May 2023

May 30^th 1125 GMT Sun

 

The Sun was high in the sky, almost as high as it gets. I saw three sunspots, unfortunately, close to the western limb and due to rotate to the other side of the Sun. I was hoping for the clearer skies and solar activity to continue for a while.

May 29^th 1245 GMT Sun

 

There was a lot of moving cloud around, mostly thin but cloud nevertheless. It was time for an alternative method, so back to the binocular scan.

May 28^th 1055 GMT Sun

 

I had a bad back and hips, so shot the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure.

May 27^th 2130 GMT Moon

 

I did another lunar shoot, similar to the evening before, with full disc shots using my Mak and DSLR and close-ups using my Wifi electronic eyepiece.

• I had some trouble with files showing as corrupt but I managed to process all of them, although I had to "normalise" them in PiPP first. Those that did process produced mostly good results.

May 29^th 1245 GMT Sun

 

There was a lot of moving cloud around, mostly thin but cloud nevertheless. It was time for an alternative method, so back to the binocular scan.

May 27th 0830 GMT Sun

 

It was clear, so there was only one thing to do. I like to follow solar activity, so shot the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings. It was great to be out in just shorts and T-shirt.

May 26^th 2040 GMT Moon

 

I attempted some full disc shots with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. Due to camera damage, I was have extreme difficulty achieving focus.

 

It was then time for my Wifi electronic eyepiece to see first light. It was a lot easier to use without needing to run cables to my laptop and initial indications were positive.

The early images were slightly out of focus. Also Autostakkert required me to convert the video file in PiPP, then it gave a blurry image. Registax 5 was better.

One image seemed to work.

May 26^th 1200 GMT Sun

 

I bin scanned the Sun in  a clear sky. The main difference between this drawing and the previous one is the earth’s rotation, which produces a 90 degree difference in orientation between the Sun when due east and due south. The sunspots also rotated, due to the slower solar rotation of about a month.

May 25^th 0515 GMT Sun

 

Disaster struck and maybe a lesson for us all! I intended to do a solar shoot and the only place I could get the Sun from was on concrete. My telescope mount crashed, breaking my finderscope and causing some damage to my camera. It was possible that I could repurpose parts of the finderscope. I swapped it for my other one, a 6x30 straight through one but could not find the Sun. My telescope may have suffered some superficial damage but I was able to see some distant trees, using an eyepiece.

 

Despite my disappointment, I did not want to waste a clear Sun, so I did a binocular scan and saw two new sunspots.

May 24th 2030 GMT Moon and Venus

 

It was dusk and the sky was still far too light to see stars. Good thing the Moon and Venus were about, high in the west. I took out my Mak and DSLR and set them at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I snapped each in turn. The Venus shot did not focus.

 

 

I snapped them both with just my DSLR at various focal lengths at ISO 400 and 1/50 second exposure.

May 24^th 1130 GMT Sun

 

A binocular scan of the Sun showed that the large sunspot had rotated quite considerably and no longer showed double. The presence of smaller sunspots made the view rather interesting.

May 23^rd 2005 GMT Moon and Venus

 

I snapped the Moon, together with Venus from an upstairs window with my phone. Venus was only just visible, as it was soon after sunset.

Unfortunately, Venus did not appear on the photo.

May 22nd 2130 GMT Moon and Venus

 

This was a quick shot of the two together with my phone after the clouds cleared.

May 21st 0720 GMT Sun

 

It was sunny and clear again. The sunspots had rotated since the day before and the group of small sunspots had shown even more members as they rotated from the far side. Great place, the Sun but a bit hot for humans.

May 20th 2220 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

I set my DSLR at 35mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 15 seconds exposure.  I set my camera to take repeated shots automatically and hoped!

The first few frames stacked well to show the northern crown, Corona Borealis.

At 2143 GMT, I caught a faint meteor, probably from the Eta Lyrid shower, as it seemed to come from the right direction.

At 2151 GMT, two faint ones appeared in the same photo in part of the constellation of Hercules.

At 2300 GMT, I caught a bright meteor.

At 2304 GMT, just four minutes later, I caught another faint meteor.

May 20th 2045 GMT Venus

 

It had been a sunny day and the clear conditions persisted into dusk. Venus was still quite high in the west. It was nice again to do a session with summer observing gear of shorts and T-shirt.

 

I took one set of shots at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. Focus was way off, though.

 

I took another set at 4.62m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/10 second exposure. Focus was a bit off but I sorted it out.

May 20th 0750 GMT Sun

 

I woke up to bright sunshine. In decades gone by I would have thought about catching trout but, for most of the last two decades, my thoughts turned to the Sun. I went out with my Mak and DSLR and used my settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and  1/500 second exposure.

 

The view through my camera was amazing. There was a large dual sunspot I had followed in my binoculars two days previously. There were a large number of smaller sunspots, split into two groups.

 

I had a bit more time, so I took my Coronado PST out for the first time in ages. The dual sunspot was immediately noticeable. After a bit of tuning, I detected a bright flare where one of the sunspot groups was. Alas, my attempts at afocal photography with my DSLR and phone camera did not inspire confidence.

The bright flare showed well in a close-up.

May 19^th 2050 GMT Venus

 

Five minutes earlier, Venus and most of the western sky was covered in cloud. As another bank of cloud was moving in, I snapped the planet at 300mm focal length, ISO100 and 1/200 second exposure.

