May 2026

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.

April 2026

April 2026 Summary

Some days were lost to rain and cloud but, overall, the weather was better than March. It was weird, as some clear days were very warm, whilst others felt more like winter.

Naturally, I concentrated on the Lyrid meteor shower. Ironically, I caught many bright meteors on camera that were not from the shower.

I did a few sun and moon photos but Jupiter was becoming difficult.

For deep sky I concentrated on getting longer integration runs on objects that I had photographed before.

Sun

The sun was getting better-placed in the sky and more active than in March.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55219812595/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55219665489/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55225440764/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55234691576/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55238611164/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55242120709/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55242283655/in/album-72157666438967194/

 

Moon

The moon was well-placed when in the evening sky.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55225416042/in/album-72157668899851116

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55225416042/in/album-72157668899851116

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55233905799/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55238670156/in/album-72157668899851116/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55241906212/in/album-72157668899851116/

Planets

Jupiter was the only planet that was readily viewable and I was not getting many quality shots. The Seestar S50 had trouble finding Venus and an attempt with my DSLR camera did not work.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55208245519/in/album-72157668899804626

Dwarf Planets/Asteroids

I did not photograph any asteroids nor dwarf planets.

Constellations

I tried a new (to me!) method of photographing constellations by stacking images in two stages. I even snapped Cygnus with a phone camera.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55196938138/in/album-72177720332902653

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55198464239/in/album-72177720332902653

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55198625680/in/album-72177720332902653/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55222768239/in/album-72177720332902653

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55228642914/in/album-72177720332902653

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55235477427/in/album-72177720332902653

 

Deep Sky

I came up with some interesting deep sky shots, most of them revisiting objects.

·       Leo Triplet:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55190814244/in/album-72177720332902653

·       M53 in Canes Venactici:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55207831798/in/album-72177720332902653

·       NGC2903 in Leo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55222830324/in/album-72177720332902653

·       M3 in Canes Venactici

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55227301717/in/album-72177720332902653

·       M12 in Ophiuchus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55236027593/in/album-72177720332902653

·       M10 in Ophiuchus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55240821028/in/album-72177720332902653/

·       M92 in Hercules

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55241408459/in/album-72177720332902653/

·       M56 in Lyra

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55243226060/in/album-72177720332902653/

Transient Events

 

With the Lyrid meteor shower in action, I was out photographing them but mostly catching sporadic (non-shower) meteors, some quite bright. I saw a bright Lyrid meteor but did not photograph it. I also caught a rather strange object!

The Moon passed close to Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky.

 

·       Moon with Venus April 19^th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55222301586/in/album-72157668626470961/

·       Moon with Venus April 20^th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55224338737/in/album-72157668626470961/

·       Moon with Jupiter April 20^th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55225241256/in/album-72157668626470961/

·       Meteor April 20^th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55226386776/in/album-72157668626470961/

·       Moon with Jupiter April 22^nd

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55233819243/in/album-72157668626470961/

·       Something strange and totally unexplained!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55238803900/in/album-72157668626470961/

 

April 2026 Photo Album

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/albums/72177720332902653

April 2026 Full Report

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Monthly Summaries

Messier Objects

April 30^th 2215 GMT M56

I had another go at the globular star cluster M56 with the Seestar S50. I did 56 minutes integration and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 30^th 2140 GMT Moon

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50 with the intention of stacking.

April 30^th 1425 GMT Sun

I took a full disc video of the sun with the intention of later stacking.

April 29^th 2200 GMT Moon

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking.

April 29^th 0740 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking.

April 28^th 2100 GMT Moon and M92

The sky cleared and I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking.

I did a long integration of 140 minutes on the globular star cluster M92 with the Seestar S50. I finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 27^th 2235 GMT Globular Cluster M10

The weather forecast was for cloud but it stayed clear for quite a while. I attempted to photograph M10 with the Seestar S50. I did 65 minutes integration, finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 27^th 1950 GMT Moon

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking.

April 27^th Time Unknown Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, with the intention of later stacking.

April 26^th 2000 GMT Moon and Galaxy M49

After a cloudy and sunless day, I was able to take a video of the moon, despite a lot of cloud being around.

I had another go at the galaxy M49 with the Seestar S50 and also produced a map. I managed 29 minutes integration.

April 25^th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

I set my DSLR camera at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. I set it to take photos automatically, in an attempt to capture Lyrid meteors.

At 2215 GMT, I caught a faint sporadic meteor near Corona Borealis.

At 2229 GMT, I caught a strange object that did not appear on the preceding nor following images. I could not explain it.

April 25^th 2055 GMT Moon and Galaxy M49

I took a video of the Moon with the Seestar S50 for later stacking.

