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Showing results for tags 'jupiter'.
Found 473 results
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I have been trying to see Jupiter for a while now, but all I am seeing is a whitish blob with a tinge of yellow and blue at the ends. I have tried several filters, but to no avail. I am using an Astromaster 130eq, Celestron with magnifications ranging from 20mm to a 6mm plus a 2X Barlow lens. many suggestions would be greatly appreciated. regards, Armaan. -
Perhaps the title is lying a tiny bit... After sleeping for one hour I woke up not able to fall asleep again after numerous attempts. I took the obligatory gaze outside at the bright summer sky with some faint noctilucent clouds towards the north. Jupiter and Saturn looked beautiful in the south and that was when I felt a sudden itch to get out my small grab and go setup. I quickly grabbed my tripod, mount-head and telescope to head downstairs to the parking lot where I quickly set up the scope. Cool-down was almost not a problem because of the hot 20 degree air which was very comfortable observing temperatures. Starting with Jupiter, after I had achieved focus on Altair, the two main cloud bands very obvious together with three of its moons hovering like pin-points around the perfect round sphere. I've previously been a little disappointed with the view of Jupiter with this small Skywatcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro but I blamed it on my own patience and this morning I proved myself right. After studying the planet for a couple of minutes I noticed the Ganymede shadow transit located just above (almost on the edge of) the northern equatorial belt and letting the planet drift through the FOV at 90X magnification with the 4.7mm explore scientific eyepiece the shadow together with the bands popped at me at times of great seeing. The moments where you're almost "falling into" a better and better planetary image is truly amazing and the small 72mm scope did a very good job also resolving the shadow transit as a "globe" rather than a dot. Only rarely could I tell the slight variations in the two main cloud bands of Jupiter but this was very difficult with only 72mm. Saturn proved to be equally fascinating just like every other time I point the telescope towards the ringed planet. Immediately slight banding was visible on the planet and the rings were very defined with the Cassini-division visible in moments of good seeing but really standing out in brief moments of very good seeing. The small evostar 72 has no problem on Saturn whereas more patience is required with Jupiter because of its low contrast features. Saturn never disappoints. Moving on to Mars I noticed how it had increased slightly in size since I observed it last time about a month ago. The southern polar cap was still very obvious but for some reason I recalled it being even more noticeable last time I observed Mars but I could be wrong. Right above the polar cap was a dark spot which extended to the planet's equator but not covering the entirety of the disk's width. I didn't notice any features on the northern half of the disk. The evostar does a surprisingly good job on Mars, which often causes problems for other doublet refractors with trouble correcting the red part of the visible spectrum. The evostar doesn't have much unfocused red light around the planet and the view isn't "mushy" like it would be in cases of a badly corrected refractor. I love my grab and go setup but I also feel like I need a higher magnification eyepiece since my current weapon of choice is my 4.7mm explore scientific 82 degree eyepiece which delivers about 90X magnification. I've almost always felt I could easily push magnifications to the plus side of 100X and the Nagler zoom 3-6mm is ranked very high on my wish list:) August this year marks the first year of owning the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro and I haven't had a moment where I didn't love it. The size of it is perfect and the supplied flight case for the scope is airline portable together with some room for accessories. The optics are very good even for decent planetary observing like it was the case this morning, and I feel like I haven't utilized the scope's abilities entirely just because I think it could take even higher magnifications. I have also used it for astrophotography on my star adventurer which yields very good results with the OVL field flattener and my old Nikon D3300. This post ended up being quite long but I hope it was worth the read anyways. If you're considering the Evostar-72 I once again highly recommend it if you couldn't already tell from this post;) Clear skies, Victor -
Following my effort of 22 June, being unable to lift anything heavy, I set up my lighter weight telescope in a different position from the previous night to get some images of Mars. This was the first serious use of my EQ-5 with Synscan upgrade. I set up the gear and left it tracking the assumed GoTo position of Jupiter for a couple of hours. At 2am, Jupiter was not within the 25mm eyepiece field. Not so impressive. I repeated the imaging of Jupiter and Saturn, and also took images with the ZWO infrared filter. While slewing back to Jupiter, now apparently past the meridian, the mount did a meridian flip and ended up pointing at a street lamp. I was not impressed. Eventually Mars emerged from behind an adjacent building, and I took images in IR, visual, and visual with a x2 Barlow lens. Equipment: 127mm Maksutov 1500mm fl, ASI224MC camera, ADC, x2 Skywatcher Barlow, best 20% of 5000 frames (visual), processed in Registax6. EQ-5 Pro Synscan mount. Key: Monochrome images were taken in infrared. Larger Mars image with Barlow. Mars was jigging about in the poor seeing by nearly its diameter (11"). Note: the hottest moon (Io, to left of planet) seems slightly brighter in the IR images. I think the 127mm Mak punches through poor seeing better than larger apertures.
