Some more Sun, Moon and Jupiter and a quick binocular session

I need to update again... I need to try and keep on top of this more... Ho Hum... So not in time order again....

Just one Sun shot... C80ED, 2xTC, 450d and smooth Baader solar filter



And a crop of AR 1109 and 1110 from the above image. I'm impressed how well this has come out.



One of these weeks, there might be time, and clear skies on a weekend to allow me to try some real close up stuff.

The Harvest Moon, a single shot from the 450d, with the 2xTC on the C80ED



and with some colour lifted out



I had a play with the moon, completing a full mosaic, a terminator mosaic in a bit closer, and some other bits a bit closer still. The seeing wasn't great...

A 24 pane mosaic, 250 of 1000 frames per pane, C80ED, Celestron Ultima x2 Barlow and QHY5v stacked with Avistacks, stitched in MS ICE.



Click for full size

Then a mosaic of the Terminator, with a single tube between barlow and camera



Click for full size

And some bits and pieces with an extra tube







And finally, The moon in the blue sky



I got back from the AS meet quite late, having had a quick look afterwards for Hartley2 with my 15x70's from the car park. Not great conditions, a bit murky, but I did point the bins at Mirfak, and a couple of others, had a look.

I got home, and it was still clear, so I dug out my 10x50's and trotted out into the garden for a look around. I started out trying to find the comet again, even after referring to the computer, I still failed to find it. But hey ho... another night maybe.

So I had a general look around... Nice to see some winter sights appearing again... M31 was an easy find, as was the double cluster and the Mirfak association. I found a couple of other clusters I wasn't expecting to see either side of Mirfak (M34 and NGC1444). M45 was, as usual, a stunning sight in the bins.

After only 10 minutes looking around, I took the bins away from my eyes to see if I could spot the location of the comment, and spent a couple of minutes looking to confirm what I was seeing, as it couldn't be right. But no... with a little averted vision, I was able to see smudges where the Double Cluster, the Mirfak Association and M31 are.

The bad news is, that was all the time I could afford, as I had to get up for work early, so I quickly swung around to look at Kembles cascade (I couldn't believe how easily I spotted it) running down to the little cluster at the bottom (who's name/designation I forget) and headed in.

And finally, a couple of attempts at some LRGB imaging, only using the QHY5v...

C80ED, QHY5v, Ultima x2 Barlow

L-500 of 2000 frames
RGB-300 of 800 frames



Then with 60mm of tubes between camera and barlow

250 of 1000 frames of each LRGB



These could have been better, I need to work on this, it's harder than I expected. It wasn't helped with few on the objective of course. And I need to work out if the exposure levels need adjusting for each colour, as the exposures seem to be rather different.