June 30th 2030 GMT
I saw the Moon low in the west accompanied by cloud. I was able to see some craters but not much else.
June 29th 0850 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under poor conditions: moving cloud of all thicknesses but managed to see a sunspot.
June 28th 2215 GMT
I went outside to check the weather. It was still far from dark and the sky was mostly covered by cloud. However, I thought I saw another star near Arcturus. I wasn't sure whether it was something never seen before or due to my failing eyesight (I am nearly 60 after all!). A binocular scan showed it was my eyesight but I did see a satellite moving south east. I also had a look at Saturn and could see the rings but not the gap between the planet and rings.
June 28th 1455 GMT
A gap in the clouds appeared for a short while and I had a look at the Sun with the PST. Conditions weren't great but I saw a nice filament that didn't come out well in the photos. There was a small prominence that I didn't catch visually.
June 28th 0910 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun through a clear gap in the clouds but did not see any sunspots.
June 26th 1255 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under hazy conditions but did not see any sunspots.
June 25th 1540 GMT
The Sun was again very quiet, despite having reasonable
viewing conditions.
June 25th 0820 GMT
A solar bin scan revealed the first sunspot visible to my
binoculars for six days.
June 24th 1015 GMT
I checked the Sun with the PST and found it very quiet. I
did see a sunspot I hadn’t seen with the binoculars, though.
June 24th 0845 GMT
I could not see the Moon but could see the Sun. Although
conditions were quite clear, I could not see any sunspots.
June 23rd 1055 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun in hazy conditions but did not see any
sunspots.
June 22nd 0935 GMT
The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light with just one
plage area visible. I took a series of full disc shots.
June 22nd 0835 GMT
I saw the thin waning lunar crescent through
thin cloud and could make out Grimaldi but very little else. I also bin scanned
the Sun and didn’t see any sunspots. I later checked the Big Bear images but
there was just one very faint one near the solar limb.
June 22nd 2345 GMT
This was my first night viewing for ages. However, it was
far from true astronomical darkness, despite my observing period covering the
time that the Sun was furthest below the horizon. There was a lot of haze
about, especially in the west but the zenith looked relatively clear. My plan
was to take a few frames of Aquila and Cygnus while browsing with my
binoculars. My back was still in recovery, so no chance of lugging telescopes
outside!
I saw my usual summer double stars. The Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) was low but looked good. Melotte 20, a rather under-rated object, showed
well but the Perseus Double Cluster was obviously not at its best (being low
down). M13 was visible but M92 and M3 (also globular clusters) were not. The
Wild Duck Cluster (M11) showed well but the fainter and lower M26 did not.
Neither did any of the deep sky objects in Sagittarius. It took me several
tried to pot M15 but I also failed to see M81 and M82.
Around Cygnus and Lyra, the sky was clear and I couldn’t see
the Ring (M57) which is a difficult “pot” with my binoculars. However, the star
fields around Cygnus were so rich that I was unable to see M29 and M39 against
the Milky Way. In fact the Milky Way was even visible in Cassiopeia. I also saw
two satellites in the area.
June 21st 0820 GMT
The Sun was also quiet in hydrogen alpha light
but there were some small prominences and granulation.
June 21st 0715 GMT
I bin scanned the waning crescent moon. Due to libration, I
could still see some of the southern craters, whereas Grimaldi was near the
lunar limb. With the moonscape largely dominated by Oceanus Procellarum, it was
otherwise quite featureless.
I carefully checked the Sun but could not detect any
sunspots through my binoculars.
June 20th 0655 GMT
I saw the thick waning crescent Moon high in the south. I could see some of the southern craters but could not see any ray systems and the view generally did not have the same impact as the day before. I also bin scanned the Sun but did not see any sunspots, even though conditions were good.
June 19th 1000 GMT
I checked the Sun with my PST. As the day before, the Sun
was rather quiet overall but I saw two nice filaments. I did one set of frames on automatic and another with low ISO (100). I captured prominences with the auto settings but better surface detail with the low ISO. Unfortunately, attempts to use the 2 together proved fruitless.