I plugged in the power bank and attempted to shoot the galaxy M49. I managed just 3 minutes integration and had a lot of trailing.

April 25^th 1045 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50 for later stacking and processing.

April 24^th 2015 GMT Moon 

I photographed the moon with the Seestar S50 by taking a video. It did not find the moon at the first attempt, so I used Arcturus as a sighter. Even after this, it could not find the moon but I found it using the Skymap and Scenery mode.

April 24^th 0028 GMT Visual Meteor and Summer Triangle

At 0028 GMT, I saw a bright magnitude -3 Lyrid shower meteor.

I took several shots of the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb and Altair) with my phone camera. I tried to stack them but it didn't work. I processed a single photo to reveal the main stars of Cygnus and some stars in Lyra. Aquila had not yet risen but Altair is visible at the bottom right.

April 24^th 2345 GMT M12

I accidentally knocked the Seestar S50 when I plugged in the power bank and this ruined the shot in progress. I switched to the globular cluster M12. I did 25 minutes integration, finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 23^rd 2050 GMT Jupiter, Moon and a Galaxy

I used the Seestar S50 to take videos of Jupiter (moons and planetary detail) and the moon. Only the moon came out.

I then used the Seestar S50 to capture the galaxy M87 in Virgo. I only captured a map of the region.

I later managed to retrieve an image from the Seestar S50 of a 42 minute integration of M87, finished in GraXpert and GIMP, showing the outer areas of the galaxy.

I caught a bright short trail meteor with my DSLR camera at 2205 GMT. It was probably not from the Lyrid shower.

At 2216 GMT, I caught another bright sporadic meteor with my DSLR camera.

April 23rd 1100 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50.

April 22nd 2000 GMT Moon and Jupiter

I took videos of the moon and Jupiter with the Seestar S50 for stacking.

I photographed the moon with Jupiter with the DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO100 and 1/60 second exposure.

April 22nd 1240 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50 to stack into still images.

April 21st 2105 GMT Moon, Jupiter, Meteor Hunt and Deep Sky

After an earlier unsuccessful attempt to photograph Venus, the moon and Jupiter, i took videos of the moon and Jupiter for later stacking.

I photographed the moon with Jupiter with the DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/400 second exposure.

I set the Seestar S50 to photograph the globular cluster M3. I processed a single integration of 81 minutes with GraXpert and GIMP.

M3 moved behind a neighbouring house. I did 10 minutes integration on M13 and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

I set the DSLR camera to take repeated images at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure.

At 2207 GMT I caught a bright sporadic short trail meteor to the left of the head of Draco.

At 2208 GMT I caught another bright short trail meteor.

At 2224 GMT I caught part of a meteor trail at the top right of the photo. It was probably a shower meteor.

At 2225 GMT I caught a bright meteor that may or may not have been from the Lyrid shower.

I stacked 99 images of Lyra in Sequator then Deep Sky Stacker. I finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 20th 2100 GMT Polar Regions and Meteor Hunt

I used the Seestar S50 in framing mode to capture the area around the pole star (Polaris) and managed 26 minutes integration. It was not as good as previous photos of the region I had captured with the DSLR camera.

I set the DSLR camera to take repeat photos to try to capture Lyrid shower meteors. I caught a bright short trail fireball from the shower at 2121 GMT.

At 2328 GMT, I caught another shower meteor.

April 20th 2000 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Venus

I used the Seestar S50 to photograph the moon and Jupiter using video but the S50 could not find Venus.

I caught Jupiter's moons but not the planet.

April 20th 1935 GMT Moon, Venus and Jupiter

I photographed the moon with Venus with my phone camera.

I photographed the moon with Jupiter with my phone camera.

April 20th 1045 GMT Sun

I took full disc and close-up videos of the sun with the Seestar S50.

April 19th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt and Deep Sky

I set up the DSLR camera to take repeated images in an attempt to catch Lyrid meteors.

I caught a bright sporadic (non-shower) meteor and it was the only one. The time was unknown.

I stacked the first 100 images of the shoot to capture Ursa Minor and the head of Draco.

I photographed NGC2903 and M3 with the Seestar S50. I managed 24 minutes integration on NGC2903 and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

I managed just one minute on M3.

April 19th 1950 GMT Moon with Venus

I photographed the moon with Venus with my phone camera.

April 19th 1915 GMT Moon

I took a video of the thin crescent moon with the Seestar S50 to stack to produce a still image.

April 19th 1035 GMT Sun

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun. with the intention of stacking.

April 19th 2335 GMT M56

The sky finally cleared, so i photographed the globular cluster M56 with the Seestar S50. I managed 18 minutes integration before bedtime and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.

