Another close-up from the 25th. The seeing was a bit wobbly, but pleased to have captured Hadley Rille, landing site of Apollo 15, snaking around the foothills of the Apennine mountains C11 with x1.58 barlow and Uranus-M camera. Astronomik 642nm filter 🔭

Close-up view of the area around the marvellous crater Plato and the Alpine Valley, taken on the 25th. Conditions weren't the best, but I'm pleased the narrow rille running down the centre of the Alpine Valley is just visible C11 with x1.58 barlow and Astronomik 642nm filter 🔭

My favourite area of the Moon, the Mare Imbrium region, bordered by the Appenine mountains to the east. Zooming in, Hadley Rille can be seen snaking around the foot of the mountains while, to the north, the Alpine Valley looks like a chisel-cut through the mountains.

Moon mosaic, taken a few nights ago. Loads more data to wade through so i could very busy! Celestron C11 and Uranus-M camera

My final Jupiter from the last week, taken on the 13th in reasonable seeing. Jupiter is getting past its best now so any chance to image it over the next few weeks will be a bonus. Celestron Edge 8HD. ZWO ADC. Baader VIP @ f/18.8. Uranus-C camera

Another Jupiter shot, this time from the 8th. Seeing was good but I feel I'm struggling at present to make the most of the conditions. Edge 8" with Uranus-C camera Maybe I need to go back to the C11?

Jupiter on the 7th April with my 8" Celestron Edge SCT. GRS is nicely positioned. 🔭

With a change in the weather, possibly my last image of the Sun for a while. This is the area around active regions 4008 and 4009 and shows some nice bright faculae near to the limb. Taken with an Esprit 4" refractor, Herschel wedge and Player One Uranus-M camera from my garden

Close-up image of active region AR4008 in hydrogen alpha, taken a few days ago

Zooming in a bit on the south-west limb. Not much prominence action at the moment, but a few nice active regions are on show. H-alpha image with my Skywatcher Esprit 100 scope and Quark CS

The Sun in hydrogen alpha, taken early morning on the 7th before the atmosphere warmed up, which helped the seeing a bit. 16 panel mosaic with my Esprit 100mm refractor, Quark chromosphere and 174MM camera

I was hoping to compare 2 cameras yesterday but the good UK weather once again had other ideas. This was a short test video with my usual ASI174 camera. Clouds appeared from nowhere before I could connect my other camera. Maybe tomorrow then!

I've reprocessed my 19 March image of the Sun using an "inverted" process method; first one I've done in this way using Affinity photo, so had to figure out a few settings. This method isn't to everyone's liking, but I think it can help accentuate the prominences 🔭

The seeing wasn't great yesterday but I tried a bit of solar imaging between the clouds. Here are a few sunspot groups showing pleasing detail and surface granulation. Taken with my Esprit and Baader barlow at a focal length of 1350mm 🔭

Still testing different focal ratios for imaging with my Esprit solar rig, although the weather isn't playing ball. This was a quickly grabbed capture from a few days ago

Closer view of active region AR4401 in mono. The 'rough' texture of the Sun surface is known as 'granulation' although more magnification is needed to see details 🔭

The Sun in white light, taken yesterday morning 28th March. A mosaic of two mono images through my 4" Esprit refractor and x2 barlow lens, and has been colourised. Several sunspot groups and pale faculae are clearly visible 🔭

Final image from yesterday. Active region AR4402 near the limb of the Sun. Bright faculae are visible against the darker edge of the disk; areas where the sun's magnetic field breaks through the surface of the photosphere, or visible surface

Another Sun image from yesterday, showing a closer view of active regions 4401 and 4402 and surrounding granulation on the sun's 'surface'

The Sun in white light with my 100mm refractor, taken 26th March. This is a 2 panel mosaic with a Uranus-M camera and x2 barlow.

The shadow of Jupiter's moon Ganymede transiting the face of the planet on 19th March. Taken with an Astronomik 642nm IR-pass filter. I'm still getting used to using and processing images taken with this. Not there yet, but good fun learning!

Wider view of the Jovian system. Jupiter and moons Europa, Ganymede and Io (left to right) taken on 19th March with an Edge 8 scope and Uranus mono planetary camera 🔭

A trio of Jupiter images from 21st March, showing movement of the GRS as it transited the planets disk. Taken with a Celestron Edge 8" and Baader barlow working at f/12.7, which is a little undersampled with my Uranus-C camera

First go at processing some of my Jupiter data from last night. This was using my Edge 8" scope and Baader barlow. Image measurement suggests it's undersampled at f/12 which is a pity as the seeing was very good for a change.

