November 2024

November 11th 2030 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I took my Mak and Angeleyes electronic eyepiece out and did a lunar imaging session. Not everything worked but I saw some interesting lunar closeups on my laptop screen. I converted the movie files in PiPP and stacked using Registax 5.

Meanwhile, Saturn had sunk too low for observation from our back garden.

I turned my attention to Jupiter but cloud rolled in. I switched to my DSLR with my Mak and shot the moons at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second exposure. It did not work, as all shots were blurred.

 I then tried for the planet with the same setup but with ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I caught the two main cloud belts.

 

I was hoping to catch the Moon with Saturn but Saturn was clouded out.

I tried to capture the lunar halo but my initial exposure with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and1/500 second exposure just caught the Moon.

I decreased the focal length to 100mm, with ISO 800 and 1/25 second exposure to catch the halo.

November 11th 1725 GMT Venus, Moon and Saturn

 

I did a quick photo shoot with my phone camera at default settings.

 

I used 8x zoom to capture Venus between two houses.

At 2.8x The Moon and Saturn both appeared in my photos.

November 11th 1650 GMT Moon and Venus 

 

I finally saw the Moon in clear sky and photographed it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

Venus was low in the west and too low to use my telescope on. I switched to my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. As suspected, it suggested a 100% phase.

 

I finally tried to capture the Moon with Saturn but moonlight and twilight conspired to make this difficult. I finally nailed the shot with my DSLR at 100mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 1/25 second exposure.

November 11th 1205 GMT Sun

The predicted clear sky did not materialise. There was lot of cloud, with varying degrees but I managed to see two sunspots through my binoculars and filters.

November 10th 1415 GMT Sun 

Some slivers of pale autumn sunlight broke through some clearer patches of sky. They were neither clear nor broad enough to reveal any sunspots to my binoculars and filters.

November 9th 2325 GMT Jupiter and Aldebaran 

 

The first tiny bit of clear sky in the month showed just Jupiter and Aldebaran. I photographed them with my phone camera at default settings before they vanished! It needed quite a lot of processing in GIMP to extract Aldebaran from the cloud.

October 2024

October 27th 1030 GMT Sun 

It was back to GMT for the UK. There was thin cloud but I proceeded to photograph the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

October 27th 0000 GMT Jupiter's Moons 

 

I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure for the last time on BST in 2024. I photographed Jupiter's moons. I tried some other shots but they did not work.

 

October 24th 0020 GMT Moon, Mars and Jupiter 

 

The Moon and Mars were very close in the sky in the East. 

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

 

I photographed the two objects together at 200mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/20 second exposure.

 

I changed lenses to include Jupiter in the shot with my DSLR at 24mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/20 second exposure.

 

I estimated that Betelguese was about magnitude 0.6 in brightness.

October 22nd 2235 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

I was hoping to catch the Moon with Mars but mist moved in before Mars had risen high enough.

I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. 

 

I did two shots of the Moon with Jupiter, one with my phone camera at default settings and my DSLR at 30mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/20 second exposure.

October 22nd 0955 GMT Sun and Moon

I woke up to clear sky and the Sun and Moon were both visible.

I shot the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I stacked 5 images.

I shot the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 400 and 1/800 second exposure. I stacked 5 images.

October 22nd 2330 GMT Moon, Jupiter and Mars 

 

I took shots of the Moon, Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera.

Moon with Jupiter.

Moon with Mars.

Moon with Jupiter and Mars.

 

October 21st 2250 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

The waning gibbous moon was high in the east, following Jupiter.

I photographed the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. For some reason, the stacked version did not show the whole moon, so I processed a single image as well.

 

I photographed Jupiter at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. Like the moon, the unstacked version was better.

 

I photographed Jupiter at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second to try to capture some moons. I tried in vain!

October 21st 2015 GMT Comet? Moon and Jupiter 

 

I had been in and out of the house, waiting for the sky to clear. It never really did! I aimed my DSLR camera in the direction of the comet, setting it to ISO 6400 and 8 seconds exposure. I took sets of shots at 18mm and 45mm focal length. I caught some constellations but no comet.

 

 

I snapped the Moon and Jupiter together at 45mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1 second exposure.

An early exposure at higher ISO showed a short meteor trail.

October 21st 1910 GMT Saturn 

 

I photographed Saturn with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. Most of the sky was too cloudy to photograph anything else. Titan was very close to Saturn and only became visible after stacking 9 images.

October 21st 1615 GMT Sun

It had been very cloudy but it cleared a bit late afternoon. I tried a few shots of the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure and hoped! I hoped in vain as the photos were over-exposed.

October 21st 2330 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

Jupiter and the Moon were at a higher elevation than in the evening. I took some Moon shots with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. They did not work, out of focus.

I took some shots of the Moon with Jupiter at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/15 second exposure.

 

I tried photographing Jupiter at 300mm focal length and ISO 6400 to capture its moons. As Jupiter was very close to the Moon, I reduced my normal exposure time to 1 second, then 1/2 second.

October 20th 2015 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

 

It had been a cloudy and sometimes wet day. It cleared somewhat after dusk but not enough to see the comet. I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.

 

I then photographed the Moon with Jupiter at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/15 second exposure.

October 19th 1820 GMT Comet 

I finally saw Comet A3 but just the coma and no sign of a tail. Before I could take any photos, cloud rolled in and even Arcturus was barely visible. The images showed just a faint Arcturus. 

October 19th 1750 GMT No Comet

Some stars were visible and many more appeared in my binoculars but I could not see the comet.

