September 25th 1200 GMT Sun
The clear conditions of the early morning did
not persist. There was some thin cloud around at lunchtime but it did not stop
me from seeing some sunspots.
September 25th 0510 GMT Venus
I woke up to a clear sky. Venus shone bright and I
snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second
exposure. I also did the same with Jupiter, just in case.
Betelguese shone brightly and looked brighter than Rigel and
Procyon. It was fainter than Capella, though. I estimates its magnitude to be
0.2.
September 21st 0655 GMT Sun
The Sun had risen and showed two sunspots close together.
September 21st 0545 GMT Venus
It was just a few minutes to sunrise but Venus was
unmistakeable in the late dawn sky. Having botched a previous attempt, I tried
again with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second. I just managed one passable image but, with that as enough.
September 20th M33 Revisited
I found some images of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum from September 19th 2022. I restacked and reprocessed them.
September 20th M34 and NGC752 Revisited
The subject of NGC752 came up in a photo of Triangulum. With cloudy weather and a cold, I found an old photo of it with M34. I did not have the original images, so I reprocessed the final image, using GraXpert and GIMP.
September 19th Melotte 20 Revisited
I reprocessed the Melotte 20 image from 15th, using GraXpert.
September 19th Gamma Arietis
With bad back, a cold and bad weather, I was not going to recapture the real object but I found an old image that I reprocessed in March 2019. Even in 4+ years, my processing techniques had improved and I did not know when the original image was taken and I think it predates my first digital camera. So I reprocessed it again.
September 18th 0550 GMT Venus
Dawn was just about over. The angular separation between the Sun and Venus was very noticeable. I tried a photo shoot of Venus with my DSLR but it did not work.
September 15th 2100 GMT Photo Shoot
Astronomers love those late summer evenings when the Milky
Way arches from Sagittarius low in the south west to Perseus in the east. This
was not one of them!
There was lots of thin cloud around, suggesting that deep
sky photography was for extreme optimists. To that end, I set my camera at
300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.
First up, I tried Jupiter's moons.
Then I tried to capture Titan, Saturn's brightest moon. Without verifying the position of Saturn and the brightness of nearby stars, the result, as some of Jeremy Kyles lie detector tests, was inconclusive.
Despite my earlier misgivings, I tried Melotte 20, the very
bright star cluster in Perseus. It is one of the easiest deep sky object to
photograph.
I had a lot of trouble finding NGC 952 and was not sure I
caught it. I didn't.
I ended up with some dark frames for stacking.
September 15th 2009 GMT Meteor
I was putting some things out for recycling when I saw a
bright meteor about magnitude -3 (bright but somewhat fainter than a fireball)
flash downwards through Andromeda, almost straight vertically down. It had a
reddish colour, as I saw it break up in the atmosphere.
September 15th 1200 GMT Sun
The sky was hazy and the Sun seemed somewhat inactive. This
combination is rarely an inspiring one, so just a single large sunspot to
report.
September 14th 0430 GMT Binocular Scan
I was awake early again. I was hoping to catch Comet Nishimura but, as the evening before, there was a lot of cloud near the horizon. Venus was dazzlingly bright, especially through my binoculars. Its phase appeared larger than my telescope shot from the morning before.
Although the dawn was brightening, I could still see the Orion Great Nebula (M42) and most stars of the Pleiades (M45). M35 in Gemini appeared as a faint smudge. I thought about estimating the brightness of Betelguese but, with thin cloud around, any estimate would have been wildly inaccurate, at best. It seemed to be neither unusually bright nor faint.
September 13th 0440 GMT Venus
I was awake a bit before the alarm went off and was
surprised to see a clear, although almost cloud free. sky. Venus looked very
bright. I snapped it with my phone camera with the Moon. I took one with a wider field and a close-up.
As I had some spare time. I took my Mak and DSLR out. I used
1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked the best 5 images and finished in GIMP.
I took some follow-up shots with my DSLR only as a possible
backup. As it happened, the telescope shots came out fine and the DSLR only ones were not.
