August 2005 Observations

The white-out continued in England and followed me to St Petersburg, Russia but the clouds finally broke early afternoon and I was able to see the Sun at 13:40 local time. However, due to the season, it was very low down and partially covered by cloud. When the cloud moved, I was able to see 2 new sunspots:

Dec 7th

After an almost total white-out in St Petersburg, I was finally able to see the Sun on my first morning back in England. New sunspot activity had emerged.

Dec 8th

After a cloudy and wet 30 or so hours, it cleared enough to permit some observation.

Saturn was very low down in a murky part of the sky. The rings were clear enough but it was little or no surprise that I could barely make out any surface detail and the photographs didn't work. The Moon ones unfortunately failed too, as I had forgotted my Moon filter.

The Orion Great Nebula (M42) looked just great with the focal reducer and 20mm eyepiece, giving a magnification of about 38.5x and a field of view of just under 2 degrees. It looked better than I'd seen it in larger instruments on a clear night.

I tried to find the Beehive (M44) but it was too near the Moon and there was too much haze.

Despite the photos not working, it was just great to be out under the night sky again.

Dec 9th

My attempts to photograph the Moon in daylight were slightly better than the day before. I used the focal reducer and a moon filter, although the main part of the lunar disc was over-exposed. However, I did capture Tcho's ray system:

My second attempt showed Plato and some other craters:

There was even a white light sunspot visible, although my attempts to catch the whole disc failed:

This was a shame, as the sunspot showed some structure. A bin scan showed its place on the solar disc:

I went out for a hydrogen alpha shoot at 10:40. The first photo shows a prominence on the whole disc and was made from the green channel:

The second shot shows the sunspot and surrounding faculae and was made from the blue channel, also showing some other disc features:

The attempted close-ups did not come out or showed no more detail than the full disc shots, except for this one sunspot close-up:

Dec 12th

I was awake (insomnia) at 04:20, so had a quick bin scan. The Pleaides were low down and I couldn't see much more than the main asterism.. The Hyades were all visible, though. The Orion Great Nebula (M42) was visible but looked nothing like it did with the Mak a few days previously. I could make out Saturn's rings and see most of the stars of the Beehive, while Melotte 111 was hanging high in the east.

I casually glanced for a few minutes in the hope of some early Geminids but did not spot any.

I bin scanned the Sun and Moon at 08:40 GMT. I could see the sunspot but the disc was obscured by low cloud. The Moon showed a lot of southern craters and Grimaldi showed well.

A later bin scan at 09:40 showed the solar disc in more detail:

Dec 14th

I managed a bin scan of the Sun around lunchtime on an otherwise difficult day.

Dec 16th

I bin scanned the Sun at 09:50 but the sunspot had apparently rotated from view.

It was a cold evening when I went out for a bin scan at 22:30. There was some haze near the horizon and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) was near the border of it. It looked good but not the best I've ever seen. I was also able to pick up Melotte 20, the Perseus Double Cluster and M34 in the same part of sky I also found something that looks like a star cluster between the Double Cluster and Cassiopeia but couldn't find it in a star atlas. Perhaps its just a dense part of the Milky Way.

M41 was too low, although I tried to see it but the Orion Great Nebula (M42) looked good, showing more than just the central region. The Beehive (M44) was good also and the Pleiades (M45) were simply superb. The Hyades also showed well (not a total surprise) and I could also pick up M35 in Gemini. I could make out the Crab Nebula (M1) but it didn't do much for me as it could have been any deep sky object to my binoculars.

Dec 17th

The solar bin scan at 10:30 was in clear conditions but revealed no sunspots.

I went for a hydrogen alpha shoot at 11:20. Unfortunately, I didn't capture any disc detail, which showed the sunspot very near the limb but I managed to capture the associated prominence and some others on the disc:

Dec 19th

I bin scanned the Sun at 13:50 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

Dec 20th

I bin scanned the Sun at 14:00 GMT and didn't see any sunspots. In truth, the image through the fog was so faint I may have missed a few anyway.

Dec 21st

I bin scanned the Sun at 13:00 GMT under much better conditions than the day before but didn't see any sunspots.

Dec 27th

After a white-out that I thought was going to last for ever, I finally managed to see the Sun in a clear patch of sky at 12:40 GMT but I didn't see any sunspots.

Dec 28th

The white-out resumed soon after my bin scan. I bin scanned the Sun through thin cloud at 10:00 but didn't see any sunspots.

Dec 30th

I found a clear patch of sky where the Sun shone through at 15:10. I saw limb darkening but no sunspots.

At 16:15, I was able to see the Moon through fast moving cloud. No chance of a photo. Clavius and Tycho dominated the many-cratered southern landscape and the ray systems were starting to show.

Dec 31st

It cleared enough by 01:50 to enable me to do a lunar photo shoot. It was the first time I was able to try my variable polarizing filter and my daughter's 10.1 megapixel digital camera. First was the full lunar disc: