Bizibilder's Blog

Earthshine….

2012-01-27T21:15:00.001Z

The light that is illuminating the “dark” part of the Moon here has travelled quite a long way! From the Sun to the Earth, where it has reflected back to the Moon, where it has reflected back again to the Earth and Bizibilder has captured it in his camera! This is a stack of 5 second exposures to show what is called “Earthshine”. The “light” part of the Moon is therefore severely overexposed.

Bizibilder has added more data to his M42 picture…

2012-01-27T21:09:00.001Z

Bizibilder managed to collect a further hour (see image in post below) of data on M42 last night before the clouds rolled in. This image is therefore two nights data stacked into one single image (aren’t computers wonderful?). It makes quite a difference to the depth of colour and detail that you can see. The “core” is a bit washed out as it is very bright so the next task is to collect some short “subs” to correctly expose for the brightest parts of the nebula and then to overlay them onto this image – weather permitting, of course.

A clear, moonless night at last!

2012-01-25T22:05:00.001Z

Bizibilder finally had a clear night (with temperature just above zero and no gales!) on Monday (23 Jan 2012). So he took these test images with his (now not so) new imaging scope – a 120mm refractor. The first (top left) is M42 in Orion – this time just over an hour of exposure time. Top right is the Rosette nebula – again about an hour. Bottom is the open star cluster called Messier 35 (You can also see the smaller cluster NGC2518 to its right hand side). This one is 50mins of exposures. Bizibilder is quite pleased that the new scope is coming up to expectations – all he needs now is clear skies so he can get much more time on these objects!

The Sun today

2012-01-22T22:09:00.001Z

The Sun today taken during a gale and with clouds scudding about all over the place! Hence the poor quality of the images. You can see the clouds as some of them have come out of the stacking software as shadows on the Solar disc.

Finally finished the freestanding pier!

2012-01-22T22:06:00.001Z

Bizibilder finally finished his new telescope pier today and has installed it outside. He used it to mount a telescope for todays images of the Sun and was pleased to find it was as solid as a rock! Well worth all the effort of making it. It is positioned to allow Bizibilder to see the Sun from a position that avoids some trees and other obstructions when using the observatory.

A pair of Planets…

2012-01-16T18:20:00.001Z

A first for Bizibilder – Venus. As this planet is between Earth and the Sun it shows phases (just like our Moon). At the moment it is moving eastwards away from the Sun and will be getting much nearer to Earth as it moves towards us. You can easily see Venus in the Southwest after sunset – it is by far the brightest object in that part of the sky.

Jupiter is still visible high in the South after sunset. This sequence was taken on the 14th and shows the rotation of Jupiter over about three hours. There is also a picture of three of Jupiter’s moons – this is a composite of two pictures, one of the planet and one with a longer exposure to reveal the moons.

More pier progress

2012-01-08T21:19:00.001Z

A few pictures of progress on Bizibilder’s portable pier – he has finally done some more work! To be fair last week was spent putting several coats of varnish on the timber ring that is now fitted below the pier top (and watching the paint dry between coats!). The waste bin makes a functional, if odd looking, cover over the mount. It sits tightly over the timber disc and will hopefully protect the mount against the weather and ferocious beasties!

The Sun on Saturday with Bizibilder’s new green filter

2012-01-07T15:50:00.001Z

This is a conventional series of Solar images from Bizibilder with an extra one thrown in! He has just purchased a new green (Wratten #58) filter to try and improve the surface detail from his full disc pictures. (The “green” image is the top right one – all the colours in the above images are false and are provided via Photoshop processing). Bizibilder thinks he is on yet another steep learning curve!

5th January 2012 Moon pictures

2012-01-07T15:45:00.001Z

Better late than never! Bizibilder has been a bit busy over the last couple of days so these are posted a bit late! The first is taken with his DSLR camera (it is a mosaic of two panes – top and bottom). The second is an 11 pane webcam mosaic of the Mare Imbrium area of the Moon.

The Terminator!

