March 31st 0200 GMT Constellations
I did a quick shoot of Leo, Arcturus and Spica and Vega and Deneb, or at least tried too.
I caught Vega and Deneb, plus one other star in Cygnus.
I didn't get Arcturus and Vega but I caught some of the stars in Bootes, the constellation in which Arcturus is located.
March 30th 0800 GMT Sun
As the day before, there was an unexpected clear sky. The
large sunspot group had rotated and was barely visible. I snapped the Sun with
my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 30th 0120 GMT Moon
The forecast for clear sky was not only wrong for the early
evening but also for the rest of it as well. Even when. the Moon was in a
small, clear patch of sky, only two stars were visible.
I snapped the Moon with my DSLR only at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 29th 2000 GMT Comet
The weather forecast was for clear sky and Comet Pons-Brooks
had moved into Aries and was near its brightest stars. I used Jupiter to focus
my binoculars and saw one moon. However, despite the weather forecast, most of
the sky was covered by cloud. I saw a hazy smudge with a short tail but it was
not good for photography.
I had a look at the Orion Great Nebula but it was also affected by thin cloud. I returned indoors, disappointed.
March 29th 1210 GMT Sun
Over the preceding days, the Sun had been very active but was obscured by clouds. I did not have any expectation of seeing it, as the forecast was for heavy rain. Yet, there was a clear spell long enough for me to have as go at taking some photographs. It was just as well because the amazingly active region was about to rotate off the disc. There were two other sunspots in the same area, with an otherwise blank solar disc. I missed the top of the disc but the shot was otherwise quite good, taken with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
March 28th 2030 GMT Binocular Session
I was hoping to catch Comet Pons-Brooks and timing was
essential. Too early and the sky would be too bright. Too late and the comet
would set. A quick look outside showed Jupiter was visible, although there was
a lot of cloud around.
Unfortunately, the part of sky to the right and north west
had thin cloud, which thickened as the session went on. Yes, I did not see the
comet but I was outside and armed with binoculars.
It was probably the light cloud but I could not find any of
Jupiter's moons. The Pleiades were another matter, having last seen them in a
moonlit sky. I could see about as many as possible with my binoculars. The
Orion Great Nebula also showed well, despite being low down.
Melotte 20, a star cluster in Perseus, showed well but a
smaller one, M34, was near the cloud and wasn't visible. The Hyades showed well
but as they are a large star cluster, I had to scan around them to see all the
stars, as they cannot fit into my binocular field of view.
I also saw M35, the brightest star cluster in Gemini,
although it didn't show well. Moving east, I had a nice view of the Beehive
cluster and Melotte 111, a large cluster in Coma Berenices.
Cloud started spreading from the west and northwest, so I
returned indoors.
March 23rd 2310 GMT Moon
The Moon was almost full and thin cloud was scattering moonlight everywhere. I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.
March 22nd 1950 GMT Comet etc Al
With a promising weather forecast, I was full of hope. With
69 years of life, 34 of them as an astronomer, I should have known better!
Comet Pons-Brooks was in northeastern Pisces, to the right
and down from Jupiter. Although the cloud in that part of the sky was thin, to
start with, I was unable to see the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, which I knew was
considerably brighter than the comet.
I had used the Orion Great Nebula as a target to focus my
binoculars on. Its appearance was dimmed by moonlight, although I could see it
clearly.
I had a look at some of the brighter star clusters, such as
the Seven Sisters, Melotte 20, M34 and M35. They did not show their
fainter stars, just the brighter ones. The Beehive cluster was barely visible,
being close to the Moon. The Moon was rather splendid through my binoculars.
I returned indoors and snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/640 second exposure.
March 21st 1930 GMT Moon
There was quite a bit of cloud around but I managed to
photograph the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/640
second exposure.
March 21st 1240 GMT Sun
Conditions were very poor but not quite impossible. A
binocular scan with my binoculars and filters showed a large sunspot
accompanied by a small one. There were others that I saw on the professional
observatory images that might have seen under better conditions.
March 20th 2000 GMT Comet and Moon
The weather forecast was cloudy but the sky was clear. I
estimated the brightness of Betelguese to be magnitude 0.7. I aimed my
binoculars to the right (north west) of Jupiter. It was some time before I saw
Comet Pons-Brooks. It seemed like a teardrop shape with a short tail.
Conditions were not good, with a waxing gibbous Moon spreading its bright
light. I was pleased to see it at all.
I photographed the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length,
ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I then tried Jupiter's moons handheld at 300mm focal length,
ISO 6400 and 1/40 second, which has sometimes been known to work.
I tried the part of the sky where the comet was at 55mm
focal length, ISO 6400 and 10 seconds exposure but cloud was moving in.
I didn't get anything useful from the photos but at least I saw the comet.
March 19th 1200 GMT Sun
I bin scanned the Sun through various layers of moving
cloud. I saw two sunspots but did not see any of the others that were visible
on the professional observatory images.
