October 2020

October 27^th 1845 GMT Moon and other stuff

I did some quick shots of the Moon, Jupiter’s moons, Jupiter and Saturn and Melotte 20.

The Moon shot was, well, out of focus and I was disappointed.

I caught three of Jupiter's moons, with one very close.

I thought Jupiter and Saturn came out well and even showed a couple Jupiter's moons.

I stacked four frames of Melotte 20 to get this result.

October 26^th 2000 GMT Meteor Hunt

The objective was to catch meteors in the east, but I took a test shot of Aquila to test the focus. I caught a trail but it was probably a satellite, just possibly a meteor.

I did not catch any meteors on film but I stacked 25 frames to get Cassiopeia and its surroundings, including the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).

October 26^th 1715 GMT Moon

I used the same settings as the evening before. except that I reduced the exposure time to 1/400 second exposure.

October 25^th 2000 GMT Moon

I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

October 23^rd 2035 GMT Moon

I had clearer conditions for the Moon later on and the first quarter (half moon) phase turned out well. The original was slightly over-exposed.

October 23^rd 1835 GMT Moon and Mars

I attempted to photograph the Moon under very poor conditions and, although I captured some albedo features, the original frames were very poor.

By contrast, Mars was quite good, considering that I was using nothing more than a DSLR and zoom lens.

October 23^rd 1315 GMT Sun

I took some frames of the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO and 1/4000 second exposure, as I do for sunspot shots. Unfortunately, I did not get the clear focus I hoped for.

October 23^rd 0500 GMT Orion and Venus

 

While the kettle was boiling, I had a look at Orion before clouds rolled in. I did not see any meteors. I estimated the magnitude of Betelguese to be 0.5 before cloud rolled in.

 The sky at the east was clear, so I took some shots of Venus with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

Oct 22^nd 1120 GMT Sun

 

I wished I’d brought my camera to work but at least I had my binoculars and filters. There was a large sunspot for a change. 

 

 .October 14^th 0510 GMT Moon

 I caught the Moon with  Venus soon after getting up.

October 11^th 1120 GMT Moon

I attempted a shot of the Moon but could not get enough contrast or detail.

October 10^th 1105 GMT Moon

It was full daylight but cloudy and  caught the Moon with my DSLR. I used 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/320 second exposure.

October 9^th 0510 GMT Moon and Venus

 

The Moon, which was almost at last quarter phase was high in the south. I took some frames at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure.

 

 

I increased the ISO setting to 400 in an attempt to capture Venus. It was more in hope than expectancy, as the Venusian disc was getting smaller in size, as the phase increased, and it was moving further from Earth.

No luck, it was just a try that didn't work. 

October 6^th 0740 GMT Moon

 

At last, some action in October. The waning gibbous moon was high in the west, so I took some shots using my normal daylight settings of ISO 400 300mm focal length and 1/400 second exposure.