Jupiter with GRS (Sept 25 2012)

Sept 25 2012 09:43 UT
Towson, MD [Location: N 39° 23' W 76° 36']
Clear, 43° F
Transparency: 4/5
Seeing: 8/10
RV-6 Newtonian (150cm f/8) with TeleVue PowerMate 2.5x
Camera: DFK 21AU04S 1/76 sec exposure, 30 fps Registax6: 35 frames from 1826
CM I: 55.8°
CM II: 185.9°

The focus and seeing were a bit better this morning, but even so the GRS is pretty pale. Suspect that the "Red Spot Jr" is trailing the GRS a little, but not definitively images here. Oval in SSTB preceding Jupiter.

Repurposing

This past spring I finally took the plunge and purchased a video camera designed for planetary imaging. I had tried a security camera over ten years ago with mixed results - the set up (eyepiece projection holding the camera in position with an adapter) was tedious to be kind. The result was predictable - I rarely had the enthusiasm to do the set up.

My initial experimentation this summer with the ImagingSource's DFK 21AU04S camera have been encouraging and I am excited to open this new chapter in my amateur astronomy. While I may end up coding a web page in our family web site for displaying my images I think I want to leverage the blog here as an easy way to publish some of these results.

Jupiter With GRS (Sep 20 2012)

Towson, MD [Location: N 39° 23' W 76° 36']
Transparency: 3/5
Seeing: 3/10
RV-6 Newtonian (150cm f/8) with TeleVue PowerMate 2.5x
Camera: DFK 21AU04S 1/76 sec exposure, 30 fps Registax6: 35 frames from 1925
CM I: 7.5°
CM II: 175.5°

The Great Red Spot is obvious albeit anemic, but the image seems a little 'mushy', a little concerned that perhaps the focus was not perfect. Other photos of Jupiter around this time show that the 'little red spot' is in the SSTB almost directly above the Great Red Spot, so a little disappointed that I could not capture that.

Jupiter (Sep 17 2012)

Towson, MD [Location: N 39° 23' W 76° 36']
Transparency: 4/5
Seeing: 6/10
RV-6 Newtonian (150cm f/8) with TeleVue PowerMate 2.5x
Camera: DFK 21AU04S 1/91 sec exposure, 30 fps Registax6: 75 frames from 1931
CM I: 209.8°
CM II: 41.1°

A nice image this morning amid pretty steady skies. A couple of blue "Olivarez" festoons noted as well as several striations in the south polar area. The NEB is clearly back and active after almost disappearing last apparition.