February 18th 1025 GMT Sun
The Sun was out but the sky was a bit hazy, so I used an exposure time with my Maksutov telescope and DSLR camera of 1/400 second, instead of 1/500 second. I used my normal focal length and ISO settings of 1.54m and 100.
February 17th 1745 GMT Venus
Venus was high in the west. I had a session before it set below our fence.
I took one set of shots with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure.
I took another set of shots with my Mak telescope and DSLR
camera at 4.62m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/20 second exposure.
Although the disc was larger in the longer focal length, the image was sharper in the shorter focal length image.
February 17th 1355 GMT Sun
There was a lot of moving cloud but I managed to see a sunspot through the gloom.
February 16th 1955 GMT Jupiter, Mars and Orion
It was still a bit hazy, especially to the east. I used my phone camera at default settings to photograph Jupiter and Mars. It did not work, as only Jupiter registered on the camera.
Despite the conditions, I was brave (stupid??) enough to photograph Orion with Jupiter in the top right corner and Sirius in the bottom left corner. It did not work properly, as the stack did not align. Jupiter and Sirius turned out to be just smudges, so I cropped them out.
February 16th 1810 GMT Venus
The cloud from the morning and afternoon had broken up, somewhat!
I snapped Venus with my DSLR at 300mm focal length and ISO 100. I tried various exposure times from 1/500 to 1/100 second to see what worked best.
After a week of cloud, conditions improved enough for me to see the Moon. There was a lot of cloud around, so when I took some photos, I used an exposure time of 1/500 second, with my DSLR camera, instead of the usual shorter exposure I use for the Moon near its full phase. I used a focal length of 300mm and ISO setting of 100.
February 6th 1940 GMT Moon with Jupiter and Mars
I photographed the Moon with Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera at default settings.
December 6th 1820 GMT Moon and Planets
I took some shots of the Moon with Jupiter with my DSLR camera at 135mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure. I processed the Moon in GIMP and brightened Jupiter.
I tried again with my camera set to 70mm focal length. This did not work
I took two sets of lunar shots with my Maksutov telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
I photographed Venus with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal
length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. It showed the phase quite well.
I changed the exposure to 1/200 second to photograph Jupiter. I caught the disc but no cloud belts.
I changed the exposure to 1/50 second to photograph Mars. Against all odds, I caught some features, quite rare with this setup.
I set my camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/30 second to attempt Jupiter's moons. I caught two.
I overlaid the Jupiter image I took earlier to produce a better representation.
February 6th 1325 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun using my Coronado PST and DSLR camera used afocally. I used a 32mm Plossl eyepiece.
I took some shots on automatic settings at automatic settings and various focal lengths from 35mm to 55mm.
I repeated this with manual settings on my camera at ISO 400
and exposures of 1/40 to 1/20 second.
I combined the two images to form a composite showing surface and edge detail.
February 6th 1110 GMT Sun
I photographed the Sun with my DSLR camera and Mak telescope at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure, as usual.
February 5th 2350 GMT Jupiter and Mars
I took several shots of Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera at default settings.
February 5th 2345 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I snapped the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500th second exposure.
I snapped Jupiter with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/200 second exposure.
I photographed both at 70mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/200 second exposure.
February 5th 1910 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I photographed the two objects together with my phone camera at default settings. under hazy conditions.
I checked out the sun with my binoculars and filters and saw that the sunspot pattern had changed from 2 days before.
February 4th 2100 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I photographed the Moon with my Mak telescope and DSLR
camera at 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/320 second.
I changed the settings to 4.62m focal length, ISO 100 and
exposures from 1/30 second to 1/8 second to take some lunar closeups.
I attached the star diagonal to take some full disc shots of
the Moon at the previous settings.
I took some further photos at 1.54m focal length, ISO 6400
and 1/15 second exposure to try for the moons. It sort of worked and I stacked about 12 images from 30.
I produced a composite of the two images.
I could not use the same method on Mars as the finderscope
and camera got in each other's way!
February 4th 1915 GMT Moon and Jupiter
I photographed the two objects together with my phone camera at default settings.
I set my DSLR to 300mm focal length, ISO 6400 and 1/40 second exposure. I took several photos of Jupiter, hoping to catch some moons.
I set my DSLR camera to 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second to try and catch Jupiter's cloud belts.
I increased the exposure to 1/160 second in the hope of catching something on Mars.
I did not capture anything useable.
February 3rd 1720 GMT Dusk Shoot
The Moon and three planers were clearly visible in the dusk sky. I shot the Moon with Venus, the Moon with Jupiter and Jupiter with Mars at my phone camera default settings.
I shot the Moon with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at
1.54m ISO 400 and 1/320 second exposure.
I shot Venus at the same settings.
I shot Venus again at 4.62m focal length, ISO 400 and 1/30 second exposure. Unfortunately, the images were out of focus.
February 3rd 1420 GMT Sun
After a cloudy and, sometimes, wet morning, I was able to see the sun through my binoculars and filters. I could see one large and two small sunspots.
February 2nd 2235 GMT Jupiter and Mars
The sky was not clear but I was able to capture Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera at default settings.
February 2nd 1515 GMT Moon
The clear conditions persisted into mid-afternoon. I photographed the thin crescent Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/250 second exposure.
February 2nd 1245 GMT Sun
February 2nd 0850 GMT Sun
I kicked off the month with a photo shoot of the Sun at 1.54m focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.