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I recently had a minor chest operation which has temporarily left me unable to lift anything heavy, which has curtailed my astronomical activities. Last night, being clear in the late evening and early hours, seemed too good to miss, so I set up my 127mm Maksutov in place of the CPC800. I had intended to image Mars as well, but discovered in the early hours that having set up in a different position to my 30 May effort, Mars was blocked by an adjacent building till dawn. Equipment: 127mm Maksutov, SLT mount, wood tripod, ASI224MC camera, ADC, each best 20% of 5000 frames, processed in Registax6. The Great Red Spot should just be visible disappearing around the side of Jupiter. Part of the Cassini division is visible in the Saturn image. Overall these have not turned out too badly, considering the low altitude and poor seeing.
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Can't see that this has been flagged-up anywhere, but on on Dec 21 this year, Jupiter and Saturn will pass within 6 arcminutes of each other. Closest approach will be at 1300(UT), but UK sunset will be about 4pm and they will still be 8 degrees above the horizon an hour later. Got to be worth a try! -
Few days ago I decided to observe the spectra around Na lines for Jupiter and Saturn. I had a little time and some problems with Bluetooth communication. It took me about 30 min. About 3 am the sky was getting brighter. I set 20 μm slit of my Low Spec spectrograph along the equator: These images were taken few years ago. 1, 2, 3 - positions of spectral profiles The goal was to record the impact of planetary rotation on the shape of spectral lines. Interestingly, the spectra contain not only the inclined lines created due to the Doppler effect. There are also visible vertical absorption lines of the Earth's atmosphere, there are quite a few of them. Below two stacks of Na doublet area, resize 200%: Spectral profiles for Jupiter: Spectraf profiles for Saturn Rings: The result of calculations of the rotational velocity at the equator and comparison with data in the public literature: Result of calcutations Jupiter Saturn Rotational velocity 13.2 ± 1.3 km/s 10.5 ± 1.3 km/s Equatorial diameter 149890 km 128744 km Public literature Jupiter Saturn Rotational velocity 12.6 km/s 9.87 km/s Equatorial diameter 142984 km 120536 km The velocity of Saturn's rings is variable, the rings closest to the planet have the highest velocity, the furthest rings are the slowest. The calculated average velocity based on the recorded spectrum is 15.8 km/s. As an example, the velocity of the crumbs moving on the outside of the Cassini Break (ring A) is 17.5 km/s. Pretty close. I took half a pixel as a measurement error. -
While I was out waiting for the Starlink 7 satellites to pass: I grabbed a couple of videos with my Nikon D3300 DSLR and my 2.5X barlow in my Evostar 72. I know the large sensor of the DSLR and "short" focal length of 1050mm is far from optimal but I'm quite surprised with how the final images came out! I've always wanted to do some planetary imaging but because of a lack of time and to some extend also money I've never really committed. These images have made me reconsider purchasing the ZWO ASI-120MC for my 10" dob or even the Evostar 72ED. Not too bad for a 72mm ED refractor if I should say so!! Advice is of course appreciated! Victor
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I was very lucky this morning to capture the Starlink 7 satellites a couple minutes after deployment pass right below Jupiter. Here's the video on it: Clear skies! Victor
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I imaged Jupiter, Saturn and Mars this morning around 3.30am in the interval between 'high enough' and dawn. Equipment: CPC800, ASI224MC, ADC. Captured with Sharpcap, processed with Registax6. Used best 20% of 5000 frame videos. It's so long since I did any planetary imaging that I had to re-learn what to do. The Jupiter and Saturn images seem under-exposed.