September 12th 1230 GMT Sun
The weather had been cloudy for a while. It cleared enough,
for a brief period, to allow me to see three sunspots through my binoculars and
filters. I guessed I had to be grateful for that little nugget of activity.
September 9th 0800 GMT Sun
I never thought I would be writing this from Southern
England. It was very hot but I tried the WiFi Electronic eyepiece on the Sun
for the first time. it was hard to settle on a particular part of the Sun, as
it was hard to see the small screen.
I followed up with full disc shots using my Mak and DSLR at
the usual settings.
Nothing worked, so wasted session!
September 9th 2330 GMT Jupiter's Moons and Gamma Arietis
It had been a cloudy evening, despite a positive
weather forecast. I had hoped to do a photo shoot but it never cleared enough.
I snapped Jupiter's moons at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds
exposure. At Phil Collins' bookmaker, it would have been against all odds but I captured all four.
I used the same set up to try to split the double star Gamma
Arietis. I did, too! It is the second brightest star, right and down from centre. Its fainter companion is down and to the left. Except I didn't and what I really captured was a background star. The real Gamma Arietis is too close a double to split with a DSLR and I found an old shot of it and reprocessed it on September 19th.
September 25th 1200 GMT Sun
The clear conditions of the early morning did not persist. There was some thin cloud around at lunchtime but it did not stop me from seeing some sunspots.
September 25th 0510 GMT Venus
I woke up to a clear sky. Venus shone bright and I
snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/400 second
exposure. I also did the same with Jupiter, just in case.
Betelguese shone brightly and looked brighter than Rigel and
Procyon. It was fainter than Capella, though. I estimates its magnitude to be
0.2.
September 21st 0655 GMT Sun
The Sun had risen and showed two sunspots close together.
September 21st 0545 GMT Venus
September 20th M33 Revisited
September 20th M34 and NGC752 Revisited
The subject of NGC752 came up in a photo of Triangulum. With cloudy weather and a cold, I found an old photo of it with M34. I did not have the original images, so I reprocessed the final image, using GraXpert and GIMP.
September 19th Melotte 20 Revisited
I reprocessed the Melotte 20 image from 15th, using GraXpert.
September 19th Gamma Arietis
With bad back, a cold and bad weather, I was not going to recapture the real object but I found an old image that I reprocessed in March 2019. Even in 4+ years, my processing techniques had improved and I did not know when the original image was taken and I think it predates my first digital camera. So I reprocessed it again.
September 18th 0550 GMT Venus
Dawn was just about over. The angular separation between the Sun and Venus was very noticeable. I tried a photo shoot of Venus with my DSLR but it did not work.
September 15th 2100 GMT Photo Shoot
Astronomers love those late summer evenings when the Milky
Way arches from Sagittarius low in the south west to Perseus in the east. This
was not one of them!
There was lots of thin cloud around, suggesting that deep
sky photography was for extreme optimists. To that end, I set my camera at
300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.
First up, I tried Jupiter's moons.
Then I tried to capture Titan, Saturn's brightest moon. Without verifying the position of Saturn and the brightness of nearby stars, the result, as some of Jeremy Kyles lie detector tests, was inconclusive.
Despite my earlier misgivings, I tried Melotte 20, the very
bright star cluster in Perseus. It is one of the easiest deep sky object to
photograph.
I had a lot of trouble finding NGC 952 and was not sure I
caught it. I didn't.
I ended up with some dark frames for stacking.
September 15th 2009 GMT Meteor
I was putting some things out for recycling when I saw a
bright meteor about magnitude -3 (bright but somewhat fainter than a fireball)
flash downwards through Andromeda, almost straight vertically down. It had a
reddish colour, as I saw it break up in the atmosphere.
September 15th 1200 GMT Sun
The sky was hazy and the Sun seemed somewhat inactive. This
combination is rarely an inspiring one, so just a single large sunspot to
report.
September 14th 0430 GMT Binocular Scan
I was awake early again. I was hoping to catch Comet Nishimura but, as the evening before, there was a lot of cloud near the horizon. Venus was dazzlingly bright, especially through my binoculars. Its phase appeared larger than my telescope shot from the morning before.
