March 2025

March 3rd 2000 GMT Jupiter and Mars 

 I took some shots of Jupiter and Mars with my phone camera at default settings.

March 3rd 1810 GMT Moon and Venus 

I photographed the Moon and Venus separately with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure.

March 3rd 1840 GMT Moon, Venus and Jupiter 

I snapped the Moon and Venus with my phone camera at default settings.

 

I then did another series of shots with Jupiter added.

March 3rd 1420 GMT Sun 

 

I photographed the Sun in hydrogen alpha light with my Coronado PST telescope used afocally with my DSLR camera. The first set of photos was with my camera at 40mm focal length at automatic settings.

The second set was at 40mm focal length, ISO 800 and 1/25 second exposure.

 The third set was at 1/50 second exposure.

I processed a shot from each of the second and third sets but caught almost no detail in either image.

March 3rd 0845 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.

March 2nd 2250 GMT Leo

I snapped Leo with my phone camera at default settings. It did not work.

March 2nd 1810 GMT Moon and Venus 

I snapped the Moon and Venus separately with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. Only the moon shot showed a phase.

 

I photographed both together with my DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/40 second exposure.

 

I could see neither Mercury nor Saturn but used the same settings to see if either or both might appear on camera. They didn't!

March 2nd 0845 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.

March 1st 1820 GMT Moon and Venus 

The Moon and Venus were close. Mercury was theoretically visible but behind cloud. I photographed the Moon with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/100 second exposure.

 

I photographed Venus with my DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO 100 and 1/250 second exposure. 

I photographed the Moon and Venus together with my DSLR camera at 70mm focal length, ISO 400 and 1/50 second exposure.

March 1st 1210 GMT Sun 

I took out my Coronado PST telescope to photograph the Sun in hydrogen alpha light. I used my 32mm Plossl eyepiece to give a magnification of 12.5x.

I took some shots with my DSLR camera at default automatic settings with various focal lengths from 18 to 45mm.

 At 45mm I tried using manual settings with ISO settings from 400 to 6400 and exposures from 1/125 to 1/10 second.

Despite my best efforts at processing, I was unable to extract much detail.

March 1st 0930 GMT Sun 

 

When I wake up to bright sunshine and I do not have any time constraints, there is only one thing to do! I photographed the Sun at my usual settings with my Mak and DSLR of 1.54m focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. There were some small sunspots around.

 

Not for the first time, I tried to capture close up images of the Sun using my Maksutov telescope and Angeleyes electronic eyepiece. I started off with a slow laptop and I was unable to find focus in the bright sunlight. I needed a rethink.

March 1st 0445 GMT Lyra and Cygnus 

 

I photographed Lyra and Cygnus with my phone camera at default settings, starting off the month. I did not capture enough stars to stack and caught just Vega and Deneb with a few background stars.