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!