Although the dawn was brightening, I could still see the Orion Great Nebula (M42) and most stars of the Pleiades (M45). M35 in Gemini appeared as a faint smudge. I thought about estimating the brightness of Betelguese but, with thin cloud around, any estimate would have been wildly inaccurate, at best. It seemed to be neither unusually bright nor faint.
September 13th 0440 GMT Venus
I was awake a bit before the alarm went off and was
surprised to see a clear, although almost cloud free. sky. Venus looked very
bright. I snapped it with my phone camera with the Moon. I took one with a wider field and a close-up.
As I had some spare time. I took my Mak and DSLR out. I used
1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked the best 5 images and finished in GIMP.
I took some follow-up shots with my DSLR only as a possible
backup. As it happened, the telescope shots came out fine and the DSLR only ones were not.
September 12th 1230 GMT Sun
September 9th 0800 GMT Sun
I never thought I would be writing this from Southern
England. It was very hot but I tried the WiFi Electronic eyepiece on the Sun
for the first time. it was hard to settle on a particular part of the Sun, as
it was hard to see the small screen.
I followed up with full disc shots using my Mak and DSLR at
the usual settings.
Nothing worked, so wasted session!
September 9th 2330 GMT Jupiter's Moons and Gamma Arietis
It had been a cloudy evening, despite a positive
weather forecast. I had hoped to do a photo shoot but it never cleared enough.
I snapped Jupiter's moons at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds
exposure. At Phil Collins' bookmaker, it would have been against all odds but I captured all four.
I used the same set up to try to split the double star Gamma
Arietis. I did, too! It is the second brightest star, right and down from centre. Its fainter companion is down and to the left. Except I didn't and what I really captured was a background star. The real Gamma Arietis is too close a double to split with a DSLR and I found an old shot of it and reprocessed it on September 19th.
September 8th 0510 GMT Venus
The sky was mostly cloudy, mostly but not totally. The Moon and Jupiter were clouded out but Venus wasn't. I used the same camera settings and got a clearer photo than on 5th.
September 7th 1200 GMT Sun
September 6th 0500 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Venus
I had a go with my phone camera to catch the Moon with
Jupiter and Venus above the rooftops.
Unfortunately, none of the shots worked.
September 5th 0500 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Venus
Following inferior conjunction, Venus had emerged into the
morning sky and was low in the east. I snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I repeated it for the Moon and Jupiter.
I then shot the Moon and Jupiter wide field at 70mm focal
length.
Then came the inevitable recombination.
September 4th 0350 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I was awake in the early morning. Jupiter and the Moon were
high in the south and noticeably closer than the evening before. I did some
snaps with my camera phone and followed up with my DSLR at 70mm, ISO 800 and
1/30 second exposure.
I took a photo of the Moon then overlaid it on top of the shot with Jupiter and the Moon.
September 3rd 2120 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I snapped the Moon and Jupiter with my phone from an
upstairs window.
September 3rd 0000 GMT Moon and Jupiter
Jupiter had cleared both the horizon and the houses but
conditions were still hazy. I snapped the two together with my DSLR at 18mm
focal length, ISO 400 and 1/50th second exposure.
I took some frames of the Moon at 300mm focal length, ISO
100 and 1/1000 second exposure.
I tried Jupiter by increasing the exposure to 1/250 second
exposure. It did not work.
I then tried to capture the Moons by increasing the ISO to
800 and exposure to 2 seconds.
I combined all 3 images to get this composite shot.
September 2nd 2100 GMT Moon
I did not get the clear sky that the weatherperson promised.
A lot of thin cloud was around. The Moon was low in the east and out of range
of our back garden. I carried my telescope, DSLR and WiFi electronic eyepiece
to a patch of land about 30 yards from our front door.
I started off with my DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100
and 1/200 second exposure and took some full frame shots.
I then switched to the electronic eyepiece and did a few
close ups.
