Another beautifully clear night, dominated by the waxing moon under surprisingly good seeing. Scanning through the eyepiece showed Sinus Iridum on the terminator. I love the way it appears in […]
Observing the Plato Craterlets: 22 March 2021
22 March 2021: Exploring the Montes Alpes Region The image below (a mosaic of 2 frames) shows the Montes Alpes region from Plato to the nearby Vallis Alpes as seen […]
Waning Moon 28 February 2021
A beautiful bright moon tonight with good seeing. A few stunning targets in the camera tonight: The mountains around Mare Crisum looked amazing. Petavius and its rilles – I reckon […]
Sinus Iridum and Malapert Massif: 25 January 2021
My first clear night evening in the observatory since breaking my foot and having the bone pinned in November. At long last the cast is off and the pain & […]
Inghirami Valley and Ricciolo Crater
25 February 2021: Gibbous Moon Cold but calm, no wind and beautifully clear. A bright moon, nearing full, is lighting up the frosting grass. Examination through the eyepiece reveals a […]
Mare Orientale: 26 February 2021
Mare Orientale is a huge impact basin on the far side of the moon at 95degW. Like most impact basins, it is a series of impressive mountain rings arranged concentrically […]
Tuesday March 16 2021: Herschel 400 Galaxies in Leo
Celestron C11 EQ6 using Sky Safari 20mm APM eyepiece (x140, 0.7deg FOV) unless noted Clear skies after work. Beautiful evening! I watched the crescent moon descending into the treeline before […]
Jupiter – Saturn Conjunction December 2020
2020 has been a pretty strange year but the stars and planets carry on regardless including December’s Jupiter and Saturn conjunction – an event I had in my diary for […]
3 Hours on Mars: 8 October 2020
Another clear night. I have got my planetary imaging workflow down to a tee now. Once the roof has rolled back and the telescope aligned, I can have Mars in […]
Clear Skies Over Tharsis
Wednesday 14 October 2020 With the skies clearing after work, it was time to head to the observatory to catch Mars – now a few days past opposition. After rolling […]