2012-01-03T21:45:00.001Z

The Terminator

This is a seven pane mosaic of the terminator between the light and dark part of the Moon from last night. Below is a view of the whole visible Moon from last night:

Big Moon

The New Year Sun–Happy 2012 to All!!

2012-01-02T16:11:00.001Z

Bizibilder finally managed to take some Sun pictures today!

A swift Jupiter (or two)

2011-12-29T16:48:00.001Z

Taken last night in very windy conditions – not much to see as the “interesting” side is turned away from us.

The 4 day old Moon

2011-12-29T16:46:00.001Z

This was the Moon last night – 4 days after New Moon. The middle picture shows the “earthshine” where the night time part of the moon is illuminated by Sunlight reflected back from the Earth to the moon. (This is a long exposure so the sunlit part of the moon is very over-exposed. The third picture if of the crater Petavius.

Jupiter sequence and Map

2011-12-23T20:07:00.001Z

Above are the results of 5 hours work yesterday evening. Short video’s of Jupiter taken every ten minutes with the aim of making a short movie to show Jupiter’s rotation (It rotates very quickly – once in about 10 hours!). However it was not to be as the clouds rolled in for an hour midway through the sequence! So Bizibilder made a map instead by using some software (WinJupos – freeware) to “unroll” the surface details and stitch them together again.

Today’s Sun with New Processing to bring out the detail!!

2011-12-22T15:03:00.001Z

Todays Sun with new processing to show far more surface detail – otherwise as normal. Bizibilder suddenly found he had clear skies after all the weather stations (TV and Web based) said the day would be cloudy – so much for their supercomputers!!

Been having a play with Photoshop….

2011-12-20T15:13:00.001Z

Bizibilder has had a play with todays Sun image in order to try and bring out more information from it. It started life as exactly the same image stack as today’s posted “Sun’s” but he has reworked the Photoshop processing to bring out far more surface detail. It takes longer to do and is quite a bit more complicated but he reckons it may be worth it? All he has to do now is try and remember exactly what he did!

Finally–A Sunny Day!

2011-12-20T12:30:00.001Z

Bizibilder managed these this morning after over two weeks of not being able to image the Sun! It was a bit cloudy but, with a bit of patience, he managed the pictures you see here.

A bit more Pier work completed

2011-12-18T18:03:00.001Z

Bizibilder has machined the feet and a few other bits for his new pier. Almost finished now – just a cover to make so the thing can live outside with some protection from the elements.

The “boring” side of Jupiter

2011-12-14T21:18:00.001Z

The “spotless” side of Jupiter tonight. Seeing was awful but at least Bizibilder did manage a few pictures! ‘Twas a dark and stormy (and very cold) night……….

And started to paint it….

2011-12-11T17:12:00.001Z

A rather fetching shade of Red Oxide primer!

Got my new pier welded!

2011-12-10T21:50:00.001Z

Just have to paint the beastie and I can have a “semi permanent” set-up for winter Solar imaging (the very low winter Sun cannot be seen from Bizibilder’s observatory). Beats having to carry a tripod and mount outside and back just to take a few pictures!

Jupiter sequence from 9 December 2011

2011-12-10T20:28:00.001Z

Bizibilder had fun and games getting these – the seeing was terrible! Santa is bringing him a new kind of 2x lens so the rather poor “big” Jupiters should improve in quality from the fuzzy globes you see here!

Jupiter with its Moon Io (and Io’s shadow) in transit

2011-12-08T21:09:00.001Z

A few shots of Jupiter from last night - very windy and poor seeing but at least I was able to get a few shots of the transit of Io and its shadow. I've never observed this phenomena before and it was quite spectacular to see it for myself for the first time. The shadow of Io seemed to be racing the great red (yellow!) spot across the disc. Unfortunately I had to pack up before the shadow transit was complete. You can certainly see Io itself on the better quality images later in the sequence. All done with the 180 Mak and SPC900.

The black dot is the shadow of Jupiter’s moon Io. Io itself can be seen in the lower sequence of images as a light coloured dot near the right hand edge of the planetary disc (It is very easy to see in the 7th picture where Io is almost touching the edge of the disc within the lower of the two cloud bands). If you could stand on Jupiter (you can’t – its a big ball of gas!) at the position of the black shadow you would see a total eclipse of the Sun caused by Io!

