An Oppositionless Year

Rather hard to believe that there are only a few days left in 2013 - a year in which Jupiter never reaches opposition. But such years are grand for us northern hemisphere observers because the king of the planets rides high in Gemini these evenings, ascending beyond the murky atmosphere into cold winter skies. While observing in temps at or below freezing is something I grow less fond of each year it is still worth pursuing to catch Jupiter in this prime time (just no wind please!)

Even though I had set the scope out to chill about 30 minutes ahead of time the seeing still started off pretty wretched - boiling almost to the point of smearing the nearby Galilean satellites into invisibility. But the good thing of this session was that I somehow managed to set the tripod down in a really fine alignment with the pole - tracking was really awesome, keeping old Jove centered for minutes at a time.

As often happens after a half hour or so the seeing began to steady and I became a little more confident of the focus - especially when I began to pick up on Ganymede's shadow transit which started at about 9 p.m. local time. Ganymede always presents a large shadow and is less common than Io transits so it felt good to capture this (so for this apparition I have a Callisto transit and a Ganymede). Not a lot of belt activity seen, but clearly the SEB is back and fully recovered from its swoon. And yet again, I am amazed at the detail that can be captured with a simple 6" reflector.

With the tracking doing so well I couldn't resist giving the Orion Nebula a shot. Now clearly, while a videography approach works well on planets there's a lot to be desired for anything deep sky. I pulled the Barlow and set the exposure to two seconds at about 3 frames per second and let it run for a couple of minutes. Standard stacking in Registax 6 and some playing with the wavelet filters and - voila - a reasonable facsimile of the winter showpiece.

Here's hoping for more clear skies in January as Jupiter comes to opposition, and the will power I'll need to take advantage of them!

Jupiter Apparition 2013-2014 - First Light

With a forecast by the Clear Sky Clock for clear and steady skies for this morning, plus an infrequent Callisto shadow transit on tap, I set the scope out before going to bed last night so it would be at ambient temperature. I turned over around 5 a.m. and debated whether to sleep or observe - the observing urge won out.

The skies were steady, probably a 7/10 - with some scattered thin clouds. Jupiter stood pretty high in Gemini, certainly above 25 degrees off the eastern horizon. Hauling out the video equipment I leveraged the nearby last quarter moon for refining my focus, then swung over to Jupiter. The videography started in earnest at about 5:35 EDT and ran for about 15 minutes (have to get ready for work!)

This evening I processed the files and a couple of them were pretty decent, the one here is one of the better results. (I am always amazed at what the planetary astrovideography process can accomplish with even a small scope like mine). Callisto, outermost of the 4 major satellites, is just now beginning to cast its shadow onto the Jovian disk when it cuts in front of the planet. Due to the planet's inclination and Callisto's distance it is only around the time when Jupiter's orbital plane crosses Earth that we see this (we also begin to see "mutual" satellite events where the satellites cross in front of one another. So for the next couple of years we get to see some of the less common Galilean satellite phenomena, such as this Callisto shadow transit.

Jupiter - what a fascinating target!

Luna C&C

It would not take much statistical analysis of my observing log to determine that I'm a fair weathered observer. The spring and fall - no bugs, slight chill in the air - are so ideal for an evening under the stars - or in tonight's case the waxing gibbous Moon.

I set the scope up and hooked up the video camera for some lunar photography. A couple days past 1st quarter brings some impressive sights to the terminator. Two of my favorites are the relatively young crater Copernicus and the large older crater Clavius. I began with the 2.5x barlow in place and focused the image that I saw on the screen, doing several runs at a high frame rate of 1/60th per second. Then I ended with a few runs without the Barlow.

Copernicus

When I went inside and began the processing I was disappointed to find that the higher power images were a bit mushy - either I misjudged the focus and was just outside of it or the seeing was not that steady (but that is unlikely that I could not get 100 or so good images out of some 3,000 frames that each run encompassed). Fortunately the videos without the Barlow appeared much crisper and are presented here.

Clavius (large crater at lower mid-right of image)

Fact Sheet

Sep 14 2013 at 21:30 EDT
Towson, MD USA
6" f/8 Newtonian
DFK 21AU04S Camera

Venus & Luna Pairing

Well this evening when I stepped outside to set out the recyclables I was greeted by a crescent Moon hanging low in the southwest with brilliant Venus. While these pairings are not that uncommon they never fail to instill a sense of natural beauty like a colorful sunset or snowy pine tree.

I also feel I am finally getting familiar enough with the Canon Ti3 that I can pull this off. I had to remember how to adjust the exposure, and then how to adjust the white balance for my twilight shot, but all in all I am pretty happy with the outcome. And indeed, the one big advantage that the DSLR has over my SLR is that while it may be far more complicated I do get to see the outcome immediately!

Sunday Sept. 8, 2013

20:15 EDT

Towson, MD USA

Canon Ti3 Rebel

190mm at f/5

aprox 1/3 second

ISO 800

Saturn With Cassini Division

June 9, 2013 01:32 UT
Towson, MD [Location: N 39° 23' W 76° 36']
Clear, 78° F
Transparency: 4/5
Seeing: 5/10
RV-6 Newtonian (150cm f/8) with TeleVue PowerMate 2.5x
Camera: DFK 21AU04S 1/15 sec exposure, 30 fps Registax6: 35 frames from about 1200
CM I: 55.8°
CM II: 185.9°

First attempt at Saturn with this setup. Far more challenging in terms of Saturn being dimmer than Jupiter, getting every other frame in the stack blank because of the fps vs. exposure. Still not bad, clear Cassini division, general south hemispheric shading and a hint of dark polar point.