September 2022

September 29^th 1945 GMT Planetary Moons and an Afterthought

 

There was another break in the cloud so I did a quick shoot of Jupiter and Saturn at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure in an attempt to capture some moons.

 

 Saturn did not show any moons.

I aimed my camera at M11, just in case it came off. It didn't.

September 29^th 1650 GMT Sun and Moon

 

There was a rare patch of clear sky, so I snapped the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second, with a filter.

 

 

I followed with the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/200 second exposure. Unfortunately, it was overexposed.

September 25^th 1035 GMT Sun

 

With the cloud being a bit thicker than the day before, I used my binoculars to try to detect sunspots. Unfortunately, they were all too small and faint to capture.

September 25^th 2300 GMT Planetary Moons and Deep Sky

 

I did not feel encouraged to try for meteors again, nor did I feel like carting a telescope outside with a bad back. The weather and sky had an autumnal feel to it, with a coat over my T-shirt and the Pleaides clear of the horizon.

 

I started with Jupiter and Saturn’s moons at the usual settings.

I then continued with 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure, as I targeted M34, M33, Pleaides (M45) and Melotte 20.

I only caught M34 widefield.

I missed M33.

The Pleaides shot was composed of the best 13 of 17 frames taken at the same settings and stacked with dark frames.

Melotte 20 showed well, as usual.

 

I switched to 70mm focal length and 8 seconds exposure to go for Mars with the Hyades and a widefield view of the Auriga star clusters. I made the shot I had missed the week before bit did not get the Auriga clusters, even though the starfield looked nice.

September 24^th 1015 GMT Sun

 

The term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) may be a new term but I'd been aware of the concept for a very long time. In my fishing days, I would often daydream about the fish I would have caught if I didn't go. The same applies to astronomy. If it is dark, at least partially cloud-free, or the Sun is out during the day. After the previous night's blank, I was not optimistic but had a go. I used my normal weekend set-up of Maksutov and DSLR with filter at 1.54m focal length, ISO100 and 1/500 second exposure. Thin cloud prevented me from getting as good a shot as the previous weekend but I caught sunspots and, for that, I was grateful.

September 24^th 0330 GMT Mars and Hyades

 

Mars had moved considerably from the month before. I snapped it with the Hyades star cluster at 45mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure. However, the focus was poor and the opportunity was lost.

September 24^th 2300 GMT Meteor Search

 

I replaced my battery and aimed again, this time at the Auriga/Perseus part of the sky. No meteors.

September 23^rd 2130 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

I aimed my camera at Cassiopeia in the hope of catching an Epsilon Persei meteor or one of some minor showers in that part of the sky Some trails looked promising but turned out to be aircraft or satellites.

September 21^st 0505 GMT Moon and Betelguese

 

I snapped the waning crescent moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

 

 

I noticed that many stars were visible and I estimated Betelguese to be magnitude 0.6.

September 19^th 2300 GMT Deep Sky and Moon

 

I had a pot at Jupiter’s moons again, as a focussing shot. I went for M34 at various shots and took multiple shots of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

I got nothing on the Jupiter shot.

I stacked 6 of 8 frames to get M34.

I could not get the Pinwheel shot to stack, so I processed a single frame.

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

September 18^th 2230 GMT Jupiter, Saturn and Deep Sky

 

I was a bit tired but did not want to miss a clear night. I took shots of each planet with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second of exposure in an attempt to capture the moons. I then decreased the ISO and exposure to try to capture planetary detail. I went for a closer shot of Jupiter.

The attempt to catch Saturn with Titan did not work. Neither did the planet.

The image of Jupiter caught a hint of the cloud belts but was over-exposed.

I tried some exposures of some deep sky objects, Pleaides and M34, more as proof of concept shots.

I caught a few of the Pleaides.

As for the other shots, well, they were experimental!

September 18^th 0830 GMT Sun

 

Conditions were not perfect. The Learmonth images showed some groups of small sunspots that I did not expect would show with my DSLR and filter only or my binoculars. So, it was Mak, filter and DSLR or nothing at all. With there being thin cloud around, I used a slightly longer exposure time of 1/400 second. The focal length was 1.54 metres and my ISO setting was 100, as usual. I took a few images during the rare moments of clearer sky.