Last night’s Moon

2011-12-06T21:49:00.001Z

Last nights Moon pictures: Taken with the 180 Mak-Cass and Canon 100D for the large disc picture and SPC900 and 2x Barlow for the craters. Seeing fair. The large disc is a mosaic of two panes each stacked from 54/58 individual frames - luckily the moon just fitted across the camera sensor!

Clickity-Click for a Large Moon

Last night’s Jupiter

2011-12-06T19:54:00.001Z

A couple of images of Jupiter taken last night. The seeing wasn’t all that good with quite a bit of high cloud around. You can see the “Great Red Spot” (looking rather yellowish!) at the right hand end of the lower brown belt. To its left there is quite a storm raging that continues across most of the visible disc.

The Moon–again!

2011-12-04T21:59:00.001Z

Tonight’s Moon taken after quite a bit of cloud-gap chasing!

Dewey Morning

2011-12-03T21:55:00.001Z

Spotted this morning – one of natures wonders.

Bizibilder gets some professional help!

2011-12-03T21:54:00.001Z

To save his lawn from further damage Bizibilder has just paid out to have a path laid to his observatory – all done in less than half a day! It would have taken Bizibilder several weekends of hard graft. Bizibilder does not do hard graft.

Tonight’s Moon

2011-12-03T20:21:00.001Z

Taken under quite hazy conditions so the resolution is not so good!

Today’s Sun

2011-12-03T13:05:00.001Z

Quite a bit of activity still going on. Bizibilder managed these through some fluffy clouds and a stiff breeze!

M42 (A work in progress)

2011-11-29T20:25:00.001Z

This is Bizibilder’s first night’s images of the “Great Nebula in Orion” or M42. This image is one and a half hours exposure (in 5minute “subs”) with a second set of 10 mins (in 30 second “subs”) to capture the detail in the bright “core” of the object. The two images were combined in Photoshop. At the top you can see the “Running Man” as a shadow in the upper gas cloud. Bizibilder intends to continue to image this object over the next few weeks (weather permitting) and add some depth and detail. He has one slight problem in that a neighbours tree gets in the way and only allows around two hours of data collection at a time.

M33 - Finished

2011-11-28T21:10:00.001Z

Last night Bizibilder managed to add (see – Last night before fog, below) a further 4hours 5mins (to make a total of 6hourd 15mins!!) on this galaxy. It is in the constellation Triangulum and is about 2500 Light Years away.

Bizibilder thinks that this target is now “done” and he will move on to something else…….

Sunday Sol:

2011-11-27T13:06:00.001Z

One heck of a struggle today with galeforce winds! I took 150 DSLR shots (ISO 100 and 1/800 sec) and only stacked 57 of them after I (and the stacking software between us) had rejected the rest for various degrees of "wobblyness"! No chance of a webcam close-up in these conditions - just too much movement (I was using my tripod mounted EQ5 and Evostar 120 as I can only see the Sun from a part of my garden away from the observatory at this time of year). After all that struggle we have a nice line-up of spots right across the disc and a new AR just creeping round the limb.

A taster of M42

2011-11-24T21:07:00.001Z

This object – The Great Orion Nebula or M42 - is coming within range of Bizibilder’s telescope again (see post in March for an earlier view). This is a single 5 minute exposure of this object, hopefully Bizibilder can get some decent clear skies to finally get an image that does it justice!

Last night before the FOG!

2011-11-20T16:36:00.001Z

The galaxy M33 was the target last night and Bizibilder manages to collect 2h 30mins of data before the fog came down (boy was it quick! One “sub” was clear as a bell, the next fully “fogged out” – all in five minutes!). I had intended to try and get around 6hours – so the image will have to be finished on another night as what you see here is a little “noisy”.

Its the weekend–So it must be Sun time!

2011-11-19T15:41:00.001Z

Todays Sun – a bit quieter than recently – but quite a few spots on view.

