August 30th 0820 GMT Sun
I woke up to a clear sky. I photographed the Sun with my Mak
and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I followed up with my PST. Firstly, I used automatic
settings with my DSLR.
I tried another set of shots, changing my DSLR settings to ISO 400 and 1/20 second exposure.
I combined the two red images to form a composite.
August 30th 0430 GMT Moon
The thin waning crescent Moon hung low in the east in the dawn sky. I photographed it with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.
August 30th 2330 GMT Planetary Moons and Deep Sky
The main purpose of the session was to capture the moons of Saturn and Jupiter with my DSLR, with the intention of stacking images. I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure, taking 10 images per target.
While photographing Saturn, I saw a bright sporadic
(non-shower) meteor flash south east through the Square of Pegasus.
I started with Saturn. Titan was very clear and had hardly moved since the day before.
Jupiter was low in the sky but I managed to catch it on
camera.
I switched my attention to deep sky objects, as I happened
to be outside and ready. First was the Pleiades (Seven Sisters).
Next was my old favourite, the star cluster Melotte 20.
I tried for the difficult target of M15, a globular star
cluster in Pegasus. I just caught the central core. It is the brightest object in the image.
I finished with another go at the Wild Duck cluster (M11). It didn't work.
August 29th Saturn and Titan Revisited
I revisited my image of Saturn with Titan from the day before and made Titan brighter and showed some background stars.
I recombined with an image of Saturn to give the final result.
August 29th 1650 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. as usual.
August 28th 2110 GMT Saturn
I was hoping to catch Saturn's Moon, Titan and maybe some
more. I used my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/3 second
exposure and took some shots, hoping to stack. I stacked 22 images and used Exposure and Brightness/Contrast in GIMP to reveal Titan and some background objects, some of which could be Saturn's moons.
I then changed the ISO setting to 100 and the exposure to
1/20 second, hoping to catch planetary detail.
I added 3x Barlow lens to bring the focal length to
4.62m and took two sets of shots at 1/6 and then 1/8 second exposure. As i saw
the rings through the camera viewfinder, I was quite hopeful.
Being less than convinced that the stacks had worked, I processed some single shots at 4.62m then 1.54m focal length.
August 27th 1310 GMT Sun
It turned out to be a difficult session when I photographed
the Sun with my PST and DSLR. There was a lot of cloud dodging to do. I used my
normal settings, saving experiments for clearer conditions. I processed the green and red data separately, as usual and found some detail in each,
August 27th 0115 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I woke in the night to see the Moon close to Jupiter. I photographed them with my phone camera.
August 26th 0750 GMT Sun
It was August Bank Holiday in the UK, the last public
holiday before Christmas. It was a clear sign that autumn was on its way and
Christmas merchandise would soon be in the shops. Meanwhile, a sun was waiting
in a clear sky, begging to be photographed.
August 25th 0000 GMT Moon
The sky was hazy, so I took a set of lunar images with my
Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The stack covered most of the lunar disc but not all.
I processed a single frame and caught the whole lunar disc.
August 24th 1400 GMT Sun
After a stormy morning it cleared somewhat in the afternoon.
I still had some cloud dodging to do. I used my PST and DSLR at the settings I
had used before.
The red data showed no surface detail but prominences.
The green data showed some sunspots.
August 23rd 0730 GMT Sun
After a storm in the night, I woke up to sunlight and swung
into action, knowing that the weather forecast for the rest of the day was
poor. I used my Mak and DSLR at my normal settings and could see plenty of
sunspots through my camera viewfinder. I remembered the times when the Sun was
not showing sunspots for months on end.
August 20th 2150 GMT Moon
I photographed the Moon with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure. It was large and bright and I had
trouble getting it into the field of view.
I used my Angeleyes electronic eyepiece to take a few lunar closeups. I struggled with focusing and settings.
I ended with some shots of the Moon with Saturn with my DSLR
at 300mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/100 second exposure.
August 20th 1500 GMT Sun
The sky cleared again, although there were some cloud interruptions. I brought out my Coronado PST and I could see sunspots immediately. I tried tuning it and saw a hint of a filament. I used a 32mm eyepiece and my DSLR at 45mm focal length and automatic settings to try and photograph something on the Sun.
The red data did not show much in the way of surface detail but there were two prominences.
The green data showed sunspots.
August 20th 1145 GMT Sun
There was an unexpected clear sky, so I snapped the Sun with
my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. The stack only covered 3/4 of the disc. I processed two parts of the disc and a single photo of the whole disc.
August 19th Sun Reprocessed
Some of my stacking attempts were not working. I redid one from July 31st, ensuring that I did not overlap sampling points nor oversample. The result was a complete transformation.
August 16th 2250 GMT Moon
The weather forecast was for clear sky but few stars were
visible. The Moon was too low to photograph through my telescope, so I used my
DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I only had one half-decent image, so I did not run a stack.
August 16th 0800 GMT Sun
I woke up to clear sky after a wet and cloudy day. I snapped
the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second
exposure.
August 15th 0120 GMT Jupiter and Mars
I photographed the two planets together, hoping to catch Jupiter's moons as well. I used my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.