September 18^th 2330 GMT Planets

 

With cloud encroaching from the east, I attempted to photograph Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons, then snapped the planetary discs with my DSLR at ISO 100 with exposures of 1/25 second and 1/320 second for each planet, respectively.

I did not get anything on Saturn but caught one of Jupiter's cloud belts and a hint of another.

September 17^th 2140 GMT Meteor Search

 

It was clearer than the evening before and I aimed my camera at Perseus, with a few minor showers active in the Perseus/Taurus area.

Unfortunately, the meteors did not co-operate with my plan.

September 16^th 2200 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

With cloud to the east, I reset my camera to meteor settings and aimed my camera at the Square Of Pegasus. 
At 2240 GMT, I caught a bright "guest star" in Andromeda. When I zoomed in, it did not show any tail or any indication of what it was. It was about as bright as Deneb, in Cygnus. It did not appear on the previous nor following photos, so it remains unidentified.

I did not catch any meteors.

September 16^th 2150 GMT Planetary Moons and a Conjunction

 

I changed lenses to try my usual approach at catching the moons of Jupiter and Saturn with Titan. I used 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

The Jupiter shot confirmed the moon capture at 55mm focal length earlier in the evening.

I also caught Titan.

The Moon had risen, with Mars just below. Although there were layers of cloud, I was able to capture the conjunction. I snapped the Moon on its own at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/125 second exposure. I widened out to 100mm focal length and increased the exposure to 2 seconds. This (expectedly) overexposed the Moon but showed Mars as a point of light.

September 16^th 2030 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

With a cloudy time, at least at night, while away on holiday, plus being at a less than ideal observing site, I was back home and set a camera out for meteors. With a few minor showers being active around Perseus, I thought that was the best place to aim.

 I tried some shots of Jupiter, at first, at 55mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure just to see what might happen with its moons.

I thought I had caught a meteor in the first photo but, on examination of the following photos, it turned out to be a satellite trail.

September 14th Perseid Meteor Reprocessed

With there being little clear sky for a few days, I reprocessed a shot of a Perseid meteor from August 6th. I cropped the image to show more detail and boosted contrast.

September 9^th 2020 GMT Moon

 

As for the Sun earlier, I caught the Moon in a rare patch of clear sky. It was almost full, so I used 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. The Moon was low in the sky all week and I had seen it partly obscured several times but never the whole disc. It was on the 8^th day of the month that I finally caught it on camera.

September 9^th 1200 GMT Sun

 

There was a rare clear patch of sky, so I snapped the Sun with my DSLR and filter at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure. Unfortunately, none of the images showed any sunspots or other features.

September 3^rd 0035 GMT Deep Sky and Jupiter’s Moons

 

It cleared again, especially near the zenith. With Perseus high in the sky, I aimed for a widefield shot of Algol with M34 in Perseus. I took multiple images at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure. I missed Algol but M34 was clear, towards the bottom left.

 

I had a go at the polar regions at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400- and 30-seconds exposure. I was unsure whether it would work but I had a try and took multiple exposures.

 

 I ended with Jupiter at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure in the hope of seeing whether the moons had rotated since my previous shot.

September 2^nd 2150 GMT Planetary Moons and Lyra

 

The day had been cloudy and I was unable to photograph either the Sun or Moon. It cleared somewhat later in the evening. Although cloud persisted, there were some clear patches. I repeated the shot the previous week where I photographed Jupiter and Saturn at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure to capture their moons, or at least try to.

 

 

 

Afterwards, I decided to have a go at photographing Lyra, which was near the zenith. I took multiple exposures at 70mm focal length, ISO6400 and 2 seconds exposure and followed with some darks.

After that, some more cloud rolled in.

September 1^st 1100 GMT Sun

 

As I hadn’t seen the Sun for a few days, I bin scanned it, in poor conditions and saw a single sunspot.