New Tools

As I've noted before, the advances in technology have allowed amateur astronomers to obtain increasingly better planetary images. The ability to pluck several hundred images from a video containing thousands, align them into a composite, and then apply post-image processing to draw out the details is game changing. While I almost always spend a few minutes at the eyepiece soaking in the tiny planetary orb that I have chosen to examine for the session I am now invariably spending the bulk of time acquiring video of that member of our solar system. And yeah, the old eyes are not quite as sharp as they were when it comes to discerning surface features.

The enabling technology comes in two forms - hardware and software. Both can be expensive, but of the two there are times that software can be quite a bargain or even no cost (violating a variety of adages about getting something for nothing). As noted in a previous blog this summer I decided to give FireCapture, software that is used to record the video stream onto the laptop, a try.

One of the challenges with new software can be the user interface. Sometimes it is clean and intuitive, sometimes you need crib notes just to perform the basics until you get the routine down. FireCapture seems to fall somewhere in-between - lots of knobs and levers to play with but after a couple of YouTube videos you can be in the field using it, leaving the more advanced features aside while you handle the fundamentals. The fact that there is a "Dummy Cam" mode to allow us newbies to play around some was a great decision by the developer.

Overall this video capture software seems better than what I was using previously. The relevant settings are easy to access and adjust, and there is the ability to save these for each particular planet, allowing you to retrieve your last configuration with the click of a button. The zoom feature that allows you to get an enlarged image on your screen is also helpful, especially when trying to acquire a good focus. But the feature that really prompted me to switch over was the ability to bring up a crop box that allows you to capture just the planet and a bit of surrounding space, serving to reduce the file size. But wait - it gets better! The cropping zone actually adjusts to follow your target to compensate for your pole alignment inadequacies. Awesome!

The second piece of software that I began using was Planetary Imaging PreProcessor, or PIPP for short. This interface is far less intuitive - it has a bit of a geek feel to it where if you are not an insider you just don't get it. However, it is not so off-putting (like PixInsight) that you cannot be up and working with it in less than half an hour. The ability to save off and then load a configuration once you have adjusted the whistles and bells to your liking is a valuable feature.

PIPP comes into play after your session, and as the name implies is an intermediate step that allows you to tweak your video to stabilize the image, reject overexposed frames, perform a quality assessment of the frames, and a lot more. You can also generate a GIF animation from several still frames if you wish, allowing even me to create a "rotating Jupiter" sequence. I've certainly only scratched the surface here and have lots to learn, but again - awesome!

Jupiter animation taken 7/26/2019

Finally in my summer of experimentation I downloaded AutoStakkert! - another free piece of software that stacks the best of the planetary images into your final image ready for enhancement. This interface is not overly complex, was up and working with it fairly quickly. You load the video file, ask it to do some quality analysis, then select your alignment points. You can then define up to six outputs that represent the percentage of the best frames stacked into a final image. But the best part to me is that it will also give you a quick and dirty preview - an image that has some post-processing enhancement already applied to it. That is genius as it allows me to do a quick assessment of my video in the field within a minute, and quick feedback is so good to have when trying to do things such as assess your focus and exposure.

Saturn 7/26/2019

I have lots to learn in order to get the most out of these tools, but I already feel that this trio has allowed me to up my game a bit this summer. Alright Mars apparition 2020 - bring it on!

The King Returns

This has been a wet and very cloudy few months. I don't think we've had more than a dozen really good nights since February - tons of clouds and an abundance of rain. And it has been a terrible tease to boot - I have on more than one occasion this spring trotted out the equipment only to have clouds move in within 30 minutes of setting up. But as June drew to a close the weather relented just enough to convince me to bring out the 6" Criterion and check in on Jupiter - king of the planets that came to opposition a couple weeks ago.

Jupiter is always interesting with the cloud bands, satellite phenomena, and of course Great Red Spot. But right now we have a couple of interesting developments going on that are further motivation to spend some time observing him. First, as reported in many places such as Sky and Telescope's June 2019 edition, the equatorial band is noticeably darker. According to the article this represents a clearing of the high, white ammonia cloud deck that normally resides in this wide swath of the planet. Furthermore, scientists have recently recognized that there seems to be a pattern to this - the clouds dissipating every 6-7 years and reforming after about a year.

The first night was the old Lucy (the weather) pulling the football from Charlie Brown (me). The seeing was pretty unsteady and then batches of clouds started rolling in like waves at the beach. I doggedly tried to capture some video, hitting the pause button when clouds dimmed Jove and resuming when he peeked out again. But I pretty much captured garbage and ended up really frustrated. Not throw the golf clubs into the water hazard frustrated but still muttering about the $%^# clouds.

