December 2020

December 31^st 1200 GMT Sun

It was clear but very cold outside, so I checked the Sun with my binoculars and filters. I could see a single large sunspot about to rotate round the other side of the Sun.

December 31^st 0200 GMT Betelguese

 I compared Betelguese to some surrounding stars and estimated its magnitude to be about 0.7. Normalish, I guess.

December 30^th 2255 GMT Moon

There had been a lot of cloud around and it was not until late evening that I managed to photograph the Moon. It looked very similar to what it looked like nearly 29 hours earlier.

December 29^th 1800 GMT Moon

19 hours later, the Moon was in a clear patch of sky, As it was damp and cold outside, I snapped it, using the same settings as earlier.

December 29^th 2300 GMT Moon

Conditions were slightly better than the night before, so I used ISO 100, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

December 28^th 0215 GMT Moon

I snapped the Moon under difficult conditions at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

December 27^th 1125 GMT Sun

It was clear for a change. I started off with my PST for a hydrogen alpha shot. Visually, I could only see sunspots but I took a few afocal shots and processed the best. Although they are not as well resolved as with the Big Bear instruments, I was able to image some bright spots (plages) near the sunspots.

I also did a white light shoot with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings (1540mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure). Despite stacking, I still had a rogue image of a hair, so I cropped the image to show just the region containing sunspots.

December 24^th 1725 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Saturn

I caught the Moon and then Jupiter and Saturn together but neither were good shots.

December 20^th 1545 GMT Moon

I saw Jupiter and Saturn close together, although truthfully they did not look any closer than they were the evening before. Clouds rolled in while I was setting up the camera. Fortunately, the Moon was in a clear patch of sky and I snapped it at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

December 20^th 1330 GMT Sun

 

I had seen some plages and faculae on the Big Bear solar observatory images. I had a rare look at the Sun though my PST. After some etalonic tuning, I could make out some albedo features near the bottom of the telescope image but nothing like what I had seen on the Big Bear website. I went to fetch my camera but the view was soon lost to cloud!

December 19^th 2255 GMT Deep Sky and Meteors

My intention was to see if I could catch some Geminid meteors at the tail end of the shower but, with an unexpectedly clear sky, I decided to do some deep sky shots first.

As the Pleaides were high in the sky, I hurt my neck by trying to photograph them and could not get anywhere near the target. Whilst I caught the Orion Great Nebula (M42) on camera, the results were blurred and with camera shake. Not a good start!

Fortunately, I had 7 good frames of the Hyades at 100mm focal length, ISO6400 and 2 seconds exposure. To be honest, I intended to adjust the exposure to 6 seconds but forgot. However, after stacking and processing the result was pleasing.

I stacked some early photos from the meteor hunt to catch the stars between Gemini and Ursa Major. Unfortunately, the signal-to-noise ratio was poor.

Despite taking over 400 shots, I did not catch a single meteor. It was rather disappointing but at least the early session produced a nice conjunction shot.

December 19^th 1715 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Saturn

It was on and off during the day as to whether I would be able to see Jupiter and Saturn together. It cleared for a short while in the early evening. The Moon was also visible, so I shot it at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

I tried various combinations to get the best out of Jupiter and Saturn. The best result was with 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1 second exposure.

December 15^th 1755 GMT Meteor Hunt

The sky was clear (well-ish). I set up my camera in the usual way. I was having problems focussing, so I tested with Cygnus and Lyra.

I stacked some early images to get Auriga and Perseus together but the stack gave two Capellas, so just Perseus, similar to the photo on 12th.

 At 1808 GMT, I caught a bright meteor in Perseus. It was not a Geminid.

At 1845 GMT thick cloud moved in, so I brought the camera in before it rained!

December 15^th 1725 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

I caught them together using my usual settings. I saw two of Jupiter's moons.

December 12^th 1810 GMT Meteor Hunt

I was hoping to catch some meteors from the Geminid shower. It was quiet, to start, with just some satellites. I stacked some of the early frames to show the constellation of Perseus.

At 1828 GMT, I caught a meteor in Perseus that was at the right direction to be a true Geminid. There is a possibility that it could have been moving in the opposite direction or could have been a co-incidental sporadic meteor.

