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.