February 2019

February 27^th 0900 GMT

The Sun was just not very quiet, it was even quieter than that! I took some shots in the vain hope of catching something on camera. I did but not much.

February 27^th 0810 GMT

It was rather cold but clear when I checked out the Moon. It was just past last quarter phase and I snapped it with my DSLR at ISO400 300mm focal length and 1/200^th second exposure.

Unfortunately, I could not get the right contrast.

February 26^th 2250 GMT

I went out again and took some shots of Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia. It was starting to get a bit hazy, so called it a day.

February 26^th 2200 GMT

I took a few frames of Leo using my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 10 seconds exposure. Some mist ruined the photo but I managed to get the main star patterns.

February 25^th 2030 GMT

I took a few widefield shots of Gemini, then reset the controls for star trails around the Pole Star. I caught Cancer as well.

February 25^th 1840 GMT

I saw Mercury low near the western horizon. It was too low to catch in a telescope. Binoculars showed it as a disc but I could not detect the phase. I tried the DSLR on it, more in hope than expectancy. I needed to remove a lot of chromatic aberration.

February 25^th 1000 GMT

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

February 24^th 2200 GMT

I returned outside with my DSLR and used it at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

First was the Orion Great Nebula (M42).

After an OK-ish result from a single frame, I revisited the stacked image to extract more detail.

Then there were 27 frames of the Pleaides:

Again, I tried an alternative process to show more stars and some nebulousity, although the result was not so sharp.

The Beehive (M44) was out of focus but looked OK when I shrunk it.

February 24^th 2000 GMT

I tried a few constellation shots, mostly around Orion but did not have much luck. I managed 3 decent frames of Orion and stacked them using DSS.

February 19^th 0625 GMT 

The Moon appeared full, low in the north west, so I took some frames with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2500^th second exposure.

February 18^th 2000 GMT

Things did not go to plan! I attempted lunar close-ups with my Mak and Bresser Electronic Eyepiece and I had PC crashes and clouds to contend with. I managed two imaging runs aimed at Plato and Copernicus/Kepler.

February 18^th 1740 GMT

It was not long after sunset and I knew that Mercury was in the evening sky. Superficially, the sky appeared clear but, on checking the area near sunset, I could not see any sign of the planet. The Moon, however, was different. It was near full and Tycho’s rays were dominating the moonscape. I could also see Plato, Copernicus and Kepler.

I followed up with some snaps of the Moon with my DSLR at the same settings as the evening before. I managed three shots in focus, so combined them.

February 17^th 2110 GMT

There was lots of moving cloud around but I found a clear patch to take some frames of the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure.

February 16^th 2110 GMT

Despite the weather forecast, there was a lot of haze so I snapped the Moon early using the same approach as the evening before.

February 15^th 1615 GMT

I was out and about with only binoculars. The sky was very clear, so I took a look at the Moon, which was well clear of the horizon. I could clearly see Clavius and Tycho’s ray system was already prominent. Despite the daylight, the contrast was very good.

Although the Learmonth images did not show any features on the Sun, I decided to have a rare look at the Sun, as I normally carry my filters with me. I did not see any features. The Sun was quiet, indeed.

February 15^th 1115 GMT

The Sun looked quiet in hydrogen alpha light again.

February 14^th 2110 GMT

I took some shots of the Moon with my DSLR only. I used 300mm focal length, 1/2000 second exposure and ISO 100.

I was very pleasantly surprised to end up with nine images in focus. I stacked them using Microsoft ICE, then finished in GIMP. I removed the red and blue channels and adjusted colour, curves, brightness and contrast to end up with a decent result.

February 14^th 1350 GMT

The Sun appeared quiet in hydrogen alpha light again but I saw some minor signs of activity.

February 13^th 2110 GMT

After an underwhelming couple of lunar shoots two days before, I increased the exposure time to 1/160 second, with ISO 100 and 1.54m focal length. It seemed to work better and I stacked 110 frames.

February 11^th 2120 GMT

It was my first use of my 127mm Maksutov for the year. The Moon was nicely placed from our back garden. Unfortunately, my Bresser Electronic Eyepiece caused my PC to crash. I think it may have been because I had to rebuild my PC in January. I used my DSLR with my Mak instead to obtain some full disc shots. I used ISO 100, 1.54m focal length and 1/200 second exposure.

Unfortunately, the result was disappointing, despite having stacked 70 images.

February 11^th 1845 GMT

I did another shot of the Moon with my DSLR using the same settings as the evening before.

February 11th 1510 GMT

The Sun was quiet again in hydrogen alpha light.

A second attempt at processing revealed a little more detail.

February 10^th 2120 GMT

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

February 7^th 0940 GMT

There was a persistent clear patch of sky around the Sun. A view through my PST suggested that the Sun was very quiet but I took some full disc shots in the hope of detecting something. The Big Bear images that morning also suggested an unusually quiet sun.

February 2^nd 0940 GMT

There was snow and ice around, so I snapped the Sun in hydrogen alpha light from indoors. It was the most blank and featureless Sun I'd seen but the Big Bear images showed little, too,