Another image from the 19th. This was the only large active region on the visible disk, AR4392. The Sun is becoming less active now that we've passed solar max, but hopefully there'll be plenty of interesting features visible before it goes quiet

Full solar disk in h-alpha taken on the 19th. 17 panel mosaic with my Esprit 100 and Quark Chromosphere. Processed in Autostakkert, Imppg and Affinity Photo 🔭

Good to be doing solar again. My processing is very rusty and I'm now trying to replicate my old Photoshop workflow using Affinity. Finding this tricky and needs more work to get what I'm after, but ive lots more data from yesterday morning to play with 🙂 🔭

After 10 months of astronomy in the dark, it's time to return to some solar imaging.....if I can remember how to do it 🔭 🌞

Its 10 months since I've imaged the Sun in hydrogen alpha, which is crazy! I had some issues with my refractor which may have been caused by heat build-up while doing solar imaging. I've now fixed the issue, and have a new solar filter to try, so I need to get out there soon! 🔭

Testing different focal ratios with my new Baader VIP barlow. Theoretical optimum is between f/15 and f/20 with my camera. More work needed, including with my colour cam, but quite pleased with the results. F/27 seems definitely oversampled. Seeing was poorish sadly

First image with the Astronomik 642nm IR Pass filter and Uranus-M. Seeing was quite poor so details are a bit blurry, but pleased with its first outing. 🔭

View from a window. My C11 viewed from my little warm room 🙂 🔭

First try out of my new Astronomik 642nm IR pass filter last night. Looking forward to processing this one 🔭

Fully processed colour image from the 5th March. Jupiter, minus great red spot, and minus barlow lens. 🔭

Mono Jupiter. Taken on 2nd March with a C11 and Uranus-M camera 🔭

Experimenting with image scale. Right is with x2 barlow, is very oversampled at f/27, and lacks contrast and detail. Left is no-barlow, is slightly undersampled at f/11, but although smaller shows more detail. Theory suggests f/15-20 is the sweet-spot. Interesting and fun, but more work needed!

Pythagoras and the north-east terminator, a few hours before full moon a few days ago🔭

Jupiter on the 2nd March. Ive been struggling with poor seeing lately, I think due to heat from my house. From image scale measurement I now realise my current set-up is oversampling, which is not ideal. I down-scaled this image before processing. More testing needed on this.

A closer view of the Alpine Valley, Vallis Alpes, one of the best examples of a tectonic fault on the Moon. About 100 miles in length and 6 miles wide, a narrow rille runs down the middle, which is very faintly visible in this image if you squint a bit!

One of my favourite areas on the Moon, the northern shore of the Sea of Showers. Lots of interesting features can be seen here, including the majestic crater Plato and the Alpine Valley, like a chisel cut through the lunar Alps mountain range

Another shot from the 25th. The "Eyes of Clavius". An interesting illusion created by the morning sunlight catching the rims of craters inside the wonderful crater Clavius in the Moon's southern highlands 🔭

The Straight Wall. Actually a gentle slope, but the low angled Sun really makes it look dramatic! A lovely area with lots of interesting features, including the narrow rille Rima Birt, about 50 km long 🔭

Wider angle view of the lunar Apennines and Hadley Rille. Taken last night in average seeing 🔭

Hadley Rille, landing site of Apollo 15. Taken last night with my C11 and mono Uranus camera 🔭

First image of Jupiter, with Io and it's shadow, and the GRS, taken with my new Uranus-M mono camera last night. The plan is to get an IR pass filter which will hopefully help me get sharper mono images to use as a luminance layer combined with colour from my Uranus-C camera. Good to have a plan 🤞🏻 🔭

First Jupiter session for a few weeks due to horrendous cloud so far this year. Taken with a C11 🔭

First time on Jupiter for ages 🔭

The cloud is back ☹️. Reprocessed a few images from the last 4 years. The 2022 image is the best of a bad bunch of data. I hope to do better next time the rings are more fully open! 🔭

Jupiter from last night. Although atmosphere was very steady, focus was poor, possibly due to moisture in the air and transparency was poor. There are some artefacts around Ganymede's shadow, possibly dust on the sensor. My processing is very rusty too! Good to get out though. 🔭

Jupiter with the C11 and x2 barlow last night. First clear night for weeks! The seeing was rock steady but I was having trouble focusing for some reason, and I had loads of PC and software issues. The dark dot is Ganymede's shadow. Short video clip which I'll process today. 🔭