April 2019

April 25^th 0000 GMT

It was clear, having been cloudy for most of the day. My plan was to catch Lyrids, so I set the camera at 16mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure. Unfortunately, conditions deteriorated, so I was moving the camera around to catch some clear patches of sky. Needless to say, I did not see any meteors.

I had four decent frames of Ursa Minor.

I had 18 frames of Lyra but Deep Sky Stacker selected 11 and I also caught Cygnus.

I only had one frame of Bootes with Corona Borealis but it was enough.

April 22^nd 0000 GMT

The Moon was low in the south east. I used my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

April 21^st 2145 GMT

There was some clear sky but, on closer inspection, it turned out to be hazy. With it being one day before the Lyrids maximum, I went out armed with my DSLR. I set the focal length to 16mm, ISAO to 6400 and exposure to 15 seconds. It was obvious that I was catching a lot of sky glow. I aimed at the head of Draco and set the exposure time to 4 seconds. I did not see any Lyrid meteors but saw a faint sporadic meteor flash through Cygnus.

I thought I had caught a faint, short meteor trail but it turned out to be a satellite trail.

I used Deep Sky Stacker to create this widefield image of Draco's head from 150 frames using a 2-stage stack.

April 21^st 2315 GMT

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.

Although the scattered moonlight did not instil much confidence, I started at the region around Lyra for a few minutes. Afterwards, I was still waiting for my first meteor of the year.

April 20^th 1230 GMT

I photographed the Sun in hydrogen alpha light with my PST and decided to try autofocus. No such luck! I did not have any useable frames.

April 18^th 2215 GMT

Conditions  were hazy again. As I was tired, I just snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked 5 of 9 frames.

April 18^th 1500 GMT

It was a bit hazy, so I went for the Sun with DSLR again, in hope.

April 17^th 2200 GMT

The Moon was nearing full phase and thin cloud was scattering its light. The faintest star visible was Castor. The only sensible target was the Moon itself but I wasn’t complaining. After some under-exposed shots, I used my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I took 100 frames. It was under-exposed but a bit of processing sorted it out.

I used a 3x Barlow lens to boost the focal length to 4.6m and increased the exposure time to 1/50 second. I took several runs, including Tycho, Plato and Copernicus.

First there was 51 frames of Tycho.

Then there were 50 frames of the terminator below Tycho:

This was another set.

I combined the first 3 sets of close-ups to create a stitched composite.

Then there was Plato.

Mare Crisium.

Copernicus.

The final sequence was a bit disappointing.

April 17th 1100 GMT

After a cloudy day the day before, the weather reverted to hazy sunlight. The sunspot took some tracking down and it had rotated quite noticeably in two days.

April 15th 1130 GMT

Conditions for solar viewing and photography were poor again. Owing to the lack of success photographing the Sun the day before, I bin scanned the Sun instead. The large sunspot had rotated quite considerably.

April 14^th 2215 GMT

Conditions were very poor but I had a crack at the Moon. I needed ISO 800 and 1/200 second exposure to register an image. Naturally, I used 300mm focal length. The result was very poor and not worth showing.

April 14^th 0920 GMT

Conditions were poor, with lots of thin cloud but I proceeded anyway with my solar shoot. I caught the faint signature of the sunspot.

April 13^th 1935 GMT

I did some shots of the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/1000 second exposure. I stacked six of 11 frames in Microsoft ICE and finished off in GIMP.

April 13^th 0920 GMT

I did another shoot of the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure.

April 12^th 0900 GMT

My hips were aching, so instead of using my Mak with my DSLR, I used the DSLR alone with 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure. I could see the large sunspot clearly in the viewfinder but did I over-expose the shot?

I then proceeded to snap the Sun with my PST, as the day before. However, it did not show any more detail than the "white light" shot.

April 11^th 1015 GMT

The sky was clear at times. I took a few frames of the Sun with my Mak and DSLR. The large sunspot was easy to see. I used ISO 100, 1/4000 second exposure and 1540mm focal length. Even with filters, the Sun looked clear.

Following some advice from  the folks at East Midlands Stargazers, I re-checked the focus and etalon tuning on my PST. With the sunspot and faculae surrounding it, I managed to see both clearly after a few adjustments. This was much easier than without any noticeable features.

April 11^th 2340 GMT

The Moon was low. I went out again but with my camera alone. I used ISO 6400, 16mm focal length and 15 seconds exposures. I took sets of frames of Virgo, Arcturus and Lyra. I have loads of shots of Lyra but it is one of my favourites.

I just caught the Virgo bowl and not the whole constellation. I needed a wider view or multiple images to stitch.

Bootes and Corona Borealis came out well.

Lyra turned out well.

April 10^th 2115 GMT

The Moon was a waxing crescent and quite bright. It was some time since I had had a decent lunar session. I took some full disc frames with my Mak and DSLR at 1540mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

I then took a series of sets of frames using the above setup with a 3X Barlow lens and 1/25 second exposure. However, the focus was slightly out.

April 10th 1045 GMT

Despite the weather forecast, there were some clear patches between the moving cloud. I managed to see the large sunspot at last! I was using my binoculars and filters.

April 9^th 2015 GMT

Conditions were poor but I had a go at the crescent moon anyway. I used my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/4000 second exposure, hand-held.

April 8^th 1545 GMT

I saw some sunspots on the Big Bear images but a bin scan came up blank.

April 6th 1230 GMT

I tried to check the Sun in hydrogen alpha light but the apparently light cloud obscured any features that may have been present.

April 1^st 1150 GMT

April kicked off with a clear sky. Although sunspots were visible on the professional observatory images, the Sun seemed quiet in hydrogen alpha light. I took a few frames anyway.