December 2023

December 31st 1140 GMT Sun

The Sun was low in the sky, despite being nearly midday and at its highest point in the sky. There was moving cloud, which cleared enough for me to see it through my binoculars and filters. I could not see any sunspots, though.

December 29th 2350 GMT Moon and Betelguese 

 

The cloud and haze from the day persisted into the evening. I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

 
 
Any estimate of the brightness of Betelguese could not be perfectly accurate in cloudy conditions. It seemed to be about magnitude 0.4.

December 29^th 1200 GMT Sun

 

A window of opportunity opened for a rare sliver of astronomical activity. The cloud had thinned enough to let me see the Sun through my binoculars and filters. Unfortunately, the activity from earlier in the month had subsided, revealing just a single sunspot.

December 21st 1855 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

It was a case of cloud-dodging again, as I caught the Moon and Jupiter together with my phone camera.

December 21st 1645 GMT Moon 

 

I still had a cold, so I snapped the Moon from our back door at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure.

December 21^st 1200 GMT Sun

 

As for much of 2023, it was a case of dodging clouds and managing to record a few sunspots visible through my binoculars and filters. I was hoping that 2024 might bring in a new era of sunspot viewing and photography, especially as it was getting closer to solar maximum. However, I should have been grateful that a haul of no less than nine sunspots seen through any sort of astronomical instrument was a good result.

December 19th 2100 GMT Betelguese

 

There were clear spells and Betelguese was about as bright as Procyon. Both were brighter than Rigel, due to extinction but noticeably brighter than Aldebaran, which was much higher in the sky. I concluded that Betelguese was about magnitude 0.4.

December 19th 1700 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I snapped the Moon and Jupiter in the dusk sky with my phone camera.

December 14^th 1320 GMT Sun

 

The clouds eventually cleared enough for me to scan the Sun with my binoculars and filters. There was a lot of activity, with the region where the double sunspot appeared a few days before turning even more active. The bad news was that it was due to rotate off in a few days.

December 11^th 1230 GMT Sun

 

The clouds cleared long enough to show that the two sunspots that I had seen 2 days before had rotated and were still close together.

December 11th 0550 GMT Venus

I woke up early, too early but it gave me a chance to photograph Venus with my Mak and DSLR at 1,54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second exposure. It was showing a distinct gibbous phase, which would probably not be detectable with my DSLR alone.

December 9th 2235 GMT Meteor Hunt 

 

I aimed a camera at Gemini in the hope of catching some Geminid shower meteors. I used my usual settings. I caught a bright one almost immediately.

 

While checking my camera at 2252 GMT, I saw a faint meteor in Orion.

December 9th 1250 GMT Sun

The Sun managed to find a gap in the clouds. Well, scientifically, we know that isn't true and neither the Sun nor the Earth's weather systems have any sort of consciousness that can be controlled or influenced by humans. Still, human perception can deceive us into thinking otherwise. More importantly, I saw two sunspots through my binoculars and filters.'

December 8^th 1015 GMT Sun

 

The Sun was shining through a layer of thin haze. Despite the activity I had been following on the professional observatories, I did not see any sunspots.

December 6th 0610 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

There was some unexpected clear sky, following cloud cover for several days. I snapped the two objects together with my DSLR at 18mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/50 second exposure.

I then changed lenses and photographed each of them at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure. I did not achieve focus for Venus, although the Moon came out.

I combined the two photos.

December 2^nd 1200 GMT Sun

 

It was very misty but I managed to see five sunspots. It was nice to start the month.

December 1st 2030 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

Although the angular separation between the two objects was quite large, I was still able to capture them together with my camera phone at 0.5x zoom.

December 1st 0030 GMT Betelguese

 

 I had a quick look outside when letting our dogs out. Despite the prescene of nearby moonlight, Betelguese easily outshone Procyon. so I estimated its magnitude to be 0.2.

November 2023

November 30th 1930 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

It was clearing. The Moon had not long risen. I could not get it and Jupiter in the same field of view with my phone camera, so I zoomed out to 0.5× and got both objects in comfortably.

November 28th 1800 GMT Moon and Jupiter

There was a brief period where I could photograph the Moon with Jupiter with my phone camera. The wide panorama was near the limit of what I could do with my DSLR at 18mm focal length but it was a comfortable shot with my phone camera. 

     

November 25th 1655 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I snapped the Moon and Jupiter from the car park by the bogs in Chippenham. I took one shot at normal zoom plus a close-up.

November 25th 0930 GMT Sun

The sky was clear and I checked the Sun with my binoculars and filters. I was expecting a bit more excitement, as the sunspots rotated closer to the centre of the solar disc. Instead, there was less activity than the two days.  

