December 2025

December 10th 1800 GMT Saturn 

 

I shot a video of Saturn with the Seestar S50. Unfortunately, the stack did not work. A still image showed the rings.

I tried to photograph the moons with the Seestar S50 but cloud rolled in after 10 seconds. I caught Titan, Saturn's largest and brightest moon.

I combined the two images.

December 10th 0650 GMT Moon 

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

December 9th 2100 GMT Jupiter and M78

 

I used the Seestar S50 to record a video of Jupiter and a Solar System mode image of the moons. The video did not record but the moons looked good.

 

I did a long session on the Nebula M78, although moonlight interfered towards the end of the session. The total integration time was 468 minutes.

 

I had a go at the asteroid Hygeia. I did a 4 minute integration run and finished in GraxPert and GIMP. Hygeia is in the middle of the image about 3/4 of the way down. The bright star at the bottom right is 5 Geminorum.

December 7th 2345 Moon and Jupiter 

I photographed Jupiter's moons with the Seestar S50.

 

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

 

I photographed the moon and Jupiter with my phone camera.

December 7th 2200 GMT Moon 

I attempted two video captures of the moon with the Seestar S50 but cloud intervened. I stacked and combined both videos. The result was not great but, considering the conditions, was quite encouraging.

December 6th 0030 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

I photographed the moon and Jupiter together with my phone camera. I also caught some of the brighter stars, such as Sirius. Procyon and Rigel.

December 5th 2200 GMT Moon 

Against all odds, the cloud thinned enough to see the moon. I took a one minute video using the Seestar S50. It was longer, due to the poor conditions.

December 4th 2000 GMT Mixed Session 

The moon was just past full, so conditions were not great for much else.

I snapped Saturn's moons with the Seestar S50 in Stargazing mode. I did 3 integration runs with a maximum integration time of 7 minutes, stacked with Deep Sky Stacker and finished in GIMP.

 I took a video of Saturn but struggled with focus and ik did not record, anyway.

 I photographed Neptune with the Seestar S50 against the stellar background.

 

I photographed the dwarf planet Ceres with the Seestar S50 against the stellar background. It is the fainter of two "stars" near the centre of the image.

I photographed Uranus with the Seestar S50 against the stellar background.

I took a video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

 

I photographed the open cluster M35 with the Seestar S50. I stacked 3 integration runs for a total of 79 minutes. I finished with GraXpert and GIMP.

 

I photographed Jupiter in Stargazing then Scenery mode with the Seestar S50.

 

I took a video of the planet.

I combined a Scenery mode photo of Jupiter's moons with a video stack of the planet, both taken with the Seestar S50.

  

I went for the elusive Nebula M78.

December 4th 1710 GMT Moon 

I tried to photograph the moon but it was too low. I caught Capella as a by-product of the search.

December 3rd 1730 GMT Moon 

I caught a break in the clouds and rain to shoot a video of the moon with the Seestar S50.

December 3rd 1020 GMT Sun

I shot a video of the sun with the Seestar S50. I stacked using Registax and removed the colour saturation to leave a cleaner image.

December 3rd 0545 GMT M51

I woke up early, so I photographed the galaxy M51 with the Seestar S50. I did a 21 minute integration run before dawn interfered.

December 2nd 2030 GMT Moon 

As part of the moon was missing from the last shoot, I recorded another video with the Seestar S50.

November 2025

November 30th 1510 GMT Moon 

I had trouble finding the moon with the Seestar S50 and was about to give up when it finally appeared on my phone screen. I took both still shots and video. The video did not stack well,

I restacked using Registax 5 and thought it was a bit better.

November 30th 0925 GMT Sun 

I took some still shots and video of the sun with the Seestar S50.

November 29th 1715 GMT Moon and Saturn 

I started off with the moon with the Seestar S50, shooting both still images and video.

 

I repeated the same with Saturn.

 

I used Stargazing mode to try to capture Saturn's moons but only caught Titan. Or so I thought! I found two more moons when I processed the image.

I combined the two shots to show Saturn with 3 of its moons.

In parallel, I used my DSLR camera to photograph the moon and Saturn together using 200mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/80 second exposure.

I combined all four photos into one.

November 28th 1700 GMT Moon 

 

The weather had been poor since lunch but the moon was showing and I was able to photograph it with the Seestar S50. I shot still images and a 30 second video. Spot the difference!

