September 2019

September 29^th 2240 GMT Meteor Scan

I had another go at catching meteors during an unexpectedly clear period. This time I aimed at Perseus, as it was fairly high up and I was expecting a higher meteor rate than in the west.

I did not catch any but processed the first 100 frames to reveal Perseus.

September 27^th 2010 GMT Meteor Shoot

I repeated the meteor shoot from the night before but had to abandon it part-way through, due to rain. I aimed the camera higher in the sky and caught a meteor near Lyra.

I stacked 99 images of the area to catch Lyra, Sagitta and Vulpecula. Notice the famous Coathanger.

September 26th 1900 GMT Jupiter and meteor scan

I took some exposures of Jupiter at 300mm focal length, ISO6400 and 2 seconds exposure in an attempt to capture the Galilean moons.

I then changed to 16mm focal length, ISO6400 and 8 seconds exposure and took multiple images of the area around the Summer Triangle in an attempt to capture meteors.

Finally, I stacked 44 frames to obtain an image of Aquila, Delphinus and Sagitta.

September 21^st 0850 GMT Moon

The Moon was high in the south west and was at first quarter phase.

September 20^th 2240 GMT Moon

I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

September 20^th 0650 Moon and Sun

I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/500 second exposure.

The Sun showed little detail, even in hydrogen alpha light.

September 19^th 2205 Moon

I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

September 19^th 1050 GMT The Sun

I repeated the solar shot from the day before.

September 19^th 0705 GMT Morning Moon

Conditions were somewhat hazy but I decided to photograph the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO400 and 1/500 second focal length.

September 18^th 1145 GMT The Sun

The Big Bear images showed a sun very quiet in normal and hydrogen alpha light. However, it was clear outside, so could not resist having a pop with my Personal Solar Telescope and DSLR camera.

September 17^th 2200 GMT Big Moon Shoot

The waning gibbous moon was clear of the rooftops and it was time for the mega moon shoot that I’d been planning for ages. Apart from little else being visible in the night sky, there were no Perseid or other major shower meteors to distract me.

I started off innocently enough with a few frames of the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

The next set of shots was with the Mak and Bresser Electronic Eyepiece. I hadn’t used it for a while and it showed! At one time, I thought I might not get any images at all. As the Moon was shimmering, I resisted the temptation to try a Barlow lens.

However, I used a 3x Barlow lens for my shots with my Mak and DSLR. The effective focal length was 4.62 metres, ISO 100 and 1/50 second focal length.

None of the webcam images overlapped much but some of the DSLR ones did. I stacked a few (already stacked!) images.

September 17^th 0545 GMT Morning Moon

When I got up for work, the Moon was quite high in the west. I took some shots at 300mm focal length, ISO400 and 1/1000 second exposure.

September 15^th 2220 GMT Moon

I had been checking the evening sky but the Moon was mostly covered by cloud. Rather later in the evening it cleared somewhat and I could see a hazy lunar disc and Vega. That was all, apart from the cloud. As I had an eventful day, I was tired and did not consider a telescopic shot would be any better than a DSLR only one. I took my usual approach of 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure and selected the best shot for processing.

September 14^th 2000 GMT Moon and Planetary Moons

I finally managed to replace my intervalometer, which allowed me to take stable longer exposures with my DSLR and tripod. My targets were Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. I tried the same on Melotte 111 to test the setup, even though moonlight and thin cloud were awful conditions.

I did not get good focus on any of my Jupiter shots.

Same for Saturn but it appears that no moon was visible. I caught a satellite trail.

I could not get anything useful from the Melotte 20 frames.

I also snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second focal length. I selected the best of 50 frames and it was, by far, the best snap of the day.

September 13^th 2130 Moon

I wanted to do a proper shoot of the Harvest Moon but was late home from work and needed to be up early next day.

I just took a few frames at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

September 13^th 0955 GMT Sun

The Sun seemed to show some shading visually, so I took some frames in hydrogen alpha light with my PST.

September 11^th 2120 GMT The Moon

The Moon was waxing gibbous and thin cloud was scattering moonlight. I took some frames with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

September 8^th 0200 GMT

There was a clear patch of sky around Taurus. I managed one frame of the Hyades at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure and cloud moved in again.

September 7^th 2230 GMT

I was hoping to catch the Moon again but it had disappeared behind a bank of cloud. I thought maybe a close-up of Cassiopeia. It clouded over while I fetched the camera! I took a few frames at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure near Epsilon Pegasi, in the hope of catching M15 (the nearby globular cluster) before it clouded again.

Unfortunately, I think I missed it and could not recognise this part of Pegasus from my star atlas.

September 7^th 1940 GMT

I repeated the Moon shot from the night before.

September 6^th 1940 GMT

Jupiter and the Moon were close together in the sky. I took some shots with them both with my DSLR at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/10 second exposure.

I then took the Moon alone at 300mm focal length, ISO100 and 1/500 second exposure.

I combined the two to get a composite.

September 6th 1645 GMT

I had a rare look at the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. After tuning my etalon on my PST, I could visually make out a small bump at the edge of the solar disc. I checked the Big Bear images and confirmed that a small prominence was there.

The big question was whether it would appear on the images. Experience suggested that prominences were more difficult to capture on my set-up but disc detail was usually better than what I could see visually. This proved to be the case.

September 4th 1930 GMT

I repeated the shot after sunset using 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

September 4th 1830 GMT

There was some clear sky, for a change, I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/1000 second focal length.

September 1^st 2110 GMT

It was quite clear near the zenith and the Milky Way was clear. I did a photo-visual session, taking some constellation shots while binocular browsing.

I could see two moons of Jupiter, which was very low down and Saturn’s rings but not the gap between the rings and planet. The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) looked great, as usual but I could not see M26. In the east, Melotte 20 looked great, as did the Perseus Double Cluster. I could also make out M34, after a bit of searching. I could see the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) quite clearly and even made out the Pinwheel (M33). I was not able to find M15 for some reason.

Going overhead, I saw loads of background stars around Cygnus, catching Albireo in the process. I also saw Delta and Epsilon Lyrae, the globular clusters in Hercules, M13 and M92. I tried for M81 and M3 but without success. All-in-all in was not a bad session and it was nice to revisit some old friends.

My first set of exposures was of the Plough at 16mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds exposure. Unfortunately, I did not capture the whole asterism.

I used the same settings for Cygnus.

One of the frames contained a meteor trail!

Here's the constellation, with Lyra.