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Got myself out of bed to observe Saturn and Mars
Victor Boesen posted a topic in Observing - Reports
Yesterday I managed to climb out of bed at a little past 3:30AM to get my small portable rig out to a small nearby park and setup to observe Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. I got the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro last summer so I was especially excited to see how it would perform on Mars because of its red wavelengths which many small fracs often have trouble with handling. At first it was partly cloudy but I persisted and was out and setup on the field at around 4AM. The sky was already surprisingly bright here in Denmark but Jupiter was shining bright and Saturn faintly visible almost right besides Jupiter. Fortunately for me it wasn't too cold, but I was happy I brought some gloves anyways;) This picture was taken at 5AM while I was observing Mars. I remember from last year that my scope didn't perform great on Jupiter for some reason, and the view of the gas giant wasn't anything different this time either. Using my 4.7mm ES 82 degree eyepiece not much detail visible except the two main bands and its moons. I would later return to Jupiter after the scope had cooled down a little and the view was perhaps a little sharper. Pointing the scope at Saturn, which I was very satisfied with last year, I was amazed of the detail the small scope managed to squeeze out. It doesn't compare to the view I had last year with my 10" dob under great conditions at 255X but I was able to easily spot surface banding on the planet itself, and the Cassini division was also surprisingly stable. I really enjoy the stable and consistent view through the small refractor! I observed Saturn for quite a while until I eventually set out to try to find Mars. At this point I couldn't even see Saturn with the naked eye but I was fortunate that Saturn and Mars were approximately the same elevation above the horizon. After a few sweeps across where I though Mars would be I finally located the small red speckle, this time with my 6.7mm eyepiece so I had a larger FOV. Switching to the 4.7mm, though still very small, I was surprised that I could pick up a dark surface marking across the disk on the lower southern half of the disk. Furthermore, the southern polar cap was really pronounced and you couldn't miss it. I watched Mars drift through the FOV until about 30 minutes after sunrise where the contrast between the planet and the sky became too low and the dew started to set on the lens element. Using my small refractor for observing the planets I have always wanted to magnify things a little bit more, and I think the telescope would have no problem doing so. A Nagler zoom 3-6mm has been on my wish-list for a couple of years now, but the upcoming planet season really makes me want to find one second hand Here's a video I've made that covers what I've written above with some footage I tried capturing through the eyepiece: I hope everyone on here is still doing well despite the current situation! Clear skies! Victor -
From the album: Planetary work
This is a re-processed set of 159 images taken from a few years ago. Each image was generated from a 3 minute video. It shows Europa passing across the face of Jupiter casting it's shadow across the northern hemisphere. Telescope: Skymax 150 Maksutov with a TeleVue 2x Barlow lens and a Baader fringe killer filter. Camera: Canon 550D in 640x480 crop mode. ISO Auto at 1/60s exposure. Processing: Quality filtering and centring done using Pipp, stacking and wavelets processing done using Registax 6.© D Elijah
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This planetary grouping from 20th March around 5.30am shows Saturn to the left with conjunction of Jupiter above & Mars below, sharp eyed may also see... Io, Ganymede & Callisto in a string just right of Jupiter. Image taken from Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire looking toward the SE. Pentax K1 / Pentax 67 165mm lens / Exp. 2 secs @f8 / iso 200 Ioptron tracker at siderial. -
untilGRS Transit on Jupiter, crossing the meridian at 4.18am with Jupiter at just over 21 degrees altitude. GRS starts to come onto the disk at around 2.10am, disappearing at around 6.15am. A couple more events too, an Io Shadow Transit starting at 4.22am and an occultation or Ganymede at 4.29am. Full timings in the attachment. Best time to view is probably 5.18am with both shadow and GRS well positioned.
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From the album: Moon, planets and single stars
(most compatible, less quality than PNG) Gear: Olympus E-PL6, through Antares X2 APO Barlow, attached on Celestron Maksutov 127/1500, mounted on Celestron Nexstar SLT Capture: FullHD 30p "crop" movie, varying exposure time: 1/60s..1/100s (most 1/80s), 3200 ISO Date: 2017-04-07 21:30 GMT Sky: bad seeing + full moon + less than 30° alt, suburbs 10km from Paris, France Software (all Linux): cvastroalign (align, stack, wavelets), Gimp (clean, center, rotate, timestamp, animate)© Fabien COUTANT
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From the album: Celestron Nexstar 8i
Testing the PGR Flea 3 mono for the first time, conditions average. Imaged with the Celestron Nexstar 8i and 2" Bintel 2x ED Barlow. 6000 frames stacked in AS!2 from a total of 13368, wavelets in RS6 and finished off in PDN.© Aussie Dave
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From the album: Lunar and Planetary Images
Jupiter and Io 04.03.2015 using DMK21AU04.AS Monochrome CCD onto Celestron NexStar 8SE. Video stacked in RegiStax6. One of a series of 1-2 minute videos taken on my first imaging attempt of Jupiter.© Vicky050373
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From the album: Solar System Objects
Jupiter Reporcessed from 17th February 2015 data captured with a Celestron Skyris 618C through a Baader Moon & Skyglow Filter and a 2X Celestron Barlow through a Nexstar 8SE using Firecapture.© Mariusz Goralski
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From the album: Stargazer33's Album
Jupiter with Io down to the lower right. Also showing the GRS. C8 XTL, CGEM, Revelation Superfocus 2" R&P focuser, Revelation 2.5x Barlow, QHY5L II Processed in PIPP & RS6© Bryan Harrison 2014
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From the album: Imaging Jupiter
Jupiter - 127Mak-Cas - F12 - AS!2 - 840 Stack - Denoise / Sharpen - Histogram Stretch - RGB Rebalance - Midtones adj This was taken on the 22nd at about 2C did about 1400 images, but due to clouds and poor seeing has been reduced to 840. I read a great post which helped me a great deal in getting a better image. http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/184821-beginners-guide-to-stacking-planetary-images-with-autostakkert2/?hl=+registax (Thanks James) Going to continue processing and see if I can get this better. -
From the album: Stargazing
© Dave France
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Stargazing Session 001 - Saturn, Jupiter & the Milky Way
AbeSapien posted