November 28th 0935 GMT Sun 

I took some still shots and a 30 second video of the sun with the Seestar S50. This is the processed video.

November 27th 2145 GMT Pleiades 

I did a few integration runs on the Pleiades with the Seestar S50 in Framing mode. I stacked 5 runs for a total integration time of 182 minutes.

November 26th 1005 GMT Sun 

I photographed the sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 25th 1805 GMT Mixed Session 

 

I tried to take a longer exposure of the Iris Nebula but did not seem to capture much. After a lot of processing, I only caught the central part and not that well.

I had better luck with the Barbell Nebula (M76). I stacked 5 integration runs, the longest being 58 minutes and finished in GIMP.

 

I then caught Comet SWAN R2, although it was quite faint. I took 3 integration runs for a total of 49 minutes, stacked in Sequator and finished with GraXpert and GIMP.

Next was Uranus.

 

I had a long go at M34. I stacked 3 integration runs for a total time of 62 minutes.

I finished with Jupiter, trying a variety of methods.

My first attempt was at 1x zoom in Scenery mode to capture the moons.

An attempt on the planet at 4x zoom in Scenery mode caught a hint of the cloud belts.

The first attempt at stacking a video of Jupiter showed a bland disc.

A second attempt was identical.

I attempted to stack a video of the moons but when I tried to edit it, it showed double moons.

November 25th 0920 GMT Sun 

 

I did a solar session with the Seestar S50. I took some still shots at normal settings and 4x zoom but also tried shooting video for the first time.

My first video attempt with the Seestar S50 was a minute long and took a long process with conversion using PiPP and a long stack with Autostakkert. I think there was some improvement from stacking single images.

November 23rd 1925 GMT Pleiades

There was some clear sky in Taurus, so I photographed the Pleiades (M45) with the Seestar S50. I only managed 12 minutes integration time before it rained.

November 22nd 2300 GMT Mixed Session 

I started off with the Orion Great Nebula (M42). After about 28 minutes, cloud rolled in and I was unable to capture what I wanted to. I processed a single frame and boosted the blue light to give a slightly different look to a familiar object.

November 21st 1025 GMT Sun

After 8 days of hurt, due to illness and bad weather, there was some clear sky. Unfortunately, the Seestar S50 could not find the sun. I tried my binoculars and the sunspots were below the resolution of my instrument.  

November 13th 0845 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 10th 2155 GMT Moon and Jupiter 

There was a lot of thin cloud around but the moon and Jupiter were close.

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

 

I photographed the moon with Jupiter using my DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/50 second exposure.

I combined the two images, as the moon was overexposed in the second one.

November 8th 2225 GMT Moon

 

I photographed the moon with the Seestar S50. Not much else was visible.

November 6th 0930 GMT Sun

I photographed the sun with my Mak and DSLR at 1540mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.

November 6th 2000 GMT Mixed Session 

 

It was the first clearish night for 4 days and it was surprisingly warm.

 

I took a few shots of the moon with the Seestar S50.

 

I tried for Saturn's moons with the Seestar S50.

 

I caught Neptune against the stellar background with the Seestar S50.

 

I tried Uranus but it was too close to the moon.

I captured the dwarf planet Ceres against the stellar background. It is about a third of the way from the top and slightly to the left.

 

I ended with the double star Kappa Ceti with the Seestar S50.

November 2nd 1040 GMT Sun 

I awoke to clear sky for the second day running. Was it really November? I used the same method to photograph the sun as the day before.

November 2nd 0005 GMT Jupiter's moons and M42

 I photographed Jupiter's moons with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 2 seconds exposure.

I used the same settings to photograph M42.

November 1st 2215 GMT Meteor Hunt

 

I set a camera trap for Taurid meteors with my DSLR camera set to take photos automatically at 18mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 6 seconds exposure.

I stacked 10 images tom show the constellations of Taurus and Auriga.

I did not catch any meteors.

I also did a phone camera shot of the moon with Saturn.

November 1st 1910 GMT Moon and Saturn

 

The moon and Saturn were close in the sky. I photographed the moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/800 second exposure. This did not work, as the image was out of focus.

I used 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/15 second exposure to capture both objects together.

November 1st 0840 GMT Sun 

I do not normally associate November with solar viewing and photography. Yet, I woke up to clear sky and photographed the Sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure, my usual settings.