Solar Imaging Session:

I just had to be home to capture this. Had a hard time with the close up because of turbulence (through the window shooting). Hope to get a nice close up but that requires me to go outside the house, which is kind of hard now.

Been a while since my last solar shoot.

Mars & Saturn

After more than a month of waiting for these two wonderful night sky jewels to clear the roof obstruction, I was able to do imaging again by waking up real early. At 4am, Mars was already 37deg low to the west and Saturn just  passed zenith at 63deg. There were no clouds this morning.

I could've done this at midnight but I would have to go about a 100ft from where I live. I couldn't do remote imaging because I have no batteries. 

This is my second time to image mars I think he was only ~6arcsec back then.
The North Polar cap, Chryse and Mare Erythreum is visible.

Image comparison from the Mars Previewer:

CM = 73.21
DEC = 22.33
Diameter = 13.64
Phase = 0.9958
Mag = -1.11
N top E left

My first image of Saturn. One of the most beautiful objects in the night sky

I thank the Lord for allowing me to image these two. Always make you question how can you love astronomy and not believe there's a Creator!

Lunar Imaging Session:

Have not imaged the moon since last month, there was a conjunction last night between the moon & jupiter. Great sight! I don't have a tripod with me so I was only able to take closeup. I imaged both but my Jupiter image was not good. Improper focus and Impatience with cool down times led to a bad image.

But enjoy last night's moon!

Today's Solar Activity:1384

It's been a while since my last imaging session, many of you know that we moved to a new house (house that we own!). I had a chance to to setup my scope and shoot the sun just this afternoon (finally). Though I was not able to get good close up images because I got clouded out. Antipolo skies is darker than where we came from. Hope to get a good widefield scope in the coming months (now read that as "years").

Enjoy our active sun!

AR11384

AR11388 & AR11386 (L to R)

Rough Total Lunar Eclipse: December 10, 2011

After a day of rain, we almost lost hope of witnessing this spectacular event..the skies cleared up a bit at around totality..I set up my scope with an umbrella on my side and my wife..ready to help me set down in case it rains. Rough time to image but I was still able to get even a glimpse of it.

Jupiter Imaging Session:

It has been 9 days since my last image. Seeing tonight was not that promising but because the Great Red Spot transit was in progress, I decided to shoot anyway.

Also tonight, my wife and I went to the Mandaluyong City Hall Christmas bazaar thing. We ate shawarma, hotdogs and grilled corn. It was also our first time to ride a pinoy ferris wheel - the one that can just fall apart anytime and kill everyone. Totally enjoyed it! G-force!

Will come back next week to take pictures. Happy first week of Advent!

Ganymede Transit:

Ganymede transit & Io

Europa, Ganymede & Io

After the successful Middle School Concert, We saw Jupiter high and bright. I could not wait to image it. I have not done imaging for a while because of bad weather. In the Philippines, you have to image whenever you can. Got home real fast to catch Ganymede's transit, thanks to Sergio for sending me home just in time. Tonight's Jupiter is dedicated to the middle school guitar 1 & guitar 2 students who performed really well tonight!

Songs we performed are:

Guitar 1: Batman Theme, Blessed Be Your Name, First Noel, Jingle Bell Rock & I'm Alright

Guitar 2: Your Grace is Enough, Johnny Be Goode & Do You Hear What I Hear

All rearranged and transcribed by yours truly & Hubert except for Batman Theme & I'm Alright.

This is the musical side of me.