September 2018

September 29^th 2230 GMT

I did a session with the Moon and the Bresser Electronic Eyepiece. It seemed to go well but Mars was partially shrouded in cloud and the air was very unsteady.

September 29^th 2010 GMT

After shooting a few darks, I aimed my camera at Vega. I used 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 10 seconds’ exposure. I wanted a constellation shot but was also hoping for a meteor or few.I missed Lyra but caught a meteor.

September 29^th 1225 GMT

I checked the Sun in a clear sky. There appeared to be some features on the disc.

September 28^th 2130 GMT

Evening conditions had changed little from the preceding days. I snapped a few frames of the Moon with my DSLR.

The Pleaides (M45) were in a misty area of sky and showed about a dozen stars through my binoculars. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) looked surprisingly good under the conditions and I could see some albedo features in the central bulge.

September 27^th 2050 GMT

There was lots cloud about but I was able to get some shots of the Moon with my DSLR.

September 27^th  1115 GMT

The Sun was quiet again, even in hydrogen alpha light but I took a few full disc frames and close-ups. This time, I used a lens shield on my camera. I only caught two quadrants but was quite pleased with the result.

September 27^th 0545 GMT

The waning gibbous moon was high in the west, so I snapped a few frames with my DSLR.

September 26^th 2020 GMT

I had time for a quick session but I still had a few things to do before bedtime. As the Moon was up, I took a few full disc shots with my DSLR. I stacked the best 12 frames.

I decided to have a binocular scan, as deep sky photography was out of the question. I started off with the Wild Duck Cluster (M11), a possible target for clearer nights. Saturn showed its rings but I could not quite make out the gap between the rings and planets.

Mars showed a disc, that was all. Melotte 20 was nicely placed and looked great, despite the moonlight. I could even see the Pleaides (M45) low in the east and I had to “trespass” on my neighbours’ lawns to get it above the trees. I finished with the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and could even make out some structure.

September 26^th 1110 GMT

I checked the Sun with my PST. Although I could not see any prominences, the disc looked quite active. I tried some quadrant shots in addition to the full disc ones. Thew results showed that I needed more practice but I still uncovered some details that were not visible in the full disc image.

September 25^th 2015 GMT

There was quite a bit of cloud about so I just did some DSLR lunar shots.

September 25^th 1115 GMT

Visually, there were some albedo features on the solar disc, so I hoped for something interesting on the photos.

September 24^th 2025 GMT

As I needed an early night, I just took some full disc shots of the Moon with just the DSLR.

September 24^th 1020 GMT

The Sun was quiet in hydrogen alpha light again.

September 23^rd 2130 GMT

The Moon was nearly full and had cleared our house, as seen from the back garden. I started off with a few dozen exposures with my Mak and DSLR. I used 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

I took a few runs with my Mak and Bresser Electrronic Eyepiece, then turned my attention to Mars. I could clearly see it on my laptop screen! I saw what looked like some albedo features and an ice cap, then my PC crashed.

I restarted my PC and did a few imaging runs of Mars and seemed to catch something. Although the disc was small, I caught some albedo features, with the third effort being the best.

I then revisited the Moon until my laptop froze and I was starting to freeze myself. I decided to quite while I was ahead.

September 21^st 0925 GMT

There was some moving cloud but the forecast for later was worse. Therefore, I grabbed a shot of the Sun, even though it was (again!) quiet.

September 17^th 2025 GMT

The sky was clear but I had an early start the next day. I took some snaps of the Moon with Saturn then some of the Moon alone. 

I combined the two to get this.

              

September 17^th 1455 GMT

I had some rare clear sky, so snapped the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. There appeared to be some shading.

September 15^th 0820 GMT

The weather forecast for later was bad, so I did an early solar hydrogen alpha shoot. I could not see any detail visually, so I hoped that my camera might reveal something. It took some time but managed to catch a nice filament.

September 13^th 1945 GMT

I popped out to have a look and found that the Moon was too low for telescopic photography but I could snap it using a hand-held DSLR. Unfortunately, none of the shots worked.

I then re-tried the pole shot from the night before. I managed to hit the right spot.

September 12^th 2015 GMT

I decided to have another go at the polar regions. I used ISO 6400, 300mm focal length and 10 seconds exposure. I started off with some dark frames.

I missed Polaris but caught a meteor on film.

... and another one.

I stacked the first hundred photos but had to use Microsoft ICE, as Deep Sky Stacker did not like my images.

I was convinced that one trail was a satellite, rather than a meteor but I was not sure what this was.

I managed to stack the last 51 images to get a deep image of the region.

September 12^th 2006 GMT

I was surveying the sky, looking for potential targets when I saw a meteor in the corner of my eye. It was in the Cygnus/Aquila area, so may have been a Kappa Cygnid.

September 9^th

It was nice to have some clear sky again but the Sun was still quiet.

September 7^th 0650 GMT

The Sun had cleared the trees but was still quiet.

September 7^th 0545 GMT

I snapped a thin crescent moon with my DSLR.

September 6^th 0505 GMT

I did a dawn raid on the Moon with my DSLR.

September 3^rd 1100 GMT

At last some clear sky when I was at home!

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

I also took some snaps of the Moon with my DSLR, although there was a lot of haze. It took a lot of processing to get any detail at all.