The Pleiades (again)

2011-11-19T15:39:00.001Z

Bizibilder has imaged this star cluster again (see Dec 2010). This time 2h 30min exposure to show the gas that is being illuminated by the young blue stars of the cluster passing through it. These were taken on the evening of 17th Nov. Bizibilder took a second nights images and then had to scrap the lot as dew had ruined them!

“Moons” by different techniques:

2011-11-15T22:10:00.001Z

Left is a picture made from a stack of 64 DSLR images. Right a picture made from a mosaic of twelve small frames each made using a 1200 frame webcam movie. Processing was as near to “the same” as Bizibilder could manage. Both images were taken within half an hour of each other on 13 Nov 2011.

Jupiter and the four Galilean Moons

2011-11-13T22:13:00.001Z

Taken with his DSLR camera, Bizibilder has managed to capture Jupiter and the four Galilean Moons. 120mm Refractor, Canon 1000D ISO400, 1/125sec.

The Sun 13 November 2011

2011-11-13T14:49:00.001Z

Finally a picture of the Sun again! Bizibilder has either been at work or clouded out for quite a while. The Spot group 1339 is by far the largest seen during this Solar cycle so far and Bizibilder nearly missed it!! Another day and it would have disappeared around the edge of the visible disc. Apologies for the dodgy spot close-ups but the Sun is now very low and the sky was quite hazy when these images were taken. These are from the image shown in “Big Sun” in the post below, cropped for the Blog.

A Big Sun–to go with the Big Moon a couple of days ago!

2011-11-13T14:43:00.001Z

Big Sun

Click on the above to see the “full sized” image that Bizibilder gets through the telescope. Like the Moon picture below this is a stack of single DSLR images – the only filter is Baader Solar Film. Canon 1000D ISO100 1.320sec. You get quite a good impression of the Sun’s overall surface granulation in this picture.

A truly Full Moon

2011-11-12T17:40:00.001Z

This was taken at 20.15 GMT on 10th November 2011 – which is at exactly Full Moon ie 100% of the visible disc is illuminated by the Sun – and the whole of the other side of the Moon’s globe is in darkness – truly “The dark side of the Moon!”.

Too much of this recently!

2011-11-12T17:36:00.001Z

A Large Moon

2011-11-11T22:00:00.001Z

Big Moon

Will take you to a rather large image of the Moon! Taken on the 9th November just before Full Moon on the 10th.

A bit more Lunar Geology

2011-11-10T21:42:00.001Z

Bizibilder made a serious attempt to improve on his last trial attempt at Lunar Geology last night and the results are below. The “grey” image is a normally processed stack of 75 “stills” with the Canon 1000D through his 120mm refractor. This was then given additional processing in Photoshop to saturate the colours and produce the second image. This shows the enhanced different colours on the Moon’s surface.

The Moon (well a bit of it anyway!)

2011-11-09T21:50:00.001Z

This is a two pane mosaic taken through Bizibilder’s new telescope with a webcam. For once the “seeing” was pretty good and there is quite a bit of detail – unfortunately the clouds rolled in after the two panes so Bizibilder had to pack up for the night. The crater in the centre is Tycho (South at the bottom)

Making things again!

2011-11-06T17:16:00.001Z

Bizibilder has been clouded out for the last few days (weeks!) and so has turned his hand to making things again. His observatory is very useful but has to suffer from a couple of trees blocking his view to the South. This is especially annoying in the winter months when the Sun is blocked during the few hours that Bizibilder is at home to photograph it! Bizibilder can’t complain too much as he knew the trees were there when he sited the observatory!

So he has decided to make a second “semi portable” telescope mount to enable him to see objects obscured from his usual “fixed” position.

He has now cut and “dry” assembled all the bits ready to take them to his tame “Steel Fabricator” to get them welded together.

A New Telescope!

2011-10-27T17:00:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder was able to try out his new telescope last night – for a couple of hours before the clouds rolled in! The new scope is designed to give “near perfect” colour correction and should enable Bizibilder to make some improvements in his image quality! Last night was “first light” and he was able to take images of a couple of objects:

Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1):

Hopefully you can see that this comet has developed a faint double tail – Bizibilder blogged a short movie of the same comet a couple of months ago. This image was taken over 30mins in 2min “subs” so it is a bit “noisy”. The “smudge” ahead of the comet (to the lower right) is a galaxy – NGC6408.

