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.

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.