June 19th 0630 GMT
Due to a bad back, I was unable to carry the Mak out to do
some photos but I saw the waning last quarter Moon. I had a great view of the
southern craters and the Appenines. Copernicus and Kepler were showing rays but
Grimaldi was near the limb, due to libration.
I bin scanned the Sun and saw 3 sunspots.
June 18th 1800 GMT
The Sun seemed rather quiet with the PST but I could see a small plage and a prominence was visible on the images that I hadn't seen.
June 18th 1700 GMT
The sky finally cleared enough for a solar bin scan but I could only see one sunspot.
June 17th 0830 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun and noticed that the sunspot pattern had changed considerably since my last view in hydrogen alpha.
June 16th 0835 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun and was surprised that I did not see any sunspots.
June 13th 1000 GMT
I had an early lunch as my class were mostly an hour ahead.
The Sun looked quite spectacular. The active region had moved near the limb and
was accompanied by a nice prominence. Another active region had rotated on, so
I took a set of full disc images and sets of close-ups of each active region.
June 12th 0630 GMT
The Sun was still very active but the active region had
rotated closer to the solar limb. I took some full disc shots and close-ups of
the active region. The close-ups didn't work, though.
June 11th 2040 GMT
I had trouble getting focus on the Moon, so tried stitching some overlapping digital zoomed images and it almost worked. .
June 11th 0600 GMT
I checked the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. It was very
active but nearly all of the activity was around the sunspots. I took a set of
full disc images and another set showing a close-up of the active region.
I did 2 takes of the full disc: one a single image at ISO100 and the other a stack of 10 images on autoexposure.
June 10th 2040 GMT
I took a few full disc frames of the Moon.
June 10th 1630 GMT
I managed to see the Sun in hydrogen alpha light
through a gap in the cloud. I couldn’t see any prominences but there was great
disc activity around the sunspots. I took some full disc shots before cloud
rolled in once again.
June 10th 1145 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun during a break in the
cloud. The sunspots had changed quite a lot since my viewing the day before.
June 9th 1110 GMT
A solar bin scan showed lots of sunspot activity.
June 8th 1115 GMT
A solar bin scan revealed that the sunspots had
rotated and changed pattern.
June 7th 1445 GMT
There was lots of activity on the Sun in hydrogen alpha
light but there were no obvious prominences.
I took some full disc shots and close-ups.
June 7th 1425 GMT
After a cloudy morning, I bin scanned the Sun to reveal quite a lot of activity.
June 6th 2115 GMT
Conditions did not look too promising, with lots of cloud
but I managed to take a few full disc and close-ups shots of the Moon. Plato
and Clavius were near the terminator and showed well.
June 6th 1530 GMT
I checked the Sun with my PST and found it somewhat quiet but there were some prominences at the top of the disc.
June 6th 1150 GMT
Conditions were hazy but I managed to see two
sunspots through my binoculars.
June 5th 2110 GMT
I took a few full disc shots of the first quarter moon
before bedtime. I stacked all 23 images to get this result.
June 5th 1140 GMT
I checked the Sun with my Mak and filters after giving my
optics a clean. I could see 2 sunspots that I hadn’t seen in the binoculars
earlier today. I took some full disc shots, then tried the Baader Continuum
filter. I was unable to see any more sunspots, although the images looked
sharper. I took some full disc shots and used optical zoom on the camera to see
some sunspots closer.
I hadn’t cleaned the lenses but had a quick look through the
telescope using higher magnification. I did not take any photos, as the lenses
were dirty. I could see a little bit more detail on the sunspots but none of
the granulation that I thought possible.
The photos did not come out well except for the close-ups taken with the filter. I'm sure the problem was that I should have reduced the ISO settings, even with automatic settings. I did try zooming on the photos and YES, I could see some granulation.
June 5th 0920 GMT
I did a quick photo shoot of the Sun through my PST. I could
see some small prominences and some disc detail. I took some full disc and
close-up shots.
June 5th 0700 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun in a quite clear sky before starting a training conference and noticed that the 2 big sunspots had moved. I did not see any smaller ones, as I might have expected.
June 3rd 1530 GMT
The cloud cleared enough to bin scan the Sun and I saw 2
sunspots clearly. It is possible that fainter sunspots may have been obscured
by cloud and haze.
June 30th 2030 GMT
I saw the Moon low in the west accompanied by cloud. I was able to see some craters but not much else.June 29th 0850 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under poor conditions: moving cloud of all thicknesses but managed to see a sunspot.
June 28th 2215 GMT
I went outside to check the weather. It was still far from dark and the sky was mostly covered by cloud. However, I thought I saw another star near Arcturus. I wasn't sure whether it was something never seen before or due to my failing eyesight (I am nearly 60 after all!). A binocular scan showed it was my eyesight but I did see a satellite moving south east. I also had a look at Saturn and could see the rings but not the gap between the planet and rings.
June 28th 1455 GMT
A gap in the clouds appeared for a short while and I had a look at the Sun with the PST. Conditions weren't great but I saw a nice filament that didn't come out well in the photos. There was a small prominence that I didn't catch visually.
June 28th 0910 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun through a clear gap in the clouds but did not see any sunspots.
June 26th 1255 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under hazy conditions but did not see any sunspots.
June 25th 1540 GMT
The Sun was again very quiet, despite having reasonable
viewing conditions.
June 25th 0820 GMT
A solar bin scan revealed the first sunspot visible to my
binoculars for six days.
June 24th 1015 GMT
I checked the Sun with the PST and found it very quiet. I
did see a sunspot I hadn’t seen with the binoculars, though.
June 24th 0845 GMT
I could not see the Moon but could see the Sun. Although
conditions were quite clear, I could not see any sunspots.
June 23rd 1055 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun in hazy conditions but did not see any
sunspots.
June 22nd 0935 GMT
The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light with just one
plage area visible. I took a series of full disc shots.
June 22nd 0835 GMT
I saw the thin waning lunar crescent through
thin cloud and could make out Grimaldi but very little else. I also bin scanned
the Sun and didn’t see any sunspots. I later checked the Big Bear images but
there was just one very faint one near the solar limb.
June 22nd 2345 GMT
This was my first night viewing for ages. However, it was
far from true astronomical darkness, despite my observing period covering the
time that the Sun was furthest below the horizon. There was a lot of haze
about, especially in the west but the zenith looked relatively clear. My plan
was to take a few frames of Aquila and Cygnus while browsing with my
binoculars. My back was still in recovery, so no chance of lugging telescopes
outside!
I saw my usual summer double stars. The Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) was low but looked good. Melotte 20, a rather under-rated object, showed
well but the Perseus Double Cluster was obviously not at its best (being low
down). M13 was visible but M92 and M3 (also globular clusters) were not. The
Wild Duck Cluster (M11) showed well but the fainter and lower M26 did not.
Neither did any of the deep sky objects in Sagittarius. It took me several
tried to pot M15 but I also failed to see M81 and M82.
Around Cygnus and Lyra, the sky was clear and I couldn’t see
the Ring (M57) which is a difficult “pot” with my binoculars. However, the star
fields around Cygnus were so rich that I was unable to see M29 and M39 against
the Milky Way. In fact the Milky Way was even visible in Cassiopeia. I also saw
two satellites in the area.
June 21st 0820 GMT
The Sun was also quiet in hydrogen alpha light
but there were some small prominences and granulation.
June 21st 0715 GMT
I bin scanned the waning crescent moon. Due to libration, I
could still see some of the southern craters, whereas Grimaldi was near the
lunar limb. With the moonscape largely dominated by Oceanus Procellarum, it was
otherwise quite featureless.
I carefully checked the Sun but could not detect any
sunspots through my binoculars.
June 20th 0655 GMT
I saw the thick waning crescent Moon high in the south. I could see some of the southern craters but could not see any ray systems and the view generally did not have the same impact as the day before. I also bin scanned the Sun but did not see any sunspots, even though conditions were good.
