July 2021

July 31^st 0050 GMT Moon

 The last quarter Moon was low near the horizon.

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

Also snapped Jupiter at 1/100 second exposure and Saturn at 1/50 second exposure.

 

Jupiter showed a disc but Saturn did not show.

I also saw a meteor flash from Andromeda to Taurus at about magnitude 1.

July 22^nd 2220 GMT Moon and Jupiter

There were some clear patches of sky but there was enough cloud too scatter the moonlight to make nearly everything unobservable. Not everything, though. I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. The underexposure was not as bad as the evening before.

The closeness of the Moon to Jupiter persuaded me to reduce the exposure time to 1 second from the normal two. I also used 300mm focal length and ISO 6400.

  

July 21^th 2155 GMT Moon

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. Unfortunately, it was underexposed. A bit of processing made it look almost normal. Almost!

July 18^th 2110 GMT Moon

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

July 18^th 1030 GMT Sun

It was time for a go at the Sun using my usual method.

July 18^th 0030 GMT Narrow Field

I took a series of shots with my DSLR at 300mm, with various exposure times for different targets.

First was Jupiter and its moons at ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

I tried a similar shot of Saturn but did not capture any moons.

My Melotte 20 shot was slightly out of focus.

I switched to 70mm focal length and 8 seconds exposure.

I stacked the best 3 of 6 frames to get a better Melotte 20.

I stacked 4 of 9 frames to cath the Andromeda Galaxy (M31),

July 18^th 2350 GMT Meteor Hunt

I resumed my meteor hunt. I didn't find any, although there were lots of satellites. I stacked some more frames of Cygnus.  I bagged a nice Milky Way shot and it was difficult to see the constellation.

STACK IN QUEUE

July 17^th 2240 GMT ISS and Meteor Hunt

I had half-forgotten about the International Space Station pass and had already set up my camera to hunt for meteors in the Summer Triangle. It would probably have been better to take a longer exposure at a lower ISO but I caught 3 photos of the event.

I did not find any meteors but stacked a set of 20 frames of the Summer Triangle, selecting the best 12.

July 17^th 2030 GMT Moon

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 3000mm focal length, ISO 1000 and 1/640 second exposure.

July 16^th 1320 GMT Sun

I snapped the Sun with my DSLR and filters at my usual settings.

July 15^th 2250 GMT Meteors and Deep Sky

 

After what had seemed years, it was finally dark and clear enough to do some binocular scanning of some well-known deep sky objects. I used my 15x70 binoculars and saw about three satellites, one appearing like a meteor when viewed through my binoculars. Seeing the Andromeda Galaxy M31 was like seeing an old friend after a few yonks, where a yonk is Pi years (3.14159). It was not at its best but I could see the central region surrounded by a more diffuse, larger region. Melotte 20 was very low but I saw some of it through a tree. I had a go at M4, the globular cluster in Scorpius and it was one of those “did I see it or not” conundrums. By contrast, M13 in Hercules stood out very well. The Wild Duck cluster M11 in Scutum showed well. I tried for M81 and M82 but it was optimistic. M29 in Cygnus posed a different set of problems. The Milky Way background made it difficult to detect a foreground star cluster but I love the Milky Way in Cygnus anyway, so it was an enjoyable sight. Unfortunately, it was high enough in the sky to cause strain in my neck and shoulders. Due to the sound of drunks, I did not venture into the area surrounding our house, where I could see the area around Sagittarius. Never mind, I had a nice eyeful of sky.

 

In parallel, I aimed my DSLR at Cassiopeia, with the intention of catching meteors, with a chance of early members of the Perseid shower or possibly some  constellation shots as a by-product. I used my usual settings of 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, taking repeat shots with my intervalometer. 

I did not catch any meteors but managed an image of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, after a lot of stacking and processing. Polaris is towards the top left and Deneb to the top right.

July 15^th 2100 GMT Moon

 

I waited until deeper into dusk and used my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

July 14^th 1830 GMT Moon

 

I snapped the Moon in daylight, as I had an early start the next day. I used 300mm and ISO 400 and various exposures. The best was taken with an exposure of 1/500 second but, even then, it was not that good. Enough said!

July 14^th 0930 GMT Sun

I saw a small sunspot on the Learmonth images and tried to capture it with my usual settings.

June 13^th 2035 GMT Moon

I snapped the crescent moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 40 and 1/200 second exposure.

July 11^th Lunar Reprocess

With wall-to-wall cloud, I reprocessed some lunar shots from February 18th 2019.

I also reprocessed a webcam image showing Plato.

... and another one showing Copernicus.

July 8^th 2030 GMT Venus

I saw Venus in the early dusk sky. I took several frames at 300mm focal length and ISO 400 with various exposures. The best results were at 1/200 second exposures. The longer exposures produced multiple images.

July 8th Moon January 18th 2020 Reprocessed

I reprocessed an image from January18th 2020/ I caught quite a lot of detail that  did not before but the final image was somewhat grainy.

July 7th Auriga Reprocessed

I started stacking 10 frames of Auriga two days before and it finally finished. The original frames were taken at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. I stacked the best 8 and ended u with this.

July 2^nd 0855 GMT Sun

 

The Sun entered a clear patch of sky, as the Moon had earlier that morning. I used my usual settings and could see the sunspot in my camera viewfinder. Unfortunately, all shots were slightly out of focus. I recorded the sunspot but was somewhat disappointed with the final result.

July 2^nd 0810 GMT Moon

 

The last quarter moon was visible in the south west.  Took some images with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/500 second exposure. The result was rather grainy, although it showed most features.

July 1^st 1210 GMT Sun

 

Conditions were cloudy but apparently better than the day before. As I could see the large sunspot through my viewfinder, there was a very high probability that I had caught it on camera. I used my normal solar settings.

July 1^st 0505 GMT Moon

 

July kicked off early with the waning gibbous moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/6400 second exposure. 

July 1st Perseus Reprocess

I started reprocessing shots from September 17th 2020 during June but the stack did not work. I finalised the shoot by processing a single frame of Perseus.