1.54m focal length. I had to make several brightness and focus adjustments and
had problems connecting to my laptop. Amazingly enough, most of these shots worked!
September 16th 0915 GMT Sun
After overnight rain, it was hazy to start. After it
cleared, I snapped the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings.
Technically and astronomically, it was still summer but it felt more like
mid-autumn.
September 15th 0750 GMT Sun
There was thin cloud around. It did not stop me from
capturing sunspots but I thought I might not be able to photograph faculae. I
used my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second
exposure.
September 14th 2255 GMT Moon and Jupiter
Sometimes sessions are quick and easy, like my solar shoot
earlier in the day. This was anything but, as I struggled with our high fences
and I could not find objects that I usually get quite quickly. Also there was a
lot of haze around, especially near Saturn, making any chance of Titan
impossible.
First up was the Moon at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and
1/400 second exposure.
I increased the exposure to 1/200 second to try to capture
Jupiter's cloud belts. It didn't work and there was only a hint of the cloud belts.
I finished with a few shots of Jupiter's moons at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure. The stack worked on three of the moons but not all four, so I processed a single shot.
I combined the two above shots to form a composite view, as Jupiter's disc is over-exposed in order to capture the moons.September 14th 0845 GMT Sun
I snapped the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I reflected that I had survived
Friday 13th without major incident.
September 13th 2230 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Saturn
The Moon was low in the south west. it was too low for my
telescope, so I used my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second
exposure.
Then it was down to the serious business! The main target
was planetary moons. I started off by taking lots of dark frames at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure.
First was Saturn, well-placed in the south. I took lots of
shots, hoping to stack them. I did not capture Titan.
I changed the ISO setting to 100 and tried exposures from
1/100 to 1/10 second to catch the planet. I just caught a fuzzy ball!
Jupiter was not so well-placed, being low in the east. I
took lots of frames at the original settings to catch the moons. 3 were clearly
visible in my camera viewfinder. I caught yhe moons but focus was not sharp.
I then changed the settings to ISO 100 and various exposures
from 1/200 to 1/100 second exposure to try to capture planetary detail. I didn't but thought I would have better luck when it was higher in the sky.
September 13th 0740 GMT Sun
It was Friday 13th and nothing bad had happened yet,
although there was still a lot of day to go. Meanwhile, I snapped the Sun with
my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings.
September 13th 0440 GMT Betelguese
It was the dreaded Friday 13th. Dawn was breaking but Sirius
was obvious, low in the south east. I could also see Betelguese, Procyon and
Rigel from an upstairs window. Betelguese seemed rather faint at about
magnitude 0.7.
September 12th 2000 GMT Moon and Melotte 20
I snapped the waxing gibbous Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO
100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I snapped Titan and, again, spotted a possible other moon.I took some more shots of Melotte 20, with the intention of
stacking.
September 12th 0730 GMT Sun
The sky was clear, so I did some full disc shots of the Sun
with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
Although the Sun was quieter than recently, I was able to see sunspots quite
easily.
I followed up with a hydrogen alpha shoot with my PST and
DSLR. I took one set of shots at automatic settings. As usual, I processed the green and red data separately.
Next I set the camera to 55mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/20
second exposure.
Unfortunately, there was not much detail in the red data and, on this day, the green data was good but no match for my 127mm Maksutov in white light.
September 11th 2100 GMT Saturn and M31
I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds
exposure. I started off with a set of dark frames. I used these 10 frames plus 10 from September 9th.0
I took a few shots of Saturn, hoping to catch Titan again. I also saw a faint star-like object near Saturn, maybe another moon.
I took some shots of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
I tried to find a few other deep sky objects but was
struggling and called it a night.
September 11th 2025 GMT Moon
The Moon was about to set. I had to walk a few yards from the front of our house
to snap it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second
exposure.
September 11th 1220 GMT Sun
I caught a gap in the cloud but botched the first set of
images my overexposure the Sun. I used my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length,
ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure and tried again.
September 10th 2250 GMT Planetary Moons
It was still clear when I attempted to catch Titan and some
of Jupiter's moons. Unfortunately, cloud interfered with the latter. I set my
DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure and hoped.
The Saturn with Titan shot worked, as the day before.
The sky fuzziness did not help the Jupiter shot, neither did the fact that one moon was very close to the planet. I did a lot of processing to show the two visible moons but the result was rather messy.I tried a different process. It was much clearer but only showed one moon,
September 10th 1925 GMT Moon
After a drenching in the late afternoon and early evening,
the sky cleared. The Moon was very low in the west. I photographed it with my
DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. I only managed one decent image, so processed that with no stacking.
September 9th 2230 GMT Deep sky
Conditions had got worse since my solar shoot in the
afternoon. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds
exposure. I started off taking some dark frames.
I took a few shots of Saturn, hoping to catch Titan. I did.
I took shots of Epsilon Lyrae, with Vega in the same field
of view.
I shot Alcor and Mizar.
I finished with Melotte 20 before thick cloud rolled in for
good.
September 9th 1500 GMT Sun
I did a photo session with the Sun using my Coronado PST. I
took one set of photos at automatic settings and another at ISO 400 and 1/25
second exposure.
The green data showed some sunspots and shading.
The automatic exposure showed just a plain red disc.When I used a lower ISO and shorter exposure, I was unable to get a full disc image but I processed some as partial discs. I did not get anything exciting but some shading.September 4th 0735 GMT Sun
The weather forecast for the morning had been poor but the
sun was in a clear patch of sky above some cloud. I snapped it with my Mak and
DSLR at my usual settings.
September 3rd 2250 GMT Saturn and Deep Sky
There was a lot of cloud about but I still took my DSLR
camera out at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.
I took 25 photos each of Saturn, the Seven Sisters and
Melotte 20. I shot a few dark frames, hoping to run some stacks.
Stacking 25 photos instead of 10 and using dark frames made no difference to the shot of Saturn with Titan. It made a difference with the deep sky shots, especially with the Seven Sisters, especially as they were very low. That is also why I did not see capture any nebulousity.
September 3rd Solar Reprocesses
I revisited a solar hydrogen alpha shot from August 20th. I tried using various combinations of the GIMP functions Brightness/Contrast, Curves and Exposure. The centre of the disc was over-saturated but I managed to reveal some plages near the solar limb, especially near the prominences.
I also revisited a white light shot from the same day. It did not stack, so I tried a different set of images. They stacked and I applied my usual processing in GIMP.