M57 – The Ring Nebula in Lyra:

Only 46mins exposure was possible for this object before the clouds rolled in. Bizibilder also imaged this object in Sept 2010 – you could look back Here to see his “progress” over the last year!

Wednesday Sun:

2011-10-26T11:29:00.001+01:00

Today’s Sun through some pretty poor seeing with clouds and haze causing my stacking software to reject over 70% of the 100 frames taken!! (Just too fuzzy!).

A bit of back garden Lunar Geology

2011-10-25T21:09:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder has been having a play with an image of the Moon that he took a while back – the only important thing is that it was taken in colour. By using Photoshop he was able to subtly increase the colour saturation of the image in many small stages and, by combing this with a copy of the original “grey” image, to get the surface detail, he was able to produce this composite.

The colour is quite real and shows the Lunar “seas” to be a deep blue, other mountainous areas are a distinct rusty colour. from this it can be deduced that the surface rocks are similar within each colour area and that the rocks of the seas and mountains are different – Lunar Geology from Bizibilder’s back garden!!

Bizibilder is sure that with a bit more care (after all this was only “playing”) he could get an image that showed more detail of differences between the various kinds of surface rock.

Monday’s “Sun”day (if you see what I mean!)

2011-10-24T15:35:00.001+01:00

Sunday Sun but no close-ups!

2011-10-23T16:49:00.001+01:00

Not too bad a set of images today – Hope you like them – there is still quite a bit going on.

Wintery Sun?

2011-10-22T16:31:00.001+01:00

Taken this afternoon through high wispy cloud – quite a bit going on at the moment on Sol and still about two years to the next maximum! Sorry no close-ups as it was too hazy.

More Jupiter:

2011-10-21T17:18:00.001+01:00

A couple of sequences of the planet Jupiter taken over two evenings. In the upper one the GRS is visible crossing the disc – even though it still looks a bit yellow to Bizibilder!

Map of Jupiter

2011-10-17T19:56:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder has used a piece of software (WINJupos) to create a map of Jupiter using two of the images from the sequence in the post below. Its not too good as one of the images is a bit “soft” but you get the idea. It should be possible to map the whole planet in one night as the rotation period is so fast!

Mooning on a Saturday night!

2011-10-16T18:27:00.001+01:00

Above is a mosaic of about six panes from last night – dark and atmospheric thinks Bizibilder! Below are two famous craters Plato (on the left) and Clavius:

Jupiter sequence from last night

2011-10-16T18:24:00.001+01:00

This sequence shows the rotation of Jupiter quite well (The Planet rotates once in around ten hours ie it has a ten hour day!) you can see the rotation over the 90 minute period of these pictures (they are not evenly spaced in time as Bizibilder was experimenting with these.

The “Great Red Spot” can be seen as the distinctly yellowish blob in the lower of the two main belts of darker colour on the planet – red it ain’t!

By doubling the image size with an extra lens Bizibilder simply showed that the seeing was not actually that good last night:

Weekend Sun (Sunday)

2011-10-16T17:00:00.001+01:00

The Sun this morning – the seeing was not so good so the detail is lacking!

Weekend Sun (Saturday)

2011-10-16T13:33:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder finally had clear skies coinciding with a weekend. The Sun is quite low now and this makes imaging a little tricky! Today the seeing was quite good so there is quite a bit of detail. The group AR1319 is quite fantastic! Over forty spots within this group and it is still developing.

A rather smudgy planet (which may be Jupiter!)

2011-10-04T20:34:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder attempted another image of Jupiter last night – the “seeing” was awful and this rather blurred object was the best of a bad bunch! It just goes to show the effects of the atmosphere.

A rather dull Sun

2011-10-03T20:02:00.001+01:00

This will almost certainly be my last "weekday Sun" image until the half term holidays. The Sun was so low when I got in from work that it was partially behind the roof of a neighbours house!! So - just the full disc today as the close-ups are too poor to show (even for me!!).