April 18th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

I set up the DSLR camera to catch Lyrid meteors but was having problems, needing to clean the lens and image sensor. Mostly due to cloud, I did not capture any meteors.

In parallel, I tried to use the Seestar S50 but I was only able to photograph Jupiter's moons before cloud rolled in.

April 18^th 2100 GMT Meteors and a Galaxy

With lots of moving cloud, I decided to try to capture sunspots with my binoculars and filters. I found two and made a drawing.

April 15^th 2100 GMT Meteors and a Galaxy

I set up my DSLR camera to take repeated 6 minute exposures at 18mm focal length and ISO 6400, in an attempt to catch Lyrid meteors. I did not catch any but had enough photos to try a large stack. I stacked them 10 at a time in Sequator and stacked the 10 stacks in DSS. I finished in GraXpert and GIMP to show the head and parts of Draco.

In parallel, I set up the Seestar S50 to photograph the galaxy NGC3607 in Leo. Although I ran the telescope for about 2 hours, star trailing left me with an integration of only 18 minutes. I only photographed the nucleus. The fainter galaxy is NGC3608.

April 13th 2100 GMT Galaxy NGC2903

The weather forecast was for clear sky but there was a lot of thin cloud in the south east. I wanted to photograph Markarians Chain but it was too hazy.

I photographed the galaxy NGC2903 with the Seestar S50. However, after two minutes, I had star trailing, that ruined the image, although the galaxy did not look too bad.

I rebooted and decided to have a go at Makarian's Chain again. First I used Jupiter as a sighter and noticed that one moon had disappeared behind, in front of Jupiter or in the planet's shadow.

I had star trailing, due to cloud, but it didn't ruin the image, well not at first. However, it took a very long time to stack 8 minutes worth of data and it did not complete.

April 13th 1945 GMT Planets

I tried to capture Venus with the Seestar S50 but it did not work. 

I took two videos of Jupiter with the intention of stacking and combining them.

April 13th 0800 GMT Sun

I took a full disc video of the sun with the Seestar S50, with the intention of stacking to produce a still image.

April 13th 2345 GMT Globular cluster M53

I photographed the globular star cluster M53 with the Seestar S50. I did a 38 minute integration run, terminated by cloud. I stacked two intermediate images in Deep Sky Stacker and finished with GraXpert and GIMP. This latest version shows more outer stars than the original attempt.

April 9^th 2100 GMT Constellation Shoot

I re-attempted the shoot from the evening before, with the correct settings on the DSLR camera of 18mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds exposure. First was Coma Berenices.

I also photographed Canes Venatici.

While performing the shoot, I saw a bright, magnitude 0 Anthelion meteor flash from Virgo north east through Bootes. I also saw a faint, magnitude 3 sporadic meteor, with a short trail appearing on the Virgo/Come Berenices border. I don't think I had ever seen so many satellites in one session before.

April 8^th 2110 GMT Constellations and Meteors

My phone was broken, so I was unable to use the Seestar S50. I used the DSLR camera instead. I accidentally set it to 55mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds exposure when I intended to use 18mm focal length.

I aimed between Arcturus and Denebola to try to capture the constellation of Coma Berenices.

I aimed underneath Leo to try to capture the constellation of Sextans.

I aimed at the constellation of Canes Venatici. 

Unfortunately, due to mis-setting the camera, I did not capture the targets and had a lot of star trailing, so could not use any photos.

While the camera was there, I saw a magnitude 2 meteor pass south west from Coma Berenices, underneath Leo.

I then aimed the camera towards the Virgo/Libra area at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, in an attempt to capture meteors. I was hoping to catch some Anthelion meteors.

As a by-product, I stacked 20 images using Deep Sky Stacker to capture the constellation of Virgo. I removed the haze using GraXpert and GIMP.

Unfortunately, I did not catch any meteors.

April 8^th 1940 GMT Venus

Venus was low in the dusk sky and I photographed it with the DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. It did not work, as I did not nail the focus.

April 6th 1915 GMT Venus

I tried to photograph Venus with the Seestar S50 but it could not find it. As there were no stars visible in the sky, I could not use one as a "sighter".

April 6th 1300 GMT Sun

The Seestar S50 was unable to find the sun. As I was recovering from a bad back, I did not use my heavy telescope, so observed the sun through my binoculars and filters. The sunspots had rotated but one had also become larger.

April 5th 2030 GMT Leo Galaxy Triplet

I photographed the Leo Galaxy Triplet with the Seestar S50. I processed a single integration of 152 minutes and tidied in GraXpert and GIMP.

 April 5th 1320 GMT Sun

I did a binocular check of the sun using my filters I saw 3 sunspots and made a drawing.

April 2nd 0820 GMT Sun 

I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50. There were lots of small sunspots.