Bin scanned the Sun through cloud at 15:40 but
didn't see any sunspots.
Jan 2nd
Like the day before, the cloud didn't clear until
the afternoon. I bin scanned the Sun at 13:45 and had a slightly
better view but could still see no sunspots.
Jan 5th
The bad weather continued but I was able to bin scan
the Sun through thin cloud at 13:35. Although I'd seen a faint
sunspot on the Big Bear Solar Observatory images, it didn't show
up.
I did a quick bin scan at 19:45. Comet Holmes was
still visible but had faded somewhat but I couldn't find Comet
Tuttle. I was able to see the Orion Great Nebula (M42), despite the
low elevation and the Hyades, Pleiades (M45) and Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) showed up well.
I went out for a photo shoot at 20:20. Although my
back was somewhat better, I was unable to use the Maksutov to
see Mars. I managed to take a nice shot of the Pleaides using
the Startravel 80 and 3.1 meagpixel digital camera.
The Hyades came out quite well, too.
The other shot that came out was Orion's Belt.
I went out at 22:20 to do a constellation shoot. Orion
came out first.
Next was Gemini with Mars to its top right.
Then Taurus with Mars to the top left.
I caught the Plough low in the north east.
The final shot was Cassiopeia.
Jan 6th
Bin scanned Venus at 08:00 when it was still visible
to the unaided eye. It was hard to resolve it as a disc, rather
than a point light source, let alone detect a phase.
Bin scanned the Sun at 11:00 but still no sunspots.
Jan 7th
I missed what solar viewing there was, due to various
appointments.
I went for a bin scan at 21:15 but only the south was
clear of cloud. However, most objects, except the Hyades and Orion
Great Nebula (M42), were not as clear as usual and the Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) was on the edge of the cloud and a mere shadow of its usual self.
I was unable to see neither M34 nor Comet Holmes, although I did see
the Pleiades (M45), Melotte 20, M36 and M35.
Jan 9th
Bin scanned the Sun in a clear sky at 09:05 but didn't
see any sunspots. The Big Bear images didn't show much activity
either.
At 13:00, I had a look through my PST. The solar disc was
quite bland, except for an active region showing filaments:
Jan 12th
After 2 days of incessant rain, it finally cleared enough
for a solar bin scan at 09:05 but I didn't see any sunspots.
A hydrogen alpha view showed no prominences and granulation
features only:
However, one close up showed some activity towards the left
limb:
Jan 14th
Following a very rainy 48-50 hours, I managed to bin scan
the Sun through a cloud gap but still saw no sunspots.
Jan 15th
The cloud gaps were wider when I scanned the Sun at 11:50 but
still no sunspots.
Jan 16th
I didn't manage to catch the Sun earlier in the day but caught
a clear patch of sky between 17:15 and 17:45. My prime aim was the Moon.
My back finally felt well enough to try the Maksutov.
Unfortunately, the really near close-ups didn't come out, neither
did the Mars shots that I really took more as an afterthought. I did
manage to see the main surface detail and an ice cap visually, without
using high magnification. I hoped to take some more shots later but it
clouded over again.
Jan 21st
At last some action! There wasn't a single star visible in the
evening sky at 18:35 but I bin scanned the Moon, which appeared completely
full, with no hint of a terminator anywhere. Tycho's rays were very
bright, dominating the lunar landscape.
Jan 22nd
At 10:15, the Sun finally cleared the low cloud and allowed me
to bin scan it but there were no sunspots, I'm afraid.
Jan 24th
Bin scanned the Sun in a clear sky at 12:00 but there were no sunspots.
I did a photo shoot with the PST at 12:45 and saw some nice prominences:
The evening saw a lot of haze but at least I managed to see the
Moon with my Startravel 80.
Jan 25th
There were some breaks in the cloud when I went outside at 22:00.
The cloud was moving quickly, so I decided to just observe visually with
the Mak on its widest field setup of a 32mm Plossl eyepiece and focal reducer,
giving a magnification of 24x and field of view of about 1.7 degrees.
I managed to split Mizar, even at this low magnification and I tried to
hunt down the galaxy M101. I found a faint smudge, which I later discovered
was a fainter galaxy, NGC 5402. As only that part of the sky was clear,
I managed to see Cor Caroli for the first time, splitting easily at the
low magnification. The area around Cassiopeia cleared for a few minutes,
so I was able to track down M52, which seemed rather sparse, compared to
the binocular view.
Before it clouded over, I saw a maning gibbous moon, with rays from
Tycho, Copernicus and Kepler dominating the lunar landscape.
Jan 26th
Bin scanned the Sun at 15:10 but didn't see any sunspots.
At 23:45, I decided to carry on where I left off the night before
but brought both cameras out with me. I started with a few shots of the
Moon just in case the rest of the session was a blank.
Not all lunar close-ups came out, though on the low magnification.
Although Alcor and Mizar split and showed the 7th magnitude star in
the same field, I could split Mizar visually but needed more magnification
to do it photographically. Cor Caroli came out, though.
I turned the Maksutov on M51 which I found between the Plough's handle
and Cor Caroli. Although it was faint, I was able to make out some semblance
of a spiral structure, much as one can M33. I was also able to find M101,
which was even fainter.
Attempted photos of M42 and the Pleiades failed to come out and I
couldn't find M78 but I had a superb look at M34. It looked quite spectacular,
way surpassing the binocular view and filling most of the field of view.
Jan 27th
I bin scanned the Sun at 12:10 in a clear sky but didn't see any sunspots.
I tried with the PST at 12:35 and it was extrremely quiet. Only granulation
features were visible.
Unfortunately, the evening didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so
at 18:40 only Mars was readily visible. I could see a hint of an ice cap
visually but the surface markings seemed quite faint. Unfortunately, the
photographs were very poor and didn't show any more than a featureless disc.
Jan 30th
Bin scanned a last quarter Moon at 08:20. Due to its low elevation and
libration, only a few southern craters were visible and I couldn't see
any ray systems.
I bin scanned the Sun at 09:35 in clear conditions but didn't see any
sunspots.
I took the PST out at 12:10 and was pleasantly surprised to see a couple
of filaments visible to the right limb. I also saw a small prominence.
The next photo captured a couple of prominences that I hadn't spotted
visually.
The remaining shots are close-ups that emphasise various features.
Jan 31st
Bin scanned the Sun through thin moving cloud at 13:35 but didn't see any
sunspots.
