Philip Pugh's Astronomy Blog: July 2018

July 31st 0700 GMT

The Sun was very quiet in hydrogen alpha light again.

July 29th 0700 GMT

The Sun was quiet again but I found some features "on film".

July 26^th 2100 GMT

I wanted to photograph the Moon, Saturn and Mars in the same frame but was prevented from doing so by cloud.

I tried to snap Jupiter’s moons instead.

July 25^th 1300 GMT

The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light again.

July 24^th 1125 GMT

Again, the Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light and extensive etalon re-tuning failed to reveal any detail.

July 23rd 2230 GMT

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR.

July 23^rd 1130 GMT

The Sun was quiet again and I took some full disc shots.

July 22^nd 2050 GMT

I went back to “good” old afocal photography. Only Venus was in a cloud-free position. I took some snaps with my DSLR and Mak at 62x magnification and another set at 186x. There was lots of instability in the air, otherwise I would have tried boosting the magnification further. A gibbous phase was clear and I just hoped I’d caught something decent on camera.

As it turned out, the lower magnification shots gave the sharpest results.

July 22^nd 1325 GMT

The Sun looked quiet in hydrogen alpha light, as I did a photo shoot.

July 21^st 2045 GMT

I took some full disc shots of the Moon with my DSLR.

July 19^th 2110 GMT

I took some frames of the Moon and Jupiter with its moons with my DSLR.

July 19^th 1310 GMT

It cleared enough to check out the Sun with my PST. Apart from some reddening near the limbs, the solar disc was quiet.

July 16^th 2030 GMT

I took some shots of the Moon with Venus with my DSLR.

Only the Moon worked but not that well.

July 15^th 1030 GMT

The Sun was quiet again, even in hydrogen alpha light.

July 15^th 2330 GMT

I recovered a bit but decided to have a session with the camera alone, in case I felt queasy again. I used the DSLR at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure.

First, I took a few frames of Aquila to see if I could stack some shots.

My next target was Sagitta.

I didn't get either but I did get the Coathanger and its surroundings.

I used Microsoft ICE to stack part of the constellation.

Although it was low in the sky, I tried Triangulum.

I then increased the focal length to 300mm and reduced the exposure time to 2 seconds. I tried Melotte 20 and the Perseus Double Cluster.

July 14^th 2200 GMT

I had a few more problems with the Meade Electronic Eyepiece. I took a few shots of Jupiter with my Mak and DSLR using various exposure times and focal lengths up to 9 metres. I caught some nice frames of the moons. I was going to image Saturn but could not, as I was feeling unwell.

July 14^{th 0730 GMT}

Despite carefully re-tuning my etalon, the solar disc seemed very bland and quiet.

July 11^th 1015 GMT

The Sun seemed much quieter than the day before.

July 10^th 0650 GMT

The professional observatories showed some faculae rotating onto the solar disc. They were difficult to make out in hydrogen alpha light.

July 9^th 1410 GMT

The sky cleared for a while to a sun quiet in hydrogen alpha light.

July 8^th 2130 GMT

I took some shots of Jupiter with my DSLR in an attempt to capture its moons. The initial frames seemed over-exposed, so I reduced the exposure time.

July 8th 1400 GMT

The Sun seemed rather quiet and I took some full disc shots.

July 8^th 2345 GMT

I waited for it to get as dark as it gets but possibly waited a bit too long, as Jupiter was close to setting. I used my Mak and DSLR in an attempt to capture Jupiter’s moons and Titan around Saturn. I used 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 2/3 second exposure.

The focus wasn't great but I caught all five moons.

I attempted to repeat the same settings with the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and Melotte 20. It didn't work on M31 and the Melotte 20 shots just showed Alpha Persei.

I finished by taking the DSLR out on its own with 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure. My targets were the small constellations Corona Borealis and Delphinus.

Result!

July 7^th 1800 GMT

The Sun looked quiet in hydrogen alpha light, even quieter than the day before.

July 6^th 2225 GMT

I took some frames of Jupiter and Saturn with my DSLR in the hope of capturing some moons.

July 6^th 0700 GMT

The last quarter moon was quite high just past south. I took some snaps with my DSLR at 300mm.

The Sun looked quiet in hydrogen alpha light and I took some full disc frames.

July 1^st 2300 GMT

It was my first session of a new month and I started with my Mak and DSLR on the Moon.

To be honest, I did not adjust the ISO setting when I should have, so some shots were wasted, especially the ones of Jupiter’s moons. I had a go at Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the same set-up but more in hope than expectancy.

The shots of Jupiter's disc were fuzzy but the result with the moons was not bad,

I caught Saturn's rings but little else.

Mars showed very little.

I took a few frames of the Moon with Mars. With a bit of digital wizardry, I combined one of them with the individual images of the Moon and Mars.

I changed the set-up to the DSLR at 70mm ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure to . With moonlight, it was not a good night for constellation or deep sky photography but I went for Cassiopeia, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), Melotte 20 and the Perseus Double Cluster. The Double Cluster shot did not work but the other three did.