Artificial light pillars decorated the sky, and I think the Moon could also see a dim ring of 22 degrees. Snow/sleet was falling slowly.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

I photographed the Moon in 40 parts and assembled the mosaic. Seeing flew by and in addition, in the final stages, clouds started drifting in the sky, but I think the overall picture was created from that. The mosaic can be viewed in a larger size via this link . At least we got to hang out with the equipment and practice (hopefully) for the future peak seeing ;-) Also, close-ups of the surroundings of Clavius and the northern part of the Sea of Rain.

Images: 3 pcs

Observation information »

On the second night of the meeting of Venus and Jupiter, elliptical rings were visible around them, thanks to which the planets shone even brighter, at least in photographs. The first image is cropped from the second one.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

The second night of the close encounter between Venus and Jupiter. The planets were now on top of each other, with the dimmer Jupiter below. When looking at the situation with a telescope, it was possible to state that the brighter Venus was clearly smaller than these planets at the moment, with its apparent diameter being about a third of Jupiter's diameter. Jupiter's moons were elegantly lined up. As a dot on i, elliptical circles formed around the planets, about which I make my own observations.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

I went to Koli to witness this spectacular meeting of the brightest and largest planet. Thus, when they were almost at the same height, they twinkled in the sky like two eyes.

Images: 7 pcs

Observation information »

Magnificent northern lights! I watched them from the middle of a traffic light near the city center, but they were still visible. In addition to green, a deep red color was also clearly visible to the eyes. The show was perhaps at its best at 0:10-0:20 with bright corona days. From this period are the first 3 images of the observation and an animation that tries to show the situation in every direction (initial situation roughly southeast). The last four pictures are from slightly calmer moments, when the northern lights still formed the most imaginative shapes/figures in the sky. As a bonus, ...

Images: 8 pcs • Comments: 3 pcs

Observation information »

I noticed a good half of a piece of cloud arc in the sky when I went to pick up the car from the service. The first cloud arc sighting at your place! The phenomenon was visible for five minutes. When viewed through polarized sunglasses, the arc disappeared when the head was rotated to a certain position. The pictures are bad cell phone shots from inside the car.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

The purpose of this trip was to focus on the "green comet", the zodiac light and the Milky Way. However, the main attention kept turning to the green air glow, which, being strong, brightened the already pale winter sky even more and tried to include it in every picture. The comet was now passing in a dusty environment among dark nebulae and right next to Mars. The same image field also included the Pleiades and part of the Hyades, as well as the slightly dimmer open star clusters NGC 1746 and NGC 1647 (in the images to the left of the comet). The attached still images are compiled from exposu...

Images: 4 pcs

Observation information »

I was looking at the scenery from Akka-Koli when I noticed this pillar of light under the sun. It seems to be the lower sun. The lower side suns also stood out, especially the one on the left. Ice crystals floated in the air for a few minutes.

Images: 2 pcs • Comments: 1 pcs

Observation information »

The cloudiness allowed the observation of the Moon, and it was a good thing, because the libration was more than 7 degrees to the east. Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii and other wonders of the Moon's eastern edge were well visible. There is a more detailed story about these objects in the article written by Paula-Christiina Wirtanen in Zeniit issue 5/2022. In addition to the objects on the eastern edge, I managed to photograph the entire Moon before it was hidden behind the trees.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

I also went to observe comet ZTF. With 15x50 binoculars it was easy to find and appeared as a featureless nebula of the same type as the Andromeda galaxy. With my naked eyes, I couldn't distinguish it from the light-polluted and moonlit sky. In addition, when there were clouds drifting in the sky and the transparency was otherwise poor, the conditions for photographing the comet were far from ideal. However, the comet's tails were recorded in the pictures somehow. Attached are the first two images compiled from shots at 22:37-22:50 (total exposure time 12 min) and the third from shots ...

Images: 4 pcs

Observation information »

I spent the evening watching and photographing Mars, when I got the chance after a long time. This time it was mainly the side of Elysium and e.g. Mare Cimmerium, also Sinus Gomer stood out in the pictures. Syrtis Major started to emerge gradually during the evening. In the attached stereo images, Mars at 20:51 (CM 221) and at 21:11 (CM 226). The first image is IR-RGB and the second RGB.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

There have been plenty of spots in the sun in the last few days, I've been following the situation on the Space Weather website. Today the clouds gave way enough that it was possible to see a nearby star with your own eyes - for a long, long time.

Observation information »

There was cloud gauze in the sky, but you could somehow see Jupiter through it. For example, the big red dot stood out quite nicely visually, but the smaller details were drowned in noise due to poor visibility. The attached picture shows three shots of Jupiter taken every 10 minutes, you can try to visualize the planet in 3-D from them.

Observation information »

The weather has been, to put it mildly, challenging for observing planets this fall, at least in Joensuu. When the clouds have not been in the way, the wind has been strong and the seeing has been miserable. Now finally, after a break of two and a half months, I was able to distinguish some details from the surface of Mars again. The pictures were still pretty blurry. It's great that Mars in the sky shines like this when the opposition is approaching, if only there would be better seeing there in the next few weeks. The picture shows e.g. Elysium and Mare Cimmerium, the north is below.

Comments: 1 pcs

Observation information »

I drove to observe the partial solar eclipse in Parikkala, where the weather forecast promised a clearer sky than in Joensuu. However, the choice of the place did not hit the spot, because after a quarter of an hour from the start of the eclipse, probably the only line of clouds in the vicinity arrived from the southeast direction to disturb my shooting efforts. It did rain a bit, when a kilometer or two further west there would have been a completely clear sky. But it didn't help to go and change the place, because it would have taken a long time to disassemble and reassemble the filming ...

Images: 6 pcs

Observation information »

I spotted a fine, narrow crescent moon (phase approx. 2%) in the pale morning sky. Mercury was also visible and is located in the lower left of the second image at the auxiliary lines. At the time the picture was taken, it was barely 5 degrees in the sky.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

Moderate seeing inspired me to photograph the Moon. I recorded it through the telescope in six parts and put together a mosaic that can be viewed in a larger size via this link . The second image is of Mare Fecunditatis, whose ridges stood out well in this lighting.

Images: 2 pcs

Observation information »

Most of the time, the appearance of clouds in the night sky in the middle of an observation session tends to cause mostly negative emotions. However, this time there was such a spectacular ring in the sky that it was probably the best part of the whole session. It was already interesting to watch the formation of the circle. It seemed to twist around the Moon at first, and the ringlets were sometimes completely misshapen. The colors were strong. As the cloud cover became more uniform, the rings also became more circular and the colors faded. At best there were five rings in the ring. BR proces...

Images: 3 pcs

Observation information »

After unsuccessful attempts to photograph Jupiter, I aimed the telescope at the Moon. To my delight, I found that the libration was moderately favorable to the east (+3 deg.) and to the north (+5 deg.). Due to the weak seeing, the pictures remained a bit soft, but the larger features were clearly visible. Of the seas, Mare Smythii and Mare Marginis dominated the views of the eastern edge. To the north of the latter, the rim ramparts and central mountains of Joliot Crater stood out strikingly at the very edge of the Moon. To the north of Joliot, the rim ramparts of the Vestine crater could then...

Images: 3 pcs

Observation information »