April 27th  Moon June 15th Reprocessed

I reprocessed a Moon shot from June 15th 2019.

I then processed an image with Jupiter's moons.

I combined the above two shots with one of the Moon with Jupiter to get a nice composite shot.

April 26th  Moon February 3rd Reprocessed

I reprocessed a Moon shot from earlier in the year.

April 26th  1120 GMT Sun

The Sun was alive in white light on the Big Bear and Learmonth images. I caught some sunspots in my binoculars and draw the pattern.

April 23rd 2010 GMT Meteor Hunt

Frankly, conditions were poor, with bright moonlight and various levels of cloud. Naturally, I aimed for the Lyra/Hercules region but, part-way through, I needed to move the camera to the Bootes region to avoid the cloud. Although the cloud around Lyra dispersed later, I did not catch any meteors. Although some of the brighter stars were visible on the images, it is likely that there could have been some faint meteors that I missed. Also, there was no point in trying to process constellation shots.

April 23rd Moon 1910 GMT

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. 

April 22nd Meteors

Later I tried to catch some Lyrid meteors near the peak but got my camera settings wrong. I would still have expected a hit or two, even with the wrong settings but didn't.

April 22nd Moon 1905 GMT

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/640 second exposure. 

April 20th Moon 1900 GMT

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/640 second exposure. 

April 19th Moon 1945 GMT

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second exposure. 

April 18th Moon 1900 GMT

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. I was glad to get a decent result for a change.

April 17^th 2150 GMT Meteors

 

I had been keeping an eye out during my Beehive shoot for Lyrid meteors but did not see any. I aimed my camera at Hercules using my usual settings of 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure.

At 2253 GMT, I caught a sporadic meteor, with a short trail, in Corona Borealis.

April 17^th 2135 GMT Beehive Cluster (M44)

 

I had meant to do this shoot for a few weeks but various things got in the way, such as health, work and weather, With the Moon in Gemini, it was not ideal photographic conditions, but  had a go. I took 3 series of shots with my DSLR.

 

First was 100mm focal length, ISO6400 and 8 seconds exposure. Unfortunately, I only got one decent frame, so carefully processed it.

 

Unfortunately none of the close-up images worked but it was a very good widefield shot.

April 17^th 1935 GMT Moon and Betelguese

Betelguese remained at magnitude 0.7. I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. The result was not ideal, meaning I had two bad Moon shots in a row.

April 17^th 0915 GMT Sun

 

T‘ was the 17^th day of the fourth month (April) Year of our Lord 2021, although historians claim that Jesus was born sometime between 7BC and 4BC, so someone is out methinks. Without further ado, I checked the professional solar observatories (usually Big Bear, Learmonth or both). The Sun was featureless in normal (white) light, whilst alive with activity in hydrogen alpha light.

 

I had sometimes taken some shots with my Coronado PST (solar hydrogen alpha telescope) and DSLR camera. Although I had sometimes captured some detail on the solar disc in a quiet solar period, my overall results had been somewhat disappointing. I decided to experiment with various exposure times (1/80 to 1/8 second), whilst leaving the ISO setting at 800. I used 45-55mm focal length for most shots. Although there were no prominences on the professional images, I thought that a longer exposure would reveal any that might have been there.

The first shot was at 1/50 second exposure.

As was the 2nd.

For the next frame, I used 1/20 second exposure but only caught part of the disc. I did catch a filament, though.

A 1/8 second exposure showed a filament in full disc but the general level of contrast was poor.

I processed another 1/8 second exposure and caught some detail just in red but was not able to enhance it.

I processed the green data from a 1/15 second exposure to get this result, showing a little detail.

I processed a 1/40 second shot using both red and green data.

This one was also 1/40 second and was almost identical.

... as was this one.

The final shot was 1/15 second exposure.

The result suggests that I was doing better with manual, as opposed to automatic ones. Using an exposure of 1/15 to 1/40 second exposure seemed to work with ISO 800 but it would be better yo try a lower ISO.

April 16th 2025 GMT Meteor Hunt and Constellations

I tried to catch Lyrid shower meteors but did not. I processed some of the later frames to reveal Hercules and Corona Borealis.

April 16th 2020 GMT Moon and Betelguese

Betelguese was at magnitude 0.7, so no sudden brightening nor fading.

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. Although the result was OK, it was not up to my usual standard, with the focus slightly out.

April 15th 2055 GMT Meteor

I set a camera for meteors, using my normal settings, hooping to catch an early Lyrid. The 32nd photo caught one with a short trail neat the constellation of Lyra.

After taking days to stack the best 20 of 25 images to process some images as a side issue. I caught Lyra and parts of surrounding constellations but the result was less than inspiring. Such is astronomy and such is life sometimes.

April 15th 1915 GMT Moon

The weather during the day had been unreliable. As it happened, later into dusk, it clouded over, but in any case, I nailed the shot. I used the same settings as the evening before but reduced the exposure to 1/125 second exposure.

April 14^th 2025 GMT Moon and Betelguese

 

The thin crescent moon was in the west at dusk. It took me a while to get the exposure right but I settled on 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.