Jupiter–1st October 2011

2011-10-02T18:16:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder had a go at imaging Jupiter last night. He managed the above and quickly learned that he didn’t know quite as much about planetary imaging as he thought he did!! Hopefully more of the same target tonight – Bizibilder has to have a early night as its work in the morning – so no long Deep Sky imaging runs that go on until the early hours!

Sunday’s hazy Sun

2011-10-02T13:08:00.001+01:00

All a bit hazy today – but here are the pictures anyway.

1st October Sun

2011-10-02T12:55:00.001+01:00

The Sun on the 1st October.

“The Bubble” (and M52)

2011-10-01T14:36:00.001+01:00

Big version here - 1.9Mb Play “count the stars” !! (Background is part of the Milky Way)

Took 3h 30min of 5min subs last night of M52 and the Bubble - quite pleased with the results! The Bubble (top right and almost perfectly spherical) has been created by the “stellar wind” from a massive star at its centre blowing gas out and causing it to glow to form the Bubble shape we see. It is around 11000 light years away. Bizibilder thinks this is one of the prettiest objects in the sky! We mustn’t forget the open cluster Messier 52 which is in the same field of view but only about 5000 light years away. Hope you like!

ED80PRO with reducer to f 6.5/Canon 1000D unmodded ISO 800/HEQ5 EQMOD/ QHY5 finder guider with PHD/DSS (I used 30% saturation on this as 20% seemed a little washed out) and PS CS5 with Noels actions. If it stays clear I may try for another 3 hours or so tonight.

Another nights work! IC 1396

2011-09-30T23:58:00.001+01:00

Well Bizibilder must admit that this is not much to look at for the non-astronomer! It is a nebula (a gas cloud, part of one really – called IC1396 - its very big) in the constellation Cephus. Bizibilder was actually trying to image a specific part of the nebula, a dark patch of interstellar dust known as the “Elephant’s trunk”. Part of it is visible top centre! Bizibilder didn’t “miss it” its just that he wasn’t quite sure where it was in relation to the main nebula! The image is not too bright, even though it was a 3h 30min exposure as Bizibilder’s camera is not designed to image red nebulae and actually has a filter that blocks much of the light!

Last Sun of September

2011-09-30T23:48:00.001+01:00

Todays Sun. The seeing was quite good but, as usual, getting in from work meant that I had to image with the Sun barely over the observatory wall!

Final Process of the Double Cluster

2011-09-29T23:19:00.001+01:00

Double Cluster – Large

The link above is to a large version of Bizibilder’s fully processed image of the Double Cluster in Perseus. A smaller version can be seen below. This is a total of 4h 10m exposure:

Bizibilder forgot……

2011-09-29T21:27:00.001+01:00

There have been a couple of clear nights recently! On Wednesday Bizibilder started a project to get a good image of the famous “Double Cluster” in the constellation Perseus. Here is the (roughly processed) first hour and 40 mins of exposures (20 “subs” of 5 minutes with the telescope locked onto a guide star via the computer). He has a further 2h 30 mins from Thursday night to process and add to this image – digital imaging is great! You can take pictures on different nights and just “add them together”! Click to get a slightly bigger image:

The big spot continues its journey across the Sun…..

2011-09-29T21:19:00.001+01:00

The “seeing” was quite good today but the Sun was low down as Bizibilder can only photograph it after he gets home from work.

The Sun again–with the really big spot!

2011-09-27T19:50:00.001+01:00

From very low down over the observatory wall. The seeing was fair but the altitude low! The big spot AR1302 is apparently "naked eye" size - but I don't advise looking!!

NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT A PROPER, SAFE FILTER.

Wot? No Sun?

2011-09-26T20:00:00.001+01:00

No Sun today folks – it’s just too cloudy.

A Mucky Sun!

2011-09-25T12:39:00.001+01:00

A real quality problem today!! These were taken through rather thick high cloud and haze (10.30BST).

