August 2018

August 30^th 2125 GMT

The sky was covered by about 80% of cloud but I’d waited what seemed like years since I had been out. I took some close-ups with my DSLR at 300mm of the central part of Cassiopeia, 

One of the frames caught a meteor. 

I also aimed at the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) but think I missed it. Thought wrong but the result was hardly a classic.

I saw a meteor of about magnitude 2 at 2140 GMT. It flashed towards Cassiopeia from the direction of Cygnus so may well have been a Kappa Cygnid.

August 25^th 2230 GMT

Conditions were rather poor and I bin scanned the Moon through moving cloud. I was able to see most features, such as the "seas" and Tycho's rays were dominating the moonscape, as expected. Grimaldi stood out, even though it was near the lunar limb and Plato showed well, too.

August 25^th 0800 GMT

The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light but it was nice to photograph it again.

August 24^th 0715 GMT

The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light and I was not able to grab a photo before cloud rolled in.

August 21^st 2200 GMT

It was late, so I just did a quick session. I tried a few frames of the Moon with my DSLR.

I then tried using some background objects to align the Moon with Mars and Saturn for a possible conjunction shot.

Moon with Saturn:

The Mars shot did not work.

I finished with Melotte 20 and caught part of a meteor trail.

August 16^th 2030 GMT

My original intention was to snap the Moon using the Bresser Electronic Eyepiece after some full disc shots with the DSLR. Unfortunately, Sharpcap kept crashing with the Electronic Eyepiece, so I just used my DSLR to catch the full disc of the Moon. I used 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/4000 second exposure.

I took some snaps of Jupiter with its moons but changed the exposure time to 0.5 second.

I detached my DSLR from my Mak and aimed it above Cassiopeia, in the hope of catching some late Perseids.

August 13^th 2100 GMT

I set another camera trap for the Perseids, aimed at Cassiopeia.

August 13^th 1540 GMT

The Sun was even quieter than it had been recently.

August 11^th 0650 GMT

I got my solar observations and photo shoot in early, as the weather forecast was poor. The Sun seemed rather quiet, yet again.

August 10^th 2110 GMT

I took a few frames of Jupiter with its moons then set a camera trap for the Perseids.

As Jupiter was low, I caught some tree branches with the background stars.

My shots were out of focus but I caught 4 meteors on camera.

August 7^th 1210 GMT

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

August 6^th 1050 GMT

The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light.

August 5^th 1020 GMT

I took some full disc shots of the Sun with my PST and DSLR and the Moon with my DSLR only.

August 5^th 0030 GMT

Mars was well-placed, not just at a high elevation (well higher than 2/3 nights ago) and also in a good position to view from my back garden. Unfortunately, it showed little detail visually, so was quite disappointing. As cloud and moonlight were encroaching and my camera was full of attempts to catch meteors, I decided to call it a night.

August 5^th 2305 GMT

I saw a bright meteor (about magnitude -3) flash through Triangulum, with a short trail.

August 4^th 2245 GMT

I did not have an intervalometer for my Konica Minolta DSLR, so took occasional snaps of the Cassiopeia region at ISO 3200, 18mm focal length and 10 seconds exposure.

August 4^th 2225 GMT

I aimed my DSLR at Cassiopeia at 70mm focal length ISO 6400 and 7 seconds exposure. The idea was to catch some early Perseids.

At about 2246 GMT, I caught one.

Make that two, 30 seconds later.

At 2302 GMT. I caught a faint sporadic meteor.

At 2321, I caught another Perseid.

As a by-product of my meteor imaging, I stacked 383 images to produce an image of Cassiopeia and the Perseus Double Cluster.

August 4^th 2115 GMT

Jupiter looked great, visually. I tried to get focus using the Bresser Electronic Eyepiece but really needed to wait until the Moon was around for a focus target.

I took some snaps of Jupiter and Saturn with my Mak and DSLR. I caught some hint of the cloud belts of Jupiter.

All four Galilean moons were visible.

Saturn even showed some cloud belts.

August 3^rd 1215 GMT

I was pleased to see the Sun in a clear sky, as the weather forecast had suggested otherwise. There seemed to be some activity near the limbs, so I snapped in hope!

August 2^nd 2115 GMT

As it was quite late and I had work the next day, I decided to have a quick look at the planets. I took some afocal shots with my DSLR, just in case I could see something "on film". I started with the Mak at 48x magnification. Although experience had suggested that I would get better views at much higher magnification, the air was not stable and the images were “dancing”.

Jupiter showed a surprising amount of detail, showing polar shading as well as the cloud belts. I only caught a hint of the cloud belts on camera.

Saturn’s rings looked great, although I could not make out the Cassini Division. I could see some surface shading. Not a great photo, though.

Finally, Mars suggested that the worst of the storm was over, as I could see some green patches, once thought to be vegetation. I was also amazed that it was noticeably brighter than Jupiter and its disc was large. I thought it would look great at one o’clock but I had work the next day.

August 2^nd 1035 GMT

The Sun looked quiet in hydrogen alpha light but I was glad to have a clear patch of sky to catch it “on film”.

I processed another frame.

August 2^nd 0600 GMT

I snapped a waning gibbous moon with my DSLR. Unfortunately, all frames were over-exposed.