 

As Aldebaran was in clear sky, I was able to confirm that Betelguese was magnitude 0.7.

April 12^th 2010 GMT Betelguese

 

Betelguese was still above the horizon, as was Procyon, one of the main comparison stars. The other, Aldebaran, was blinking in and out of cloud, so I had to disregard it. Pollux was in a clear patch of sky but higher up than Betelguese but it was the best I could do. Rigel was just above some trees but, due to extinction near the horizon, appeared fainter than Procyon.

Whilst, it was not the most reliable of estimates, I figured that Betelguese was about magnitude 0.7.

April 12^th Auriga and Taurus February 3rd reprocessed

I re-ran the stack, selecting the best 16 of 20 frames. Each frame was 18mm focal length, ISO6400 and 6 seconds exposure.

April 11^th Moon February 3rd reprocessed

I tried to re-do an older lunar image but, frankly, the original was slightly better.

April 11^th 1530 GMT Sun

I caught slightly more detail on the solar disc in hydrogen alpha light than I did a few days before. I used my Coronado PST and DSLR used afocally at 55mm focal length and automatic settings.

April 10^th Moon January 5th reprocessed

 I needed to clear some space on my computer.  I had already copied many older files to backing storage and I started to check old photo files and see if  could get better images before deleting them. I reprocessed my lunar shoot from January 5th and ended up with this final image.

April 6^th 0600 GMT Moon

The Moon was low in the south just after dawn and not well-placed, being spring. I got an image but not a good one.

April 5^th 2035 GMT Beehive (M44)

I would have done a photo shoot the evening before, had I not flattened my camera battery on my meteor shoot. I started off doing some test shots on M35 but was not able to find focus. The problem was that the cloud was thickening quite rapidly and I was unable to get a decent image of anything. I returned to the house disappointed, knowing that I was in for a spell of cloudy and wet weather in the upcoming days.

April 5^th 1930 GMT Betelguese

A quick comparison with Procyon and Aldebaran suggested a magnitude of 0.6.

April 5^th 1230 GMT Sun

I caught some detail on the solar disc in hydrogen alpha light. I used my Coronado PST and DSLR used afocally at 55mm focal length and automatic settings.

April 4^th 2340 GMT Binocular Scan

 

It was back to the time of year when it was daylight savings. It was after midnight (BST) but before 0100. I recorded the date as April 4^th, although it was only 2340 GMT. So it had “today’s date” but “yesterday’s time”. To make matters even more confusing, my attempts at catching meteors “on film” had drained my battery and I was unable to perform my planned photo shoot of the Beehive Cluster (M44).

 

Not wishing to waste a clear night, I fulfilled a promise to myself to scan the night sky with my 7x30 binoculars that I inherited from my grandfather. Not having used them for a while, I focussed on the Beehive. It was interesting to see its stars, most of which were on the edge of visibility, twinkle in and out of view and not all at the same time. This was not something I could get with the larger binoculars, nor capture with my camera. It had zero scientific value (as do 99.9999% of my observations and photos) but was nice entertainment value. I also saw the star cluster Melotte 111 but I could only see its brighter members, losing the effect that I get with my larger binoculars. I could not detect any other star clusters nor galaxies, having failed to capture M13.

 

I turned my attention to Lyra. Epsilon Lyrae split clearly but the effect of seeing the two stars (which each show as doubles in my large telescope) close made a pleasing sight. By contrast, Delta Lyrae is a wider double, so not so exciting. I could split Nu Draconi but not Albireo (Beta Cygni), probably as it was low in the sky and the fainter component was too faint to show until later in the night or with a larger instrument.

 

For my last observation, I nearly fell backwards! Alcor and Mizar were near the zenith and, by looking at them, I nearly fell over backwards. They are quite well-known but not especially outstanding to view. They are not a “true” double star because they do not orbit a common centre of gravity but they are related. They are members of the Ursa Major Moving Group of stars that share a common motion through space and were probably born in the same cluster a few million years ago and are of similar distance from us in space.

 

I enjoyed my session but hoped that I would be able to get another chance to do a good photo shoot of the Beehive another evening.

April 3rd 1945 GMT Meteor Hunt

I had some clear, moonless sky for a change and it was full darkness. I aimed my camera high up in the west, near Gemini, with Canis Minor at the bottom of the field of view. I also caught Cancer in the top left (north east). I used my normal settings of 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. I stacked 8 of 11 images.

I caught a meteor at 20:59 GMT from Hydra travelling north west.

April 2nd 1945 GMT Betelguese

I do not normally make variable star magnitude estimates at dusk. As Betelguese was getting lower in the sky and would be even lower at nightfall, I got my visuals in early. Aldebaran and Procyon were about the same height above the horizon as Betelguese, so I was able to make a reasonable estimate of magnitude 0.65. Unlike the spectacular fading of 2020, Betelguese was well within its published range but seemed to have faded from 0.45 in the autumn but the fade did not seem steady. I wondered how much of it was real and how much was due to the observing conditions.