Sun 24th September 2011

2011-09-24T15:47:00.001+01:00

Clear skies again this morning so I was able to take 4min avi's of all the spot groups. Seeing was variable so the final stacks were only around 250/2400. Full disc was 90/100 frames.

A Huge new Sun-spot has appeared!

2011-09-23T21:31:00.001+01:00

A huge new AR has come into view (AR 1302). This should keep the Sun interesting for the next week or two! And I finally had clear skies.... The full disc image is a stack of 100 frames and the avi's were roughly 1800 out of 2400 frames each - much easier than cloud dodging!!

The Sun in a hurry!

2011-09-21T21:37:00.001+01:00

Actually it was Bizibilder in the hurry! There were only a few tiny gaps in the clouds and the pictures needed were taken over about 45mins, two or three at a time! Bizibilder finally managed about 150 frames but quite a few were ”wasters” due to clouds. The final stack is 112 frames to make up the image you see here.

Today’s Sun

2011-09-19T21:28:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder is starting to have trouble getting decent images on the days when he’s at work - The Sun is low over his neighbours houses and seeing is very poor by the time he gets home, especially noticeable in the webcam close-ups. He may have to give up on these soon and just try for the full disc. Anyway the full disc is still interesting with a new spot group (AR 1301) coming into view!

Sunday’s Sun–with a new, improved(?) “false” colour – hope you like it!

2011-09-18T15:30:00.001+01:00

There were reasonably clear skies this morning though the seeing wasn't actually all that good - short periods of fine detail and long periods of "mush"! Anyway I managed a set of pictures - the larger close-up spot picture is a two pane mosaic.

Weekend Sun – dodging the hailstorms!

2011-09-17T16:51:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder managed to find a gap in the clouds today and took these. The four panel mosaic is a bit messy as he did this last and had trouble with a few wispy clouds. The session was curtailed by a torrential hailstorm!!

Tuesday Sun on a less windy day

2011-09-13T20:19:00.001+01:00

Today's Sun. I was a bit late in from work today so the Sun was really low! Just about managed to get some images.....

Monday Sun in a gale!!

2011-09-12T20:06:00.001+01:00

Absolutely atrocious seeing today with a gale blowing!! Anyway I managed a pic or two! The spot close-ups had to be reduced by 50% mainly to reduce Bizibilder’s embarrassment at having the nerve to post them!!

Last nights images–The Moon and Jupiter

2011-09-11T21:00:00.001+01:00

The above are Jupiter taken with a fairly small scope (not ideal!), but they are Bizibilder’s first of Jupiter this year.

Big Moon

Another bit of the Big Moon

Above are two mosaics of the Moon – Bizibilder tried to do the whole Moon but was thwarted by a neighbours tree getting in the way – so he had to split the image so you can’t see the “missing bit”!

Sunday Sun–with the “big” spot:

2011-09-11T11:56:00.001+01:00

Todays effort, largely through decent sized breaks in the clouds for once. Until, that is, it clouded over before I could get close-ups of all the active areas - maybe I'll try again later if the cloud breaks.

The Sun through the tiniest gap in the clouds you could imagine!

2011-09-10T17:51:00.001+01:00

Managed to climb onto the observatory roof and poke the scope through the clouds to get this one. No chance at all of using the webcam - this is 21 frames from the DLSR taken through about a dozen tiny gaps in the clouds over about half an hour. AR 1289 is a seriously BIG sunspot!!

The Sun in quite good seeing!

2011-09-05T20:07:00.001+01:00

Finally some decent seeing! But Bizibilder had to go back to work today after the summer hols so I was restricted to a session of cloud dodging later in the afternoon. Anyway today' offerings.....

Back to the orange thing!

2011-09-03T17:28:00.001+01:00

Today's Sun in atrocious seeing conditions - lots of high cloud and when that broke there was even higher haze! Most of the spot close-ups were so bad they were not worth the effort!!
Anyway full disc and a mosaic of indifferent quality.

It’s BIG, it’s in the sky and it’s NOT orange!!!