June 28th 2215 GMT
I went outside to check the weather. It was still far from dark and the sky was mostly covered by cloud. However, I thought I saw another star near Arcturus. I wasn't sure whether it was something never seen before or due to my failing eyesight (I am nearly 60 after all!). A binocular scan showed it was my eyesight but I did see a satellite moving south east. I also had a look at Saturn and could see the rings but not the gap between the planet and rings.
June 28th 1455 GMT
A gap in the clouds appeared for a short while and I had a look at the Sun with the PST. Conditions weren't great but I saw a nice filament that didn't come out well in the photos. There was a small prominence that I didn't catch visually.
June 28th 0910 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun through a clear gap in the clouds but did not see any sunspots.
June 28th 1455 GMT
A gap in the clouds appeared for a short while and I had a look at the Sun with the PST. Conditions weren't great but I saw a nice filament that didn't come out well in the photos. There was a small prominence that I didn't catch visually.June 28th 0910 GMT
June 26th 1255 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under hazy conditions but did not see any sunspots.
June 25th 1540 GMT
The Sun was again very quiet, despite having reasonable
viewing conditions.
June 25th 0820 GMT
A solar bin scan revealed the first sunspot visible to my
binoculars for six days.
June 24th 1015 GMT
I checked the Sun with the PST and found it very quiet. I
did see a sunspot I hadn’t seen with the binoculars, though.
I could not see the Moon but could see the Sun. Although
conditions were quite clear, I could not see any sunspots.
June 23rd 1055 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun in hazy conditions but did not see any
sunspots.
The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light with just one
plage area visible. I took a series of full disc shots.
June 22nd 0835 GMT
June 22nd 2345 GMT
This was my first night viewing for ages. However, it was
far from true astronomical darkness, despite my observing period covering the
time that the Sun was furthest below the horizon. There was a lot of haze
about, especially in the west but the zenith looked relatively clear. My plan
was to take a few frames of Aquila and Cygnus while browsing with my
binoculars. My back was still in recovery, so no chance of lugging telescopes
outside!
I saw my usual summer double stars. The Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) was low but looked good. Melotte 20, a rather under-rated object, showed
well but the Perseus Double Cluster was obviously not at its best (being low
down). M13 was visible but M92 and M3 (also globular clusters) were not. The
Wild Duck Cluster (M11) showed well but the fainter and lower M26 did not.
Neither did any of the deep sky objects in Sagittarius. It took me several
tried to pot M15 but I also failed to see M81 and M82.
Around Cygnus and Lyra, the sky was clear and I couldn’t see
the Ring (M57) which is a difficult “pot” with my binoculars. However, the star
fields around Cygnus were so rich that I was unable to see M29 and M39 against
the Milky Way. In fact the Milky Way was even visible in Cassiopeia. I also saw
two satellites in the area.
June 21st 0820 GMT
June 21st 0715 GMT
I bin scanned the waning crescent moon. Due to libration, I
could still see some of the southern craters, whereas Grimaldi was near the
lunar limb. With the moonscape largely dominated by Oceanus Procellarum, it was
otherwise quite featureless.
I carefully checked the Sun but could not detect any
sunspots through my binoculars.
June 20th 0655 GMT
June 19th 1000 GMT
I checked the Sun with my PST. As the day before, the Sun
was rather quiet overall but I saw two nice filaments. I did one set of frames on automatic and another with low ISO (100). I captured prominences with the auto settings but better surface detail with the low ISO. Unfortunately, attempts to use the 2 together proved fruitless.
June 19th 0630 GMT
Due to a bad back, I was unable to carry the Mak out to do
some photos but I saw the waning last quarter Moon. I had a great view of the
southern craters and the Appenines. Copernicus and Kepler were showing rays but
Grimaldi was near the limb, due to libration.
I bin scanned the Sun and saw 3 sunspots.