May 19^th 1130 GMT Sun

 

The viewing conditions were the same as the day before – hazy, with some thin cloud. The Sun appeared to be becoming more active but the reality was not so dramatic. We can only see one half of the Sun at one time, officially. In reality, we cannot see the areas on the solar limb very well. If you don’t believe this, try rotating a circular ball and, if permissible (!), draw on it and rotate it. You will see how objects appear to change shape. What had happened on the Sun on the day in question was that the Sun had rotated and new sunspots had come from the far side of the solar sphere. It made for a rather interesting viewing!

May 18^th 1140 GMT Sun

 

There was a lot of haze and thin cloud about but I was able to see some sunspots for the first time for a few days. There was one especially large one that had just emerged onto the solar disc. I had been following a group of small sunspots online for a few days and could see two of them.

May 17th 2015 GMT Venus

It was a dusky dusk, with plenty of thin cloud and haze. The Sun had set and the Moon was in the morning sky. Fortunately, Venus was visible. Its phases are well known to be visible to telescopes but those of us who own large binoculars can also see the phase, although not as accurately as through a telescope. There is also a very special feeling about being able to browse the sky with binoculars, wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

I could see Venus, quite soon after sunset and it showed a mis-shapen disc, like a gibbous moon showing about a 70% phase in my binoculars. This appeared larger than the 60% phase I caught with my telescope and DSLR camera on 7th.

May 14^th 0010 GMT Binocular Session

 

Conditions were not good, with a lot of haze, especially near the horizon. I had a look round while checking my camera. Venus and Mars had long departed the scene and Leo was starting to tip towards the western horizon. Above its hind quarters was the large open star cluster Melotte 111. I could see its main stars, as it filled my binocular field of view. I could also see another type of object, the globular star cluster M13 in Hercules. I could see a central condensation, while the outer layers were fainter. I did not see any induvial stars, a tough pot, even for my large binoculars.

 

I tried to find the nearby globular clusters M3 and M92 but the haze was too thick. I did a quick tour of the double stars Albireo, Delta Lyrae, Epsilon Lyrae, Nu Draconi, 16/17 Draconi and Mizar/Alcor.

 

It was not a great session but I had few recent opportunities to see much beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

May 13^th 2155 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

I retained the same setup and aimed at Lyra, in the hope of getting some meteors. If I didn’t, maybe I might have got some constellation shots.

I stacked the first 40 frames to get an image of Lyra.

I did not catch any meteors and the first 40 frames were the best and most interesting, the remainder being in between constellations or too hazy.

I retained the same setup and aimed at Lyra, in the hope of getting some meteors. If I didn’t, maybe I might have got some constellation shots.

I stacked the first 40 frames to get an image of Lyra.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/52899860272/in/dateposted-public/

May 13th 2240 GMT Venus and Mars

I had taken a photo of Venus with Mars and Pollux, the brightest star in Gemini, 3 days before using my phone camera. This time, I used my chosen method, my DSLR camera. I used 35mm focal length, ISO 800 and 15 seconds exposure. I stacked 6 of 7 images to get this image.

May 13th 1755 GMT Sun

We were out for the afternoon and early evening. The Sun was low in the sky, so I could not use my telescope. I was able to check it with my binoculars and filters and saw two sunspots, one large.

May 10^th 2110 GMT Venus

It was an afterthought, as I had already gone upstairs to bed, having an early start the next day. Venus shone brightly, as dusk was giving way to darkness. I only had my phone with me, so I snapped Venus at 10x magnification. The result, as was frequently revealed on the Jeremy Kyle Show lie detector test was inconclusive. The image showed a suggestion of a gibbous phase but was it just a "round" Venus gone wrong? It looked less convincing than my telescope and DSLR shot 3 days before.

I zoomed back out to full width. Venus was no longer showing a disc but the bright star Pollux (in Gemini) showed. Below and to the left was the planet Mars. Mars was near its faintest, as it was on the far side of the Sun and almost at its furthest from Earth,

May 10^th 0540 GMT Sun

 

The feeling of the Sun’s rays in the morning can be as invigorating as half a cup of coffee, well maybe a quarter. This is especially true if one happens to be a keen amateur astronomer with a special interest in the Sun. I saw several sunspots, with one rather large one through my binoculars and filters.

May 7^th 2005 GMT Venus

 

It was barely dusk and Venus was high in the west. I snapped it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO100 and 1/100 second exposure.

May 7^th 1125 GMT Sun

I was due to miss the best of the solar viewing, so I had to do what I could under the worse viewing conditions at lunchtime. I bin scanned the Sun through moving cloud. I saw a single large sunspot.

May 7^th 0025 GMT Moon

 

It was a case of catching the Moon between cloud. I took some full disc shots at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. It was low down and lots of thin cloud, so no opportunity to do much else.

May 5th 1935 GMT

There were some breaks in the clouds but not enough to get the telescope out. I snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure, hoping to catch the phase. Fortunately, I did and it was very clearly gibbous.

 May 3^rd 1220 GMT Sun

 

I did a solar binocular scan from work and saw new activity had rotated onto the solar disc. It was nice to see some sun after a cloudy day the day before.

May 1st 1200 GMT Sun

The night of 30th April/1st May was cloudy and offered neither viewing nor photographic opportunities. The bank holiday of May 1st did little to inspire me either but a couple of temporary gaps in the cloud allowed me to view some sunspots with my binoculars. At least, it was a start to the month.