2011-09-02T16:46:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder finally got out after dark last night, the first clear night in five weeks!! (What a waste of an entire school summer holiday!). Anyway the target was the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31 or M31 and its neighbours M110 – the larger fuzzy one top left of centre and M32 – the small circular fuzzy one just on the lower centre edge of M31). M31 is BIG it is about 6 Moons long by 2 Moons wide – if that makes any sense!

I managed a total of three and a half hours of five minute “subs” before the clouds rolled in! This prevented the next stage which is to take some shorter “subs” to cut and paste over the central core of M31 as in the image above it is saturated and you can see no detail. This will now have to be a job for another night.

Friday’s Sun.

2011-09-02T15:52:00.001+01:00

Poor quality pictures today I'm afraid as there was a considerable amount of high hazy cloud (which has got worse as the day has progressed!). Anyway - today's Sun.

The Sun is back!!

2011-09-01T13:01:00.001+01:00

After missing out yesterday due to cloud here are todays Sun images. There was quite a bit of cloud about but enough gaps to get things done. The seeing was quite poor and "boily" so spot detail is only fair.

The Great Spottiness continues!!

2011-08-30T12:22:00.001+01:00

Today’s Sun – through thin clouds! There are a few new tiny Spots appearing on the disc. I did not have enough gaps in the clouds to take any close-ups.

Finally finished my ship model!!

2011-08-29T17:15:00.001+01:00

Well, actually, I finished a few days ago but have only just got around to taking a few photo’s. I think the total build time was spread over about ten years!! She is the “Royal Caroline” launched in 1749 – the royal yacht of her day – hence all the gold and carvings.

The Sun–through the tiniest gap in the clouds!

2011-08-29T13:34:00.001+01:00

No close-ups today as this was taken through a tiny gap in the clouds - just long enough to align everything and snap around 36 frames with the DSLR!

The Sun today–28 August 2011

2011-08-28T14:19:00.001+01:00

Bizibilder found some bigger gaps in the clouds today!

Sun through a tiny cloud gap!! 27 August 2011

2011-08-27T11:44:00.001+01:00

Today's Sun through the tiniest gap in the clouds!! Usual set-up. I just managed to run off around 35 single frames in a cloud gap - no close-ups unless the weather improves later.

Thursday’s Sun–25 August 2011

2011-08-25T20:14:00.001+01:00

Todays Sun with the usual set-up. AR 1271 seems to be continuing to develop, AR 1272 has degenerated into faculae, AR's 1274,5 & 6 are tiny. There are two new spots that have appeared around the limb, the latest of which seems to have a double umbra (the darker bit in the middle). (All AR numbers now updated!)

Today’s Sunny spots!

2011-08-24T22:09:00.001+01:00

This really was cloud dodging!! I had to wait until around 16.30 for a gap in the clouds to appear. Anyway todays Sun.

More Sunzzzzzzz………… 22 August 2011

2011-08-22T15:12:00.001+01:00

Today’s Sun with quite a bit of detail captured for once – Bizibilder was able to take some longish “movies” to process and the “seeing” was not quite as bad as it has been recently.

The Sun today!! Again!! More tomorrow!! I hope!!

2011-08-21T21:19:00.001+01:00

Todays Sun with the usual set-up. The seeing was not so good with the image boiling about. Again I had to wait for gaps in the clouds.
Clever Bizibilder (or is that lazy!) has written his first Photoshop “Action” today - to sharpen and colour the Solar full disc photos - I got bored with repeating the same "standard" things over and over and taking a couple of minutes to do it, now the action does the whole lot in less than a second, hopefully with more consistent results!

The Sun 20 August 2011

2011-08-20T12:57:00.001+01:00

Todays Sun taken through high wispy clouds so the quality is poor! Usual Evostar 120/1000D/SPC900 setup. AR1271 is putting on a good display!

The Sun 19 August 2011

2011-08-19T12:59:00.001+01:00

Finally some clear skies so that Bizibilder could photograph the Sun again. The Active Area seen coming into view the other day is now officially AR1271 and another new area has appeared named AR1272. He was also able (just about between the fluffy clouds!) to get some close-up videos of the two main spot groups.