December 12^th 1805 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

An hour later, it was night. The planets were clear of the horizon and between some tree branches.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/50711429278/in/dateposted-public/

December 12^th 1705 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

It was dusk but, having missed an opportunity before, wanted to catch Jupiter and Saturn together. I used ISO 1600 and 2 seconds exposure and caught both planets and three of Jupiter's moons.

December 5^th 2305 GMT Moon

It had cleared somewhat, as the Moon was clear of any clouds. I used my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.

December 5^th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

Conditions were not perfect, with cloud around but it was almost mandatory to leave out the Geminid meteors. It was still early in the shower, with the peak on about December 14^th. My experiences with meteors previously in the year had been mixed, with a good view of the Lyrids and a few photos, to being clouded out for the Perseids, Leonids and Orionids. I used my normal technique of taking multiple shots with an intervalometer with my DSLR at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, with a 6 second interval before the next one. Gemini was near the bottom of the frame.

I caught a meteor at 2207 GMT. It was not a shower meteor but most astronomers would take it!

I processed 10 early frames to reveal Auriga.

December 5^th 1735 GMT Jupiter, Saturn and Deep Sky

 

It was not completely dark but the weather had been unreliable for several days. I started off with my prime target of Jupiter and Saturn together. They fitted comfortably into my camera field of view at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure, standard stuff. There were a couple of faint dots near Saturn that could have been Titan but there were definitely three of Jupiter's moons, all to the left (east).

 

With Melotte 20 and the Pleiades (M45) well clear of the horizon, I took several frames, using the same settings, hoping to stack some images.

I disturbed the focus while switching targets and Deep Sky Stacker was not co-operating, so I shrunk the image to compensate. 

Same treatment for Melotte 20 but I felt that the result was better.

December 1^st  1200 GMT Sun

 

There was a lot of thin cloud around. I snapped the Sun with my DSLR and filter at the usual settings. The focus was slightly out, or it could have been due to the cloud. At least I recorded the positions and approximate sizes of the sunspots.

December 1^st 0730 GMT Moon

 

The Moon was low in the north west before sunrise and was only hours past full. I took some snaps with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/800 second exposure.

November 2020

November 26^th 1850 GMT Moon

Conditions were poor but I went ahead with a lunar shoot at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

November 26^th 1235 GMT Sun

 

As it was lunchtime, I just did a quick photo shoot of the Sun in white light with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure.

November 25^th 1820 GMT Moon and Planets

I started off with Jupiter and Saturn with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. It was clear that they were getting closer. I caught two of Jupiter's moons.

I took a snap of the Moon with Mars at about 150mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/30 second exposure.

Mars came put quite well despite only using a digital SLR camera.

The shots with the Moon on its own were out of focus.

November 22^nd 1820 GMT Moon and Planets

 

I had a minor disaster when I deleted some photos in the middle of the session, so I took them again.

 

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

I snapped each of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with my DSLR at 300mm ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. I did not catch more than a blur in each attempt.

 

I snapped Jupiter and Saturn together with my DSLR at 300mm ISO 6400 and 2 second exposure.

November 21st 1405 GMT Sun

On a very cloudy and wet day, the sky cleared long enough for me to check the Sun with my binoculars. I saw the sunspot.

 

November 19^th 1730 GMT Moon
 

It would have been a great night to catch the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn together but the clouds intervened. I caught the Moon but not sure whether I caught anything else. Unfortunately, even the lunar shots were polluted by cloud.

November 19^th 1205 GMT Sun

I saw a new sunspot on the Big Bear images, so had a punt at snapping it with my DSLR, at lunchtime.

November 18^th 1730 GMT Triple Shot

 I managed to recover my files lost from this session the next day.

 I took photos of the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn together, the Moon on its own and an ambitious shot of Jupiter at a short exposure to try and catch some cloud top detail. I also had another crack at Mars.

My first set of shots caught all objects together.

My second shot caught the Moon with Earthshine.

I tried to catch the Moon showing the bright side and some details but I did not get accurate enough focus.

However, I managed to catch two of Jupiter's moons and Titan (very close to Saturn and to the right).

I managed to catch the north equatorial cloud belt of Jupiter, although the south one is even less distinct.

A further Moon shot at ISO 100 produced a much better result.

None of the Mars shots worked.

In the first step of digital wizardry, I resized the lunar shot, above, and put it onto the shot of the three objects together.

I also tidied up the image of Jupiter and Saturn, superimposed the image of Jupiter onto the photo and brightened Titan a bit.

I tried to combine the above photo with my Moon, Jupiter and Saturn shot but could not get it to work.

November 18th 1730 GMT Disaster!

In trying to copy the files from a photo shoot of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, I lost the lot!

November 15th 1820 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

With most of the sky covered by cloud, it was lucky that Jupiter and Saturn were visible through a thin layer. Had the sky been clear, I would have caught more background stars. For once, Jupiter and Saturn could fit into the field of view of my DSLR at 300mm focal length. I used my usual settings of ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

November 14^th 2230 GMT Mars

 

Naturally, I had been playing David Bowie music a day or two before. October had passed without me seeing Mars and nearly half of November, too.  Conditions were poor, with lots of moving cloud of various thicknesses. As the air was damp, I did not want to risk bringing my laptop outside. Besides, I decided that this was primarily a visual session.

 

I started off with my Mak at 64x magnification, using my 32mm Plossl. I could see some albedo features. Good!

 

I increased the magnification to 103x magnification, using my 15mm Moonfish Group eyepiece. It was great! Not only could I see the albedo features more clearly but I also saw an ice cap. I tried various combinations of higher magnification but could not see the features as well.

 

Knowing that low magnification was the order of the day, I took some snaps with my Mak and DSLR at 1540mm focal length. I used ISO 100 and 400 and exposures from 1/500 second to 1/50 second. I ended up with a close approximation to what I saw.

November 12^th 1205 GMT Sun

 

I had been following the active Sun on the Big Bear and Learmonth images for a few days. Activity had reduced to a single, large sunspot. I took some photos with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure.

 

I also checked through my binoculars and the sunspot appeared smaller than on the observatory images.

November 6^th 1845 GMT Constellations and Meteors

As the night before, I attempted a meteor shoot, using my normal widefield method at 18mm focal length.

I started with a test frame to gauge focus. I caught Lyra, Sagitta and some surrounding constellations and, like my previous shot of the area caught what was either a meteor or satellite trail.

I stacked 25 early frames to capture Andromeda Galaxy

I caught a faint meteor just east (right) of the Pleaides.

I stacked some frames to get Perseus but the above shot was better,

November 6^th 1200 GMT Sun

I caught the sunspot group in my DSLR but the result was blurred.

November 5^th 1620 GMT Various

I kicked off the evening session with a shot of Jupiter's moons.

I could not quite get both planets into the field of view at 300mm focal length but Jupiter and Saturn managed to fit into the field of view at 250mm focal length.

In preparation for a meteor shoot, I reduced the focal length to 70mm and increased the exposure time to 6 seconds. It gave a wider field of view of Jupiter and Saturn.

Unfortunately, despite aiming the camera where there were some minor showers active, I did not catch any meteors on film.

November 5^th 1040 GMT Sun

I had more luck with the Sun, using no more than a DSLR at 300mm, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure. I caught the sunspot group.

November 5^th 0640 GMT Moon

It was twilight but misty. The Moon was high in the south west. I took some frames at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/250 second exposure. Unfortunately, the photos were too faint.

November 4th 1510 GMT Sun

I had trouble getting a clear shot at the Sun, as clouds and trees were obscuring the view. However, the sunspot group appeared as a single, large sunspot in my 127mm Mak with filters.

November 4th 1145 GMT Sun

I saw some sunspot activity on the Big Bear images but was unable to see it through my binoculars.

November 3^rd 2015 GMT Moon

Conditions were similar to the evening before, which dissuaded me from doing a meteor shot. I considered a telescope shoot but it was a bit cold outside and I was quite busy.

November 2^nd 2235 GMT Moon

 

There was just light cloud around and the waning gibbous moon was flooding the nightscape with light. I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.

I had a go at Mars at 1/100 second exposure, just in case I caught anything.

I didn't!