August 2021

August 29^th 2350 GMT Moon

I snapped the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

August 28^th 2100 GMT Planetary Moons, Deep Sky and Meteor Search

 

It was dark and clear-ish, with some haze around. I thought that Titan was a tough target, especially as Saturn was quite low but I had a go anyway at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.  didn't detect anything, though.

I used the same settings for Jupiter.

I tried Melotte 20 with the same settings.

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

I tried the Andromeda Galaxy (M31),

I had a go at M15, the globular cluster in Pegasus.

NOTHING worked!

I then switched lenses to 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, aimed at Aquila.

At 2152 GMT, I caught a bright meteor at the bottom right. For brightness comparison, Altair is on the top left.

2 minutes later, I caught a green arc, unaware what it was. 

I caught some further arcs a few minutes later.

At 2309 GMT, I caught some strange lights near Altair.

At 2315 GMT  caught what looked like a near head-on meteor.

August 28^th 1350 GMT Sun

 

I had seen some activity on the solar disc on the Learmonth images, so I had a go at capturing it. Conditions were poor but I had a go with my DSLR and solar filter at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/4000 second exposure.

August 28^th 0130 GMT Moon

It had been a cloudy day and evening but I was about to go to bed when there was an unexpectedly clear sky. I snapped the Moon ay 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

August 26^th 2205 GMT Moon

The Moon had risen, making meteor detection much harder. I snapped it at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

August 26^th 2120 GMT Meteor Hunt

It was 2 days past the official end of the Perseid meteor shower. Apart from the zenith, there was no reason to suspect that any other part of the sky would yield more sporadic meteors, so I had a go.

At 2239 GMT. I caught a late Perseid, or a sporadic that looked like one.

August 26^th 2105 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

 

I had a go for the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, using my usual settings of 300mm focal length, SO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

There was nothing from Saturn.

I then tried for the planets with 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and various exposures. It had worked once before, so there was some hope. Not this time, though!

August 24th 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

Unfortunately, the photos were horribly out of focus but at 2132 GMT, I picked up a shower meteor,. despite it being past the official end of the shower.

At 2139 GMT, I caught a long and winding trail, not being sure what it was. In order to make it more visible, I also caught a short Perseid trail.

August 22nd 0050 GMT Moon

I was about to go to bed when there was an unexpected clear sky. I snapped the full moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure.

It was far from the best Jupiter photo I had ever taken but I managed to detect the cloud bands with just a DSLR camera at 300mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

August 20th Lunar Reprocess

I reprocessed a shot from the evening of September 19th 2019.

August 19th 1945 GMT Moon

After what had seemed like weeks, I finally caught the live Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. Although it was low in the sky, it was in the only clear patch of sky.

August 19^th Lunar Reprocess

I reprocessed a Moon photo from the evening of September 18th 2019.

I reprocessed a Moon photo from the morning of September 19th 2019.

August 18^th Lunar Reprocess

I reprocessed a Moon photo from the morning of September 18th 2019.

August 18^th Lunar Reprocess

I reprocessed a Moon photo from November 18th 2019.

August 15^th 1950 GMT Moon

 

It was early dusk and the Moon appeared above a bank of cloud. I started off with my usual settings and 1/250 second exposure, which I later reduced to 1/400 second. A frame with the longer exposure of 1/250.

August 12^th 2115 GMT Meteor Hunt

This was supposedly the peak night of the shower, although I was unable to stay up all night to watch it. I set up my camera, as per usual.

At 2139 GMT, I caught a bright meteor with a short trail near Cassiopeia.

At 2202 GMT, I caught another meteor.

At 2307 GMT, I caught a sporadic meteor above Andromeda.

At 2223 GMT, a shower meteor with a short trail passed near the Perseus Double Cluster.

At 2228 GMT, I caught a faint shower meteor in Perseus.

 

I also watched at odd intervals. At 2218 GMT, I saw a bright meteor flash westwards above Andromeda. I estimated its magnitude at -4, so borderline fireball. A minute later, I saw a fainter one, but still first magnitude travel north.

August 12^th 2105 GMT Planetary Moons

I shot Jupiter and Saturn at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure in an attempt to catch their moons. Jupiter worked but Saturn didn't.

 I changed lenses to get a wide field view to catch the two planets together.

August 12^th 2020 GMT Moon and Venus

 

Despite its angular distance from the Sun having increased since July and August, the angle with the horizon was very shallow, so it was very low down. I only found it while walking our dogs and realised that it was below the trees from our back garden. No wonder I had trouble finding it and I had to go about 40 yards from the house. Meanwhile, the Moon was about four days past new phase. I snapped both objects with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.

August 10^th 2150 GMT Meteor Hunt

The target area was covered by thin cloud but I could still see the main constellation stars of Cassiopeia. I set my camera to take repeat exposures at my usual meteor hunting settings.

At 2222 GMT, I caught my first Perseid of  the year.,

August 10^th 2135 GMT Jupiter and Saturn

Venus and the Moon were clouded out. No problems as Jupiter and Saturn had already risen. I thought that the “star trailing” I had experienced on some previous shots was caused by a wonky mount, which I tightened up (or Titaned up if you get the reference!). So it was back to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and a full 2 seconds exposure. I also tried to photograph both at ISO 100 and a selection of short exposures, in order to capture the discs, much as I had done the previous year with Venus.

The Jupiter shots showed 3 moons but there was no sign of Titan.

The focus was too far out to catch any planetary detail but that was always going to be an issue. 

I changed lenses to catch the two planets in the same field of view at 26mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure.

August 8^th 2220 GMT Meteor Hunt

I performed another meteor hunt, using my usual set-up. I was hoping to catch Perseid meteors but pointed my camera to the north, as there was plenty of cloud to the east.

At 2247 GMT, I caught a near head-on meteor in the constellation of Ursa Minor.

As most of my frames were ruined by cloud, it was the only meteor I captured. I tried to stack some clear frames to catch some constellations. The stack failed, so I processed a single frame to capture Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Ursa Minor.

August 8^th 0000 GMT Planetary Moons

It had been a damp, cloudy evening. The only clear area of sky was near the southern horizon, I attempted to capture both sets of planetary moons with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

The Saturn shots did not work.

August 7^th 2350 GMT Deep Sky and Planetary Moons

 

Before going to bed, I did a short session with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

 

My first photos of Melotte 20 showed star trailing, so I shorted the exposure time to 1.6 seconds.

 

I then used the same settings to attempt to capture Jupiter’s moons.

With even Titan, the brightest of Saturn’s moons being 8^th magnitude, I adjusted the exposure time to 2.5 seconds. I decided that the risk of some trailing was better than not catching anything at all.

I had never photographed the globular cluster M15 before. As cloud was moving in, I only had time for two sets of shots. One was with the star Enif at the bottom left of the frames. I also aimed the camera sIightly to the north and west to take another set of frames.

I did not catch it.

 

August 6^th 2205 GMT Meteor Hunt

It was about six days to the predicted peak of the Perseid meteor shower. The main reason I had not seen or photographed any to date was the wet and cloudy weather. I did some short watches but did not see any, nor did I see any sporadic meteors but saw quite a few satellites, as I would expect during early August.

I used my normal meteor settings and aimed my camera just above the horizon near Perseus.

I caught a sporadic meteor at 2317 GMT.

I processed some images to reveal the constellation of Cassiopeia.

August 5^th 0310 GMT Moon and Jupiter

 

It was early dawn and the thin waning crescent moon was in the east. I snapped it at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.

Jupiter was low in the south west and I attempted to capture its moons. I used a 1 second exposure instead of my normal 2 seconds, due to the light dawn sky.