August 14th 2100 GMT Meteor Hunt
The Perseid meteor shower was past its peak but I still felt I needed to try and capture some meteors using my standard technique.
At 2215 GMT I caught a near head-on meteor that was not part of the shower.
I was disappointed not to have caught more meteors.
August 14th 2055 GMT Moon
I wanted to photograph the Moon before my meteor hunt but it
was too low in the sky to capture with my telescope. I photographed it with my
DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I did not get focus, so there is no photo.
August 13th 0840 GMT Sun
There was a bit of cloud dodging to do but I managed to catch a few solar images at my usual settings.
After taking the shots, I held up a solar filter to see what
would happen. I could see the large sunspot quite clearly.
August 13th 0030 GMT Jupiter and Mars
Jupiter and Mars were low in the east. As my DSLR was busy hunting meteors, I snapped them with my phone camera. I also captured the star Aldebaran.
August 13th 0001 GMT Meteors
While performing an automatic search with my DSLR camera, I
stayed out for a few minutes. I saw a faint Perseid meteor, followed by a
bright magnitude 1 sporadic (non-shower) meteor. I finished with a magnitude 2
shower meteor.
August 12th 2100 GMT Meteor Hunt
It was still dusk but many stars were visible. It was the
day past the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Conditions were less than
perfect but I had a go anyway with my DSLR at its usual settings.
At 2116 GMT, I caught what appeared to be a very bright star near the bottom left (south east) of the photo. It could have been a head-on meteor or a satellite flare but I could not identify it, so have recorded it as a UFO.
At 2125 GMT I caught a nice meteor but it was not a Perseid shower meteor.
At 2157 GMT I caught the type of meteor that makes these sort of hunts worthwhile. This was a borderline fireball and a Perseid shower meteor.
At 2211 GMT something even more amazing happened! I saw a purple glow near the horizon and caught the Aurora Borealis on camera for the first time. I stacked 10 images in Sequator to get the final result.
Half an hour later the show was still on, so I stacked another ten images.
August 12th 1950 GMT Moon
It was dusk and the first quarter Moon hovered low in the
west above our fence, just!
August 12th 0750 GMT Sun
I finally had the time and recovered back to photograph the
Sun with my Mak and DSLR at my usual settings.
August 11th 2100 GMT Meteor Hunt
It was the night of the peak of the Perseid meteor shower
and I set up my DSLR at my usual settings.
At 2107 GMT, I detected a short trail that appeared to be a Perseid. It was probably a longer trail that I only caught part of.
At 2341 GMT, I caught the best meteor of the session, a true Perseid on the very last photo.
August 11th 1715 GMT Moon and Sun
I snapped the Moon with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/800 second exposure.
I snapped the Sun with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure.
August 10th 2100 GMT Meteor Hunt
Conditions were slightly better than the previous evening. I aimed my DSLR at Cassiopeia with my usual settings and hoped. Unfortunately, I did not capture any meteors.
August 10th 2020 GMT Moon
I snapped the waxing crescent Moon with my DSLR at 300mm
focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.
August 9th 2110 GMT Meteor Hunt
After a clear afternoon, I was dismayed to see a thin cloud
covering most of the sky. I decided to have a go at catching meteors from the
Perseid shower, as one does, I processed some frames to show four constellations: Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Lacerta.
At 0058 GMT, I caught a faint (non-shower) meteor north of Auriga.
August 9th 2000 GMT Moon
The Sun had not long set and the Moon wad low in the sky. I
snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second
exposure.
August 9th 1740 GMT Sun and Moon
The crescent Moon was low in the southwest. I snapped it
with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/200 second exposure.
I switched my attention to the Sun, low in the west and snapped it with my DSLR at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/1000 second exposure.
August 6th 2250 GMT Deep Sky
I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds
exposure.
I started with Saturn, hoping to get Titan. I did!
Next was my old favourite Melotte 20.
I tried M34 but felt I missed it. I did!
Next was the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
I tried the globular cluster M15 but didn't think I had nailed it. I didn't!
I adjusted my focal length to 70mm and exposure to 8
seconds. I tried the Wild Duck cluster (M11). I got it but it was right at the right (west) edge.
I then had another go at the same settings at M15. I got the right area of the sky but did not capture the cluster.
August 6th 0850 GMT Sun
After heavy rain, the sky cleared to reveal an active Sun. I
snapped it at my usual settings of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second
exposure.
August 4th 2220 GMT Meteor Hunt
It was almost clear so I set my DSLR at 18mm focal length,
ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure, with 6 second gap, in an attempt to
capture Perseid shower meteors.
I did not catch any but afterwards I did a couple of shots with my DSLR at 18mm focal length, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds exposure to catch Perseus, then Cassiopeia, Andromeda and Triangulum.
August 2nd 0710 GMT Sun
I snapped a very active Sun at my usual settings of 1.54m
focal length. ISO 100 and 1 /500 second exposure.
August 1st 1010 GMT Sun
I waited a while for the clouds to clear. When they did, the
Sun was high in the sky and the viewing angle was very uncomfortable. I use
"straight through" imaging for the Sun, as it allows me to capture
the whole solar disc. I used my normal settings.
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