October 19th 1730 GMT Venus 

It was a bit early for the comet but I went out anyway. I could not see any stars and the western horizon was rather cloudy. After a lot of hunting, I saw Venus through my binoculars between two houses. It appeared as a disc and suggested a 100% phase. This would not be much different through most amateur telescopes. It was not visible to my eyes.

October 19th 0920 GMT Sun 

 

I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The Sun was very quiet with only a few small sunspots.

October 18th 2330 GMT Moon and Planets

 

The Moon had risen higher in the sky but so did Jupiter. Mars had also risen.

 

I used my phone camera to capture Jupiter with Mars and also Jupiter with the Moon.

 

I also saw Betelguese near the horizon and estimated its brightness to be magnitude 0.5.

October 17th 2015 GMT Moon and Planets

 

It was full darkness and the supermoon was very bright in a cloudless sky. I photographed it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/2000 second exposure.

 

I then increased the exposure time to 1/25 second to try to capture Saturn and Jupiter. 

I then used my phone camera to attempt to capture the Moon with Saturn, then Jupiter.

None of these photos worked, probably because of the strong moonlight.

October 17th 1810 GMT Comet A3

 

I was late to the party, as usual. While other astronomers, worldwide, were proudly sharing their photos online, I was clouded out.

The comet was low in the west but, in the twilight, was invisible to my eyes. There were also layers of cloud. I saw it through my 15x70 binoculars but the head was fuzzy and the tail appeared very short. I hoped for a clearer sky in the days to come.

October 17th 0905 GMT Sun 

 

After a few frustrating days of inactivity, I finally had some clear weather. I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

October 13th Meteor Reprocess

I reprocessed a meteor photo from September 12th 2018 using GraXpert and adjusting exposure.

October 13th 0010 GMT  Skyscapes

 

There was a northern lights alert. I looked outside and there was a lot of cloud but the clouds were lit to a high elevation. That seemed too high to be reflection from the lights of Bath. 

I set my DSLR camera to 18mm focal length, ISO 800 and 15 seconds exposure.

I took some shots in the direction of Jupiter. 

 

This image shows Mars near the tree at the bottom of the photo.

I turned my camera northwards and took some shots. The glow seemed greenish, so could have been the real thing bit I wasn't sure.

After processing these images, it was more likely that the clouds were reflecting lights from Bath and nearby towns, rather than the northern lights.

October 12th 1800 GMT Moon 

 

After an unsuccessful comet hunt with my binoculars, I snapped the Moon again with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.

October 12th 1700 GMT Moon 

 

I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/500 second exposure.

October 12th 1610 GMT Sun 

 

After a cloudy day, the Sun was out. I photographed it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. I saw two large sunspots through my camera viewfinder.

October 10th 1130 GMT Sun

There was a lot of moving cloud around and my back was playing up again. I had to be content to record sunspots using my binoculars and filters.

October 7th 1130 GMT Sun 

After a showery morning, it cleared enough for me to photograph the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

October 6th 2230 GMT Planetary Moons 

 

It was a  hazy night after a wet and stormy day. I photographed Jupiter and Saturn with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure, hoping to catch some moons. Unfortunately, the tripod was unstable in the wind and all photos were blurred.

October 5th 0830 GMT Sun 

 

I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The Sun was alive!

October 5th 2340 GMT Planetary Moons and Deep Sky

 

I had waited for the sky to clear but it never quite did. Jupiter was in a clear patch of sky but Saturn wasn't.

 

I attempted to catch Jupiter's moons with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. Jupiter's light was spread by haze, so stacking could not work. I processed a single photo to reveal two moons.

 

I adjusted the focal length to 70mm and the exposure time to 8 seconds and went for the star cluster M37. I did not catch the right part of the sky but the view of the Milky Way in Auriga was quite nice.

Having seen a potentially interesting object between Jupiter and Aldebaran a few days before, I took a few images at the same settings. NGC 1746 is the star cluster above Jupiter and slightly to the right, the one I had seen. NGC1817 is the star cluster to the left of the bright star Aldebaran. I had not seen this before.

Cloud encroached from both east and west, spoiling any chance of further action but, as if by magic, Saturn appeared in a hole in the cloud.  I returned my camera settings to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. I did not capture Titan.

October 4th 0820 GMT Sun 

 

I saw loads of sunspots through my camera viewfinder. I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

October 4th 2345 GMT Planetary Moons and the Seven Sisters 

 

My camera shutter release was not working perfectly but well enough to overcome the problems of the night before.

 

I set my camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. 

 

Firstly, I photographed Jupiter, hoping to catch the moons. I caught three.

 

Secondly, I photographed Saturn, hoping to catch Titan. I didn't.

 

Lastly, I took a few photos of the Seven Sisters.

October 3rd 1200 GMT Sun 

 

Following  failed solar shoot, I bin scanned the Sun and saw some of the sunspots that I had seen through my camera viewfinder.

October 3^rd  0820 GMT Sun
 

I woke up to clear sky. I took my telescope and camera out. Although there were no large sunspots, there was quite a number of them since I last saw the Sun. I took a few photos at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure, as usual. Unfortunately, the shoot did not work.

 

October 2nd 2130 GMT Planetary Moons 

 

It wad quite hazy, with a lot of cloud around but Saturn and Jupiter were showing. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure. My remote shutter release was not working, so some images were blurred as I tried to capture the moons. Only one showed Titan and, even then, there was some camera shake.