March 2026

March 19^th 1950 GMT Galaxy M51 and Makarian's Chain

 

I needed to upgrade the Seestar S50 when I switched it on, which took a few minutes.

I photographed the galaxy M51 with the Seestar S50 but accidentally terminated the integration run at 66 minutes. I finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

 

I used Framing mode to mount an attempt on Markarian's Chain, a group of galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster, with the Seestar S50. I managed 52 minutes before my battery ran out.

March 18th 2250 GMT Binocular Session 

While the Seestar S50 was capturing M64, I had a look at the sky through binoculars.

Jupiter showed one bright moon.

I could see the open cluster M35 in Gemini and the Auriga clusters M36, M37 and M38 but they were low and past their midwinter best. The cluster Melotte 111 looked great and so did the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer. I ended with the double stars Epsilon Lyrae and Nu Draconi.

Although I was somewhat out of practice at viewing the night sky through binoculars and my eyes were not well dark-adapted, it was a pleasant session.

March 18^th 2005 GMT Galaxy M64

I liked my photo of M64 a few days before but wanted to see whether I could get something better with a longer integration time. I managed 150 minutes and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

March 18^th 1845 GMT Venus

Venus was low in the twilight sky and it was like seeing an old friend I had been missing for years. I checked it with my binoculars and saw a very small disc, suggesting a 100% or near 100% phase. It was round the other side of the sun and very far from Earth.

March 17^th 2020 GMT Jupiter and Galaxy M63

I did my usual videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50 to try to photograph the cloud belts and moons by stacking and combining.

Although the image of M63 from a few days ago was ok, I tried again, hoping for a longer integration time with the Seestar S50. I took an integration run of 163 minutes and tidied in GraXpert and GIMP.

I tried stacking the image with the one taken on March 13th. Although I preferred the way the nucleus appeared, I preferred my original shot.

March 16th 0045 GMT Galaxy M102

I photographed the galaxy M102 with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration of 36 minutes with GIMP.

March 14th 2015 GMT Jupiter and M94

I took two videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50 with the intention of stacking them and combining them to show the moons and cloud belts.

I photographed the galaxy M94 with the Seestar S50. I did a 144 minute integration run and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

March 14^th 1030 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking them to obtain still images.

March 14^th 0045 GMT M64

The sky cleared, so I had a go at the galaxy M64 with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration run of 60 minutes.

March 13th 2015 GMT Jupiter and Galaxy M63

 

I took two videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50, showing the moons and the cloud belts, with the intention of stacking and combining them.

 

Having been clouded out three days earlier, I had another go at the galaxy M63 with the Seestar S50. This time I got 34 minutes of integration before cloud rolled in. I processed a single integration run.

March 10^th 1920 GMT GTMT Jupiter and Galaxy M63

 

I took two videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50 to stack and combine, with the intention of showing the moons and cloud belts.

 

I switched to the galaxy M63. I managed less than two minutes integration before cloud rolled in.

March 5th 2245 GMT Jupiter and the Moon

 

I was not expecting to see or photograph anything but the moon, Jupiter and the stars Castor and Pollux were visible in poor conditions.

I photographed Jupiter's moons with the Seestar S50 but only saw two of them. I videoed the cloud belts on the planet. I combined the resulting images.

I videoed the moon with the Seestar S50.

March 5^th 0930 GMT Sun

I took two videos of the Sun with the Seestar S50, one to capture the full disc and the other a 2x zoom to show the sunspots.

March 4^th 1010 GMT Jupiter, a Galaxy and the Moon

 

I took two videos of Jupiter with my Seestar S50 with the intention of stacking them later. One was to show the moons and the other to show the cloud belts.

 

I photographed the galaxy M106 with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration run of 147 minutes, using GraXpert and GIMP.

 

I finished with a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

March 4^th 1310 GMT Sun

I took two videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking them to produce still images. One was full disc, the other at 2x zoom to capture the region of the sunspots in more detail.

March 3^rd 2210 GMT Jupiter, Moon and a Galaxy

 

I took two videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50, one showing the moons and the other showing the cloud belts. I combined them.

 

I took a video of the Moon with the Seestar S50.

 

Despite strong moonlight and haze, I had a go at the galaxy M108 with the Seestar S50. I stacked 6 images in Deep Sky Stacker, the longest being 73 minutes.

March 2^nd 1850 GMT Jupiter, Moon and Deep Sky in Orion

 

I took two videos of Jupiter with the Seestar S50, each to show the moons and the cloud belts. I combined the two.

 

I took a video of the nearly full moon with the Seestar S50.

Despite the full moon, I used Framing mode on the Orion Great Nebula (M42) to take a wider field of view, hoping to capture the Running Man Nebula with it. I stacked six images using Deep Sky Stacker, with the longest exposure being 102 minutes. I finished in GIMP.

My final image with the Seestar S50 was another shot of the moon two hours after the first.

March 2^nd 1020 GMT Sun

Conditions were better than the day before but still hazy. I took videos of the sun at full disc and 4x zoom. The full disc shot showed a bit but the zoomed image was pure noise.

March 1st 1230 GMT Sun 

 

Despite moving cloud, I had a go at videoing the sun with the Seestar S50. I saw a large sunspot. I recorded it in the stacked video but I could not do anything about the cloud.