Astronomy Archives - Page 63 of 71

May 22, 2016December 16, 2020

Jupiter, Mars, & Saturn 5/21/2016

I went back to the River Ridge Observatory Saturday night to work on planets again. I had noticed some dust motes on my color camera that I’ve not been able to clean yet so I switched to my monochrome camera. It has a higher resolution. I started with Jupiter of course, and while the contrast is a little low look at these details! The Great Red Spot is at about 8 oclock near the edge and see the turbulence in the South Equatorial Belt?

Mars was next and man it is bright! I didn’t wait until it or especially Saturn in its best position because that would be about 1 AM or later. I’ve flipped and rotated Mars to account for the diagonal, North is up. On the left is Syrtis Major Planitia. The light area at about 1 o’clock is Olympus Mons (tallest volcano in the solar system). Check this map (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/).

Finally, Saturn. No self respecting photographer would have shot Saturn this low in the sky but I did anyway. It sharpened up pretty well.

May 21, 2016December 16, 2020

Jupiter and Mars 5/20/2016

It was with high hopes that I went to the River Ridge Observatory Friday night. I knew the full Moon meant I would likely be alone but the Clear Sky Clock indicated that the seeing (a measure of air steadiness and a requirement for planetary photography) would be good. Though mostly cloudy when I left the house at 8, I felt sure it clear up. It never really quite did. The seeing was not as good as I hoped and the broken clouds were continuously revealing and then obscuring the planets and the Moon. I finally gave up around 11:30 when an unbroken layer of clouds hid the Moon and Mars and somewhere Saturn. However, my main goal was accomplished – my first picture of Mars of this opposition. Mars will rapidly improve over the next few days then as rapidly recede as the Earth swings close by and then keeps going. I was also treated to a singing contest between Eastern Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will’s-widows and a Yellow-breasted Chat who couldn’t sleep.

April 23, 2016December 16, 2020

Jupiter April 23, 2016

These two images were taken Saturday evening around 10PM a few minutes apart. Two cameras, my ASI120MC color and its brother the ASI120MM monochrome. Both have the same number of pixels, 1.2M, so the monochrome should provide better resolution. Focusing done remotely from the laptop. Both images were created from the best 20% of 2000 10ms frames stacked with AutoStakkert!2 and processed further in Photoshop. No Great Red Spot this time but plenty of other detail.