March 18th 2140 GMT Moon
Conditions were poor but not impossible. The Moon was
shining through various layers of cloud. I took several shots at various
exposures with my DSLR at 300mm focal length and ISO 100.
March 18th Moon Reprocessed
I reprocessed a Moon photo from September 4th 2004.
March 17th Moon Reprocessed
I wasn't happy with the Moon photo I took two days before, so I reprocessed it.
I also processed Moon shots from September 1st 2004.
A close-up from October 2nd 2024 showed much better results.
March 15th 2130 GMT Moon
I snapped the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/160 second exposure. I tried some closer shots but my
back started hurting.
March 15th 1930 GMT Moon with Jupiter
I snapped the Moon and Jupiter with my phone camera.
March 13th 1835 GMT Moon
There was a bit of clearing sky at dusk. I snapped the Moon
with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure.
March 6th 1930 GMT Comet or not, revisited
I started earlier, while the last haze of dusk had nearly
gone. I also moved further away from the streetlights. I had concentrated my
search in the wrong part of the sky the evening before, although it was
probable that I had my binoculars in the right place more than once.
I started with Jupiter again, to focus my binoculars but
only saw one moon this time. I moved to the Andromeda Galaxy and searched
slowly towards the horizon. It took several tries before I saw a fuzzy patch on
a hazy part of sky. It looked nothing like a comet, more like a globular star
cluster or galaxy. It looked not that different from the Pinwheel Galaxy in
Triangulum. With the background haze, it was not possible to photograph it.
It was hazy near the horizon all around the sky. The Tau
Canis Majoris cluster looked very sparse, showing only the brighter stars, as
did M41, the other notable star cluster in Canis Major, not far from Sirius.
I revisited the objects from the evening before viewing the
Beehive cluster.
March 6th 1230 GMT Sun
The sky was clear but my binoculars could still only detect
the two sunspots I had seen the day before.
March 5th 2015 GMT Comet or Not
It was rather later than I intended and the expected
position of Comet Pons-Brooks was too low to see from the back garden. I went
out the front of the house where there were more streetlights. OK, being a
newbuild estate, the lights were the sort astronomers campaigned for but I lost
about half a magnitude.
I used Jupiter's moons to get binocular focus and saw 2
moons to the south west.
The Andromeda Galaxy was clear, despite being low. I figured
that the comet would be about the same brightness as the Pinwheel Galaxy in
Triangulum. I could see it but only just but then I knew where to look. I tried
hard but could not see the comet.
As I was outside, I looked at the deep sky objects. Melotte
20, a very reliable star cluster, showed well, as did the Seven Sisters
(Pleiades) and Hyades, although I cannot get them in the same field of view in
my binoculars. I could see the Orion Great Nebula and M35, a star cluster in
Gemini.
I checked Betelguese and it appeared brighter than recently.
It was magnitude 0.6. This was unexpected, as most red giant variable stars
fade and brighten smoothly. Maybe the apparent fade was due to light cloud,
rather than the star dimming.
March 5th 1240 GMT Sun
There were plenty of small sunspots visible on the
professional observatory images but only the two largest and darkest were shown
by my binoculars and filters.
March 3rd 0845 GMT Sun
It was unusually sunny, so there was only one thing to do. I
took my Mak and DSLR outside and tool some photos at my usual settings of 1.54m
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 seconds exposure.
I zoomed in to 4.62m focal length and increased the exposure
to 1/50 second and took two sets of regional shots.
March 2nd 2200 GMT Constellations
I retried the failed Lynx shot of the evening before using the same settings. It is at top centre of the photo, with Cancer near the centre and Leo Minor to the left. There are also parts of other constellations.
I then went for the head of Hydra. Catching the whole constellation is rather difficult if not impossible. As only a small part of Hydra was visible, so I went for that.
I also tried capturing the Plough with my phone camera more in hope than expectancy. I didn't catch anything.
March 2nd 2204 GMT Meteor
I was having another go at photographing the minor
constellation Lynx when a bright mag 1 meteor flashed south west through
Cancer. It was probably an Anthelion and the first I had ever seen.
March 2nd 2130 GMT Orion
I took some shots of Orion with my phone camera. I needn't have bothered, as I did not record any stars.
March 2nd 2050 GMT Betelguese
We had just returned to the house. The sky was quite clear
but not perfect. Betelguese was noticeably fainter than Procyon and not much
brighter than Aldebaran. It had faded to a magnitude of 0.7, maybe a shade
fainter.
March 1st 2040 GMT Lynx and Camelopardalis
I wanted to photograph two faint and difficult
constellations. Lynx is difficult and Camelopardalis is, well, worse. It was
not perfectly clear but I saw some of Lynx.
I used my normal constellation setup of my DSLR at 18mm
focal length, ISO 800 and 30 seconds exposure, then took some darks and hoped.
I hoped in vain, as the focus was out.
