On 1 November 2015, most of the UK was shrouded in persistent mist and fog. The mist was very even and created unusually suitable conditions for solar imaging without special equipment, while the sun was still reasonably high in the sky and the seeing was good.

NOTE: These were exceptional conditions, do not try to directly observe or photograph the sun without specialist equipment.

This image is a stack of 26 images:

The sun showing three major active regions on 1 November 2015

This is a version with the active regions labelled:

Key diagram for active regions on 1 November 2015

And this is a close up of Active Region AR12443, note how the sunspots have a dark central region surrounded by a less dark outer zone. they are much cooler than the rest of the sun's surface (but still hot enough to melt steel in a flash!):

A close up of the sunspots in AR 12443

Details

Category: Astrophotography

• Astronomy
• Photography

Everyone knows the moon is grey... isn't it?

Well actually it isn't, it has areas with very subtle green, blue and orange tones, but these are difficult to make out with the unaided eye, though telescope users who know what they are looking for can detect them. In fact we are so used to a colourless moon, most photographs of it are rendered in monochrome.

Very careful processing of the colour balance of a photograph of the moon can make sure that none of these colours 'wins' over the others. this then allows the saturation of the image to be increased enough to make them visible. Once this colour enhanced image is combined with the 'luminosity' detail in a sharpened and carefully contrast adjusted image you can see the moon as you may never have seen it before. And this is no artefact - different photographers get the same colours in the same areas. The different colours actually reflect the age of different parts of the moon, with the younger maria (seas) being most colourful.

If you want to see the colours for yourself, the most obvious patch is the yellow/orange area near 10:30 and in a way from the rim - near the bright crater Aristarchus.

It's a bit of a wow moment when you realise the Moon is colourful... right click and 'view image' to see it in all its glory.

The Moon is a colourful place when you know how to look at it.

Details

Category: Astrophotography

• Astronomy
• Photography

The Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter

On 9 September 2015, there was a relatively close conjunction of three planets and the Moon. This purely random alignment gave a series of fine sights in the early morning sky as the moon 'caught up' with the three planets. By the 11the the moon will be virtually invisible, but Mercury will be just over the horizon just before sunrise for those blessed with clear skies and a low horizon.

Venus, Mars and Jupiter will be even closer together soon, closest on 27/28 September, then Venus will start to fade and Jupiter won't be at its brightest until March and Mars until June 2016.

In the photo below, taken through patchy cloud, Jupiter is at bottom left, Mars is just visible slightly above the line joining Jupiter and the moon, Venus is the very bright, slightly flared project near the top. The star Regulus in the constellation Leo is just visible to above and to the left of Venus. All very basic equipment - this was shot with a £30 second hand Canon EOS 10D and 28mm wide angle lens, handheld (braced against a window frame) 1/10 of a second at ISO800.

The conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon

Details

Category: Astrophotography

• Astronomy
• Photography

On 28 September 2015, there was a stunning total eclipse of the moon. The moon was within an hour of its closest approach to earth during totality, meaning that it appeared larger than usual - a 'supermoon'.

The Eclipse started as a vague darkening at the upper left edge of the Moon, which spread slowly and steadily across the disc.

The shadow of the Earth moves over the moon.

As the shadow covered the whole moon, it became orange to they eye, still bright near the edge, but the camera showed that this bright edge was actually thousands of time less bright than the unshadowed moon. The first image is 1/400 of a second at ISO 100, whilst the next image was a fifteen second exposure at ISO1600.

Now totally in the Earth's shadow, it adopted a dusky red-brown hue.

The above pictures were taken using a six-inch telescope with a Canon Eos 10D, and are stacks of about ten images. The following compilation image uses pictures taken with a Nikon P520 bridge camera. Note that the exposure time and ISO was changed at the point where the illuminated moon disappeared.

The various stages in the progress of the eclipse.

Once the eclipse was total, what had been just a smattering of stars in the sky became a spectacular display, including the Milky Way running through the constellations of Cassieopia and Perseus. This is one of the rare occasions when you could photograph the moon and the stars in the same image. This image is made by stacking the moon and stars from the same set of pictures separately then recombining them.  This approach is needed because the moon moves relative to the stars so one or the other is blurred if you do a simple stack. Stars down to about magnitude 6.5 are visible in this image.

To see the stars properly, right click this image and choose 'view image'.

Finally, a close up view of the moon at totality, again double stacked, but using images from the 6" 150PL scope.

Total Eclipse of the Moon, 28 September 2015

Details

Category: Astrophotography

• Astronomy