June 18th 1800 GMT
The Sun seemed rather quiet with the PST but I could see a small plage and a prominence was visible on the images that I hadn't seen.
June 18th 1700 GMT
The sky finally cleared enough for a solar bin scan but I could only see one sunspot.June 17th 0830 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun and noticed that the sunspot pattern had changed considerably since my last view in hydrogen alpha.
June 16th 0835 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun and was surprised that I did not see any sunspots.
June 13th 1000 GMT
I had an early lunch as my class were mostly an hour ahead.
The Sun looked quite spectacular. The active region had moved near the limb and
was accompanied by a nice prominence. Another active region had rotated on, so
I took a set of full disc images and sets of close-ups of each active region.
June 12th 0630 GMT
The Sun was still very active but the active region had
rotated closer to the solar limb. I took some full disc shots and close-ups of
the active region. The close-ups didn't work, though.
June 11th 2040 GMT
I had trouble getting focus on the Moon, so tried stitching some overlapping digital zoomed images and it almost worked. .
June 11th 0600 GMT
I checked the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. It was very
active but nearly all of the activity was around the sunspots. I took a set of
full disc images and another set showing a close-up of the active region.
I did 2 takes of the full disc: one a single image at ISO100 and the other a stack of 10 images on autoexposure.
June 10th 2040 GMT
I took a few full disc frames of the Moon.
June 10th 1630 GMT
June 10th 1145 GMT
June 9th 1110 GMT
A solar bin scan showed lots of sunspot activity.
June 8th 1115 GMT
June 7th 1445 GMT
There was lots of activity on the Sun in hydrogen alpha
light but there were no obvious prominences.
June 7th 1425 GMT
After a cloudy morning, I bin scanned the Sun to reveal quite a lot of activity.
June 6th 2115 GMT
Conditions did not look too promising, with lots of cloud
but I managed to take a few full disc and close-ups shots of the Moon. Plato
and Clavius were near the terminator and showed well.
June 6th 1530 GMT
I checked the Sun with my PST and found it somewhat quiet but there were some prominences at the top of the disc.
June 6th 1150 GMT
June 5th 2110 GMT
I took a few full disc shots of the first quarter moon
before bedtime. I stacked all 23 images to get this result.
June 5th 1140 GMT
I checked the Sun with my Mak and filters after giving my
optics a clean. I could see 2 sunspots that I hadn’t seen in the binoculars
earlier today. I took some full disc shots, then tried the Baader Continuum
filter. I was unable to see any more sunspots, although the images looked
sharper. I took some full disc shots and used optical zoom on the camera to see
some sunspots closer.
I hadn’t cleaned the lenses but had a quick look through the
telescope using higher magnification. I did not take any photos, as the lenses
were dirty. I could see a little bit more detail on the sunspots but none of
the granulation that I thought possible.
The photos did not come out well except for the close-ups taken with the filter. I'm sure the problem was that I should have reduced the ISO settings, even with automatic settings. I did try zooming on the photos and YES, I could see some granulation.
June 5th 0920 GMT
I did a quick photo shoot of the Sun through my PST. I could
see some small prominences and some disc detail. I took some full disc and
close-up shots.
June 5th 0700 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun in a quite clear sky before starting a training conference and noticed that the 2 big sunspots had moved. I did not see any smaller ones, as I might have expected.June 3rd 1530 GMT
June 2nd 2020 GMT
There was a brief break in the cloud when I was able to see the Moon as a waxing crescent. Mare Crisium and some of the other features stood out well. I stacked 30 full disc frames to achieve a nice result but the attempted close-ups failed.
June 1st 0920 GMT
I bin scanned the Sun under slightly hazy conditions but
didn’t see any sunspots.
Jun 1st 1700 GMT
The Sun seemed quiet in hydrogen alpha light but I took a
few full disc frames in the hope of capturing something. I was unable to stack any, so just processed the best one. I managed to capture some prominences, a sunspot and very faint filament.
June 2nd 0750 GMT
A small gap in the cloud opened up. I checked the Sun for sunspots but did not see any.
