This evening Mars traversed the Beehive Cluster M44. It was a beautiful sight in the twilight but too low to photograph from the observatory so I made a sketch with the Dobsonian. The 1220mm scope coupled with the binoviewer and the 1.6x Barlow lens required to allow it to reach focus it was a gorgeous thing to witness, even if somewhat over-magnified hence excluding many of M44’s stars.

Integration time: OSC 1 X 2/5s @ F9

A daytime live stream showing sun spots and prominences in H-alpha.

    Integration time (running total):
    * OSC best 15-25% of 500 frames
    

Last night was beautifully clear and remarkably timed for the occultation of Mars. At 1.5°W this took place at 04h58. The exit from the occutation exactly one hour later could not be imaged from the observatory because the Moon and Mars had disappeared behind the large oak tree in the West-North-West direction.