November 25th 0010 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

In a few hours more, the Moon and Jupiter moved closer to their conjunction later that night.

November 24th 2100 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

The Moon moved closer to Jupiter than the evening before.

November 23rd 1725 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I photographed them together, as the evening before but from the doctor's surgery car park.

November 23^rd 1200 GMT Sun

 

With a clear sky and active Sun, I could be forgiven for getting outside with my Mak and DSLR, except that I was still getting over a heavy cold and neither my manager nor my wife would have been impressed. Yet, if I am well enough to put a coat on and take the rubbish out, I am well enough to do a binocular scan, right? I’m glad I did. I had seen more sunspots through my binoculars before but I couldn’t remember when. I saw and drew eight but a look at the professional observatories suggested that there were about 30 that I could have caught with my Mak and DSLR.

 

Still, 8 was much better than zero.

November 22nd 2000 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I really should not have gone to the back door with a cold but our canines needed potty. I snapped the Moon and Jupiter with my phone camera.

November 22^nd 1220 GMT Sun

 

Some sunlight broke briefly through thick and thin layers of moving cloud. I had seen some new sunspot activity on the Learmonth professional observatory images but the cloud was too thick for any of it to be visible through my binoculars and filters. So the double frustrations of a cold and bad weather continued to blight my life, at least from an astronomical point of view.

November 22^nd 1220 GMT Sun

 

Some sunlight broke briefly through thick and thin layers of moving cloud. I had seen some new sunspot activity on the Learmonth professional observatory images but the cloud was too thick for any of it to be visible through my binoculars and filters. So the double frustrations of a cold and bad weather continued to blight my life, at least from an astronomical point of view.

November 15^th 1200 GMT Sun

 

There were intermittent breaks in the cloud and they parted to reveal two small sunspots near the limit of resolution in my binoculars.

November 15th 0610 GMT Venus 

 

More in hope than expectancy, I snapped Venus in the dawn sky, hoping to detect its phase, which becomes more difficult as it approaches full. The image showed that the phase was gibbous and not full but I did not properly "nail" the shot.

November 11th 0920 GMT Sun 

 

It was a bright and sunny morning, so I had to do what I had to do. I snapped the Sun through my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings.

November 10th 2015 GMT Meteor Hunt 

 

I aimed my camera in the direction of Taurus and waited and hoped!

Alas, it was in vain, as I did not catch any meteors or anything else.

November 10^th 1215 GMT Sun

 

I saw what appeared to be two sunspots through my binoculars and filters. A look at the GONG professional observatories site showed that the oval sunspot was two that I could not separate in my binoculars.

November 9^th 1200 GMT Sun

 

After the excitement of the lunar occultation of Venus, I saw a single sunspot through my binoculars and filters before the predicted showers.

November 9th Various Times Occultation of Venus by the Moon

I followed the occultation of Venus by the Moon. I had a great view through my camera viewfinder but I overexposed all images, except the first, taken at 0718 GMT,                  

November 7th Meteor Hunt 

It was supposed to be the peak of the Taurid meteors, which have recently been discovered to be two showers. They have two streams, northern and southern.

It started off clear, so I set my camera to take photos automatically at my usual settings. However, I cut the session short when it started to rain.

I did not catch any meteors, nor anything else of interest.

November 7th 0615 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

The Moon was even closer to Venus than the day before. I snapped them together using the same settings as the day before.

 

 

I snapped both objects separately through my telescope at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure.

I combined all 3 photos to get the final result.

November 6th 0610 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

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I then snapped each of them at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. The Moon photo showed well but, with Venus showing only a small image, I did not get focus.

The final step was to combine the two photos to get a composite shot.

November 5th 0935 GMT Sun 

 

It was amazing to think that it was well into autumn, yet still warm enough to wear shorts outside, even though I had coat on top of my T-shirt. I had a busy day on, so just time for a full disc solar session.

 

I used my Mak. DSLR and filter at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I could see sunspots through my camera viewfinder, so felt optimistic about a result.

November 3rd 2120 GMT Meteor Hunt 

 

I set my camera on my usual settings to take continuous photos. I aimed at Taurus in the hope of capturing activity from some minor showers in the area.

At 2105 GMT, I caught something that I could not explain.

Well, unless you count clouds, satellite and aircraft trails, that was that and no meteors!

November 3^rd 1300 GMT Sun

 

As for the two days before, some solar photons made it through the cloud and reached my binoculars and filters. There was a new large sunspot and one of the other two had faded below binocular visibility.

November 1^st 1220 GMT Sun

 

The pale midday sunlight reached my binoculars and filters. The sunspots from the day before had apparently grown slightly larger, with the leftmost one fading in intensity.