​Sunspot AR2529…it’s a beauty! 

I just managed to capture this magnificent sunspot late yesterday afternoon in between the dark thundering clouds with the video feature on my Canon 700D camera. Even with cloud passing across the surface of the Sun you can still make out the superb detail of its dark core.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a beauty on the Sun’s surface, and I can’t wait to see how it’s going to progress in the next few days, but for now, it’s hidden from me because of our cloudy skies!

The image is a frame taken from the video using a Canon 700D with a 5x Barlow lens attached to the camera,  the camera was coupled to a Meade ED80mm refractor telescope that had an Orion glass solar filter firmly in place on the front lens. The telescope was on a tracking mount, the exposures were 1/250th second and ISO800.

(Please be very careful when looking at the Sun)
Always use solar filters on your camera or telescope lenses to look at or take pictures of the Sun

In the early hours of yesterday morning (7th April) Comet 252P/Linear was still making its way through the constellation of Ophiuchus and came close to the globular star cluster M14. You can also see to the top of the image the other very faint globular star cluster NGC 6366, that lies 3 degrees southwest of M14.
 
There is also a wide field image where you can just make out the green colour of the comet close by the rich star fields of our Milky Way galaxy. The planets Mars and Saturn also make a lovely acute triangle with the brilliant star Antares that’s in Scorpius…so there’s a lot going on in this part of the sky at the moment :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 70-200 mm lens set 200mm; exposure times were 45 seconds and ISO 400 at F2.8. Wide Field image taken with a 17-85mm lens at 17mm, exposure time was one and a half minutes at F5.6 and ISO 2000.
 
Processing Picture:
There were multiple images with dark frames stacked in DSS (Free software, Deep Sky Stacker) and processed in Photoshop… the reason for doing this is to reduce any noise (from the camera) in the pictures so you can bring out some more of the detail.
 

~ You can just make out the green colour of Comet 252P/Linear to the left in my image ~

​In the early hours of yesterday morning (3rd April) Comet 252P/Linear was making it’s way through the faint stars in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
 
This pretty green comet formed a lovely triangle in the sky with the two very faint globular star clusters called NGC 6399 and NGC 6402 (M14), which are only 3 degrees apart in the night sky.
 
From my image, you’ll see the path that the comet will travel as it makes its way close by M14 in the early hours of the morning on the 6th and 7th April…I hope the skies stay clear so I can capture it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 70-200 mm lens set 200mm; exposure time was 15 seconds and ISO 2000 at F3.5, 12 images were stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.

​In the early hours of this morning (1st April) Comet 252P/Linear was blazing through the faint stars of Serpens Cauda (The tail of the Serpent) and heading for the constellation of Ophiuchus.
 
The last quarter Moon again made the sky very light but with perseverance I found the comet by its pretty green colour among the stars :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 100-400 mm lens set 250mm; exposure time was 10 seconds and ISO 2000, 10 images were stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.