January 2007 Observations

I tried viewing the Sun in hydrogen alpha light but the thin cloud only allowed me to see a reddish disc with no features.

Jan 2nd

Due to insomnia, I was out at 03:10. Although it was clear, the bright Moon dominated the night sky. Although it appeared full to the unaided eye, a bin scan revealed a terminator on the left, showing a few craters. Tycho's rays were dominating the landscape and Kepler and Copernicus were showing extensive ray systems, too. Saturn showed its rings but there was no sign of Titan. The Hyades and Melotte 111 showed well but only the main asterism of the Pleiades was visible.

I bin scanned the Sun during a morning break and found that the sunspot had rotated:



Bin scanned the Moon around sunset at 16:10. After 13 hours since the last observation, the lunar phase had increased noticeably, although it was still short of full. I was unable to see Grimaldi. Tycho's rays looked spectacular.

I did a photo shoot at 21:45. The Moon was 16 hours away from full and took very well but I needed a focal reducer due to the large apparent size:



I could see Saturn's rings, Titan and 2 equatorial cloud belts visually but the photo shots didn't come out.

I tried capturing video files but could not open them using Registax.

Jan 4th

I bin scanned the Moon at 22:15 when it was the only object visible in the night sky, due to cloud. Grimaldi stood out on the left of the lunar disc, Tycho's rays dominated and there was a terminator on the right side.

Jan 5th

I was able to bin scan the Sun in quite appalling conditions and see the existing sunspot rotate and a new one come into view:



I saw Venus on the commute home at 16:40 but it had disappeared below a bank of cloud by the time I got home.

There was both thin and thick cloud around when I did a bin scan at 21:15. The Moon was waning gibbous, with the terminator approaching Mare Tranquilatatis. Tycho's rays were starting to lose prominence. I could see the Hyades through a gap in the cloud but I couldn't see much more than the main asterism of the Pleiades. That was all I could see.

Jan 6th

With the torrential downpour from dawn to mid-afternoon, I was as surprised as anyone when the Sun put in an appearance not long before sunset. Some  of the apparent sunspot rotation was due to the time of day:



Just over an hour later, it was amazingly clear. A bin scan of Venus showed a definite disc but no change from the 100% phase. I tried more in hope than expectancy to see Comet McNaught and there it was! It was definitely brighter than zero magnitude but how much was quite a guess. It had disappeared by the time I had fetched my telescope, so there was no hope of a photo. I couldn;t re-find it with the binoculars dusk views of the Hyades, Pleiades, Alberio, Delta and Epsilon Lyrae were scant consolation. Indeed, I saw more of the Pleiades than the evening before.

I thought about doing some Moon snaps but conditions had deteriorated since moonrise, with only a handful of objects visible to the unaided eye. Both Saturn and Regulus needed binoculars to reveal them, although I could see Saturn's rings quite clearly (but no Titan). The lunar phase was shrinking and the less prominent rays of Tycho was starting to allow some of the southern craters to be seen. I couldn't see the Beehive. The Pleaides were less distinct than before but the Hyades showed well in the poor conditions.

Jan 7th

The poor conditions of the previous day continued, with heay rain greeting me. I managed to glimpse the Sun through various cloud layers to determine the position of the sunspots. I suspect that there could have been fainter sunspots that I missed in the bad conditions.

Jan 10th

The clouds cleared mid-morning after a difficult 2 days. I managed to detect the sunspot rotation and scanned the sky with the unaided sky to see if I could see either the Moon or the comet in daylight (as had been suggested). I saw neither.



At 17:00 I bin scanned Venus low in the west. It showed a full phase. There was no sign of the comet.

I revisited the night sky with the binoculars at 18:45. The Orion Great Nebula showed well, despite the low elevation. The Hyades and Pleiades also showed well, as did the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). In the same area, I picked up the Perseus Double Cluster, M34, M35 and the cluster east of Cassiopeia. Despite the low elevation, I was able to see the beehive (M44).

Jan 11th

Again the weather was pretty poor and I didn't get to see the Sun until mid-afternoon:



I tried to photograph Saturn using the digital camera but managed to overexpose it badly. I could see some cloud belts, despite the low elevation and Titan. I decided I needed more practice. I couldn't get the Pleiades or Beehive to photograph either. The one success was Sirius, without any telescope at all.

Jan 13th

After a very cloudy morning, I bin scanned the Sun at 14:45 and the sunspots had rotated off and no new ones had appeared.

The evening was cloudy and wet, removing any chance of seeing the comet. I managed a shot of Saturn which showed the rings but neither Titan nor the cloud belts that appeared visually:



Castor came out rather well with the new camera (in fact the best so far):



Mizar split very well but the photographs didn't come out. The Orion Great Nebula (M42) looked superb but the second set of spare batteries ran out before I could make an attempt.

Jan 14th

I bin scanned the Sun at 09:20 in clear conditions but didn't see any sunspots. However, it was clear enough to (finally!!!) take my first hydrogen alpha snap:



I managed a close-up of the prominences, too, although an attempted shoot of a prominence on the left side of the Sun failed:



I managed to get around to a second photo shoot at 14:45. The full disc shot didn't show the prominences but it caught the surface detail:



The prominence close-up showed new activity as well as the existing prominences changing:



I returned to the 3 megapixel camera for a full disc shot:



I managed another prominence close-up:



and finally, the last one:



At 21:00 I went out with the Startravel 80. Firstly Saturn showed rings, even at a mere 10x magnification:



I was able to catch the main asterism of the Pleiades:



The Beehive (M44) and Hyades showed very well in the telescope with rthe focal reducer. The Orion Great Nebula (M42) didn't show as well as the night before but I decided that I needed much more practice.

Jan 15th

Bin scanned the Sun at 14:15 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

Jan 16th

Bin scanned the Sun at 15:30 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

Jan 17th

Bin scanned the Sun at 12:10 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

At 17:45 I tried an unaided photo of Venus and the Moon low down but they didn't come out.

I returned outside at 21:20 for a photo shoot that was expecting to be more experimental than successful, using both digital cameras. The targets were: Mizar/Alcor, the Hyades, Pleiades and Orion Great Nebula (M42). I used the Skywatcher Startravel 80mm and the best snap with the Sony digital camera was part of the Hyades:



Another shot caught more of the Hyades, including Aldebaran:



With the Samsung, Orion came out well:



So did Taurus:

Jan 21st

Bin scanned the Sun at 09:10 but didn't see any sunspots.

At 9:50 I was out with the PST doing a hydrogen alpha session. The Sun was even more quiet than the day before. However, the first shot showed some filaments that I hadn't seen visually:



Another full disc shot showed the prominence:



The prominence came out in some close ups:





I did a visual check on the Sun at 10:20 and the prominence had started to fade.

At 11:30, the prominence was getting very difficult to detect visually.