January 2020

January 28^th 2235 GMT Betelguese

It was clear for a few minutes, so I compared the brightness of Betelguese against Bellatrix and Pollux. It was still faint at magnitude 1.5.

January 28^th 1740 GMT Moon and Venus

The Moon and Venus were close together in the dusk sky. I could get them into the same field of view at 200mm focal length and took some snaps at ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

I then took separate frames of each object at 300mm focal length, with the same exposure time.

Unfortunately, I could not obtain a decent image of Venus but combined the Moon with the original image.

I processed the small Venus image from the first shot to capture the planet's phase.

January 21^st 2110 GMT Deep Sky

It started clear but clouded over towards the end of the session. I set my camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. My targets were the star cluster M41. The Orion Nebula (M42), the Beehive (M44) and Orion’s Belt. I tried for M35 but it was too high in the sky for a camera tripod and I could not aim my camera comfortably.

Betelguese was about magnitude 1.4, possibly a shade fainter.

First was 12 frames of M41 and I was rather pleased with it being my best so far.

Then there was 14 frames of the Orion Nebula.

Only two frames of the Beehive (M44) stacked but I liked the result, anyway.

Orion's belt did not stack and I was unable to capture any nebulousity, even though I have managed to do it in the past.

January 21^st 1835 Venus

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

January 19^th 1730 GMT Meteor Scan

It was cold outside but I did not want to waste a clear night. There was a minor meteor shower in Ursa Minor, so I set my camera for multiple exposures at Ursa Minor with my DSLR at 16mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 8 seconds exposure.

January 18^th 0915 GMT Moon

The waning crescent moon was low in the west. I took some frames with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/250 second exposure, quite normal for daylit moon sessions. Unfortunately, there was not enough contrast.

January 17th 2135 GMT Deep Sky

There was a clear spell, so I decided to do a few shots. I started with a widefield shot of Sirius which, incidentally, caught M41. I used 70mm focal length, 8 seconds exposure and ISO 6400 with my DSLR.

From an object that is not photographed very often, here's one that is. Astronomers call it M45, as it is one of the Messier Objects, but it is known to most people as the Seven Sisters. I take photos at different zoom levels in order to show different aspects of this star cluster. I used the same settings as for the Sirius/M41 shot.

The final shot was a close-up of M45 using my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO6400 and 2 seconds exposure. I stacked 21 frames. I was disappointed not to get the nebulousity, which I sometimes get.

January 15^th 2110 GMT Deep Sky

It was a clear night, so I did not want to waste it. I started off with the Orion Great Nebula (M42) at 70mm focal length, 8 seconds exposure and ISO 6400. I stacked 5 frames with Deep Sky Stacker and finished in GIMP.

I then tried hunting down M35, a star cluster in Gemini.

The first attempt used the same parameters as the M42 shot above but caught part of Gemini that showed lots of stars.

Other attempts suffered from focus problems. I caught M35, although it was a very widefield shot.


January 15^th 1940 GMT Betelguese

Contrary to my previous estimate, I checked Betelguese against stars of similar brightness, such as Pollux, Bellatrix, Aldebaran and Deneb. I could definitely say that it was no brighter than magnitude 1.4 and could even have been nearer 1.5, so I settled on 1.45. I did not make any further observations, as I was on my way shops.

January 15^th 1735 GMT Venus

Venus was visible when I finished work, so I bin scanned it from the work’s car park with my 15x70 binoculars. It definitely showed a gibbous phase but it appeared nearer full than it did when I photographed it a few days before.

January 13^th 0625 GMT Moon

I repeated the Moon shot from the night before. Unfortunately, all of the shots were out of focus. 

January 12^th 2040 GMT Moon

I took some frames of the waning gibbous moon. I used ISO 100, 300mm focal length and 1/100 second exposure.

I also checked out Betelguese, albeit in poor conditions but thought that it had brightened a bit to magnitude 1.2.

January 10^th 2030 GMT Moon

Conditions were still poor and I needed to increase the exposure time.

I tried again later but could not capture anything useful.

January 10^th 1945 GMT Moon

It was cloudy at 1930 GMT, so I tried again at 1945 GMT. Conditions were not great, as there was some haze. I took a few snaps, in hope.

January 10^th 1900 GMT Moon

Yes, I definitely saw a shadow! I took some snaps.

January 10^th 1830 GMT Moon

The Moon looked a bit darker in part of its disc but it could have been wishful thinking. I took some “snaps”.

January 10^th 1800 GMT

The Moon had risen higher in the sky bit was still shrouded in thin cloud. I could not see any sign of the penumbral shadow but I took some photos anyway.

January 10^th 1735 GMT Moon and Venus

A penumbral eclipse of the Moon had started but the Moon was shrouded in cloud. I took some exposures at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.

I tried the same on Venus but did not appear to register an image, so increased the exposure time to 1/200 second exposure. It was not my best Venus but it definitely showed that the phase was gibbous.

January 4^th 2155 GMT The Moon

About 70% of the sky was covered by thick cloud and the rest by thin cloud. I could see the main stars of Gemini. Fortunately, there is one object that shows well in these conditions and it is the Moon. I took a few frames at ISO 100, 1/500 second exposure and 300mm focal length. The phase was waxing gibbous, just past the first quarter phase.

January 3rd Evening Betelguese

I had been out and about driving and stopped for a drink. Orion was high in the sky and the cloud was in other parts of the sky. The brightness contrast between Betelguese and Pollux was much more noticeable than a few days before. The knee-jerk reaction would suggest that Betelguese had faded by at least by 0.1 of a magnitude to 1.3 or even nearer 1.4. Whilst I would not rule this out, it is probable that the sky conditions had changed since I last saw Orion. In any case, there was no doubt that Betelguese was fainter than at any time in the recent past.