The next night seemed better, certainly far less risk of an aborted session due to intruding clouds. But the seeing looked to be marginal as the front worked its way across the mid-Atlantic. While it wasn't the most stable view it was reasonable - I could see right away that the equatorial zone was indeed not the usual white zone but a very light tan. (For comparison see my 2016 posting with a shot of Jupiter). As an added bonus the GRS was just visible as it set on the preceding limb.

The Great Red Spot, while not positioned well on the evening of the 23rd, is the other big story. We have seen it shrinking over the last couple of decades, and now we are getting reports and images showing pieces of it being "torn off" and trailing away. It is so iconic as a part of Jupiter - I really hope that we are not witnessing its demise.

The next evening was the best of the three in terms of seeing, and Jupiter presented multiple cloud bands and a clearly muddled equatorial zone. Io also hovered nearby and was caught up in the video frames.

By now I was also getting more comfortable with FireCapture - new software that seems to do a better job of capturing video than the IC Capture that came with the Imaging Source camera. I also have begun exploring the PIPP (Planetary Imaging PreProcessor) application. Pretty pleased with the resulting image below which was captured using FireCapture, run through PIPP, and then post processing filters applied using Registax 6.

 It's hard to keep abreast of the new tools and techniques that enable amateur astronomers with modest equipment to capture images that they could only dream of 25 years ago!

Fabulous But Frosty

Well January 2019 is just about in the record books - and it was both kind and cruel to my observation quests. The "big events" that I was interested in were the lunar eclipse on January 20th and the Venus-Jupiter-Luna alignment at month's end. It was kind in that the skies were indeed clear - but cruel in terms of the deep freeze one had to endure to witness them!

It seemed doubtful for a while that those of us in the mid-Atlantic would see the eclipse thanks to "Winter Storm Harper". (Seriously - we need names for these now? Apparently the NWS does not go along with the idea which is the brain child of the Weather Channel - you know, the folks who stand out there bringing you live coverage of catastrophic weather events, like this. But I digress with my disdain for hype). I happened to be a little NW of Baltimore at my son's in Waynesboro PA, and by the time Sunday rolled around it looked like it would be clear - but also bitterly cold and windy. It was too much to pack the scope but I figured the camera & tripod was worth a go.

I took a couple shots around 8pm through some high, thin clouds and then decided I'd just rest a bit after a busy day with my grandson. I startled awake at about 10:40 p.m. just in time to see the Earth's shadow having nibbled away at the Moon's edge. I could last about 5 minutes or so of taking shots before retreating into the home to warm up, leaving the camera outside tucked up against the house. Even with the tripod the wind ruined probably a third of my shots.

An overexposed eclipsed Moon with M44 to left

Just as totality began the battery on the camera signaled it was about done, further testimony to how cold it was. I brought it inside to change it out and as expected the lens immediately dewed over. I left it near a warm spot and popped on the wide field lens. It's definitely darker up in Waynesboro so I was fairly happy with the shots where I tried to include some of the fainter stars and the famous Beehive cluster. Then with the telephoto warmed up and ready for action again I swapped out lenses again and took some of the eclipsed Moon. I have not seen any official reports (or unofficial for that matter) but to me this was a fairly dark eclipse - perhaps a 2 on the Danjon scale as the deepest part of the shadow was grayer than the usual deep orange.

A rather dark eclipse?

By a little after 1 a.m. I abandoned any thoughts of eclipse egress photography - my grandson would be up in about 5 hours and I needed to be functional 😴

The second celestial highlight was the aforementioned appulse of Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. For several weeks I've admired the dance of Jupiter and Venus as old Jove slowly emerged from twilight to reach and then overtake the dazzling Venus. Those early morning January skies with the pair amid the stars of Scorpio were gorgeous - the combination of the winter transparency and the fewer lights made me literally stop and linger for a minute or two before climbing into the car to head off to work.

Venus & Jupiter mid-January

So with the waning crescent joining it was was time to grab the camera once more. But mother nature once again exacted a cold price with another Polar Vortex descending upon us (I'll let that piece of WC fluff slide...). Although technically colder than eclipse night the winds were not nearly as bad. That being said, it was a brief session admiring the alignment and grabbing a few quick shots before heading down the road.

So all in all January worked out just fine. After all, you can do something to fight off the cold, but with overcast skies you're just outta luck!

Venus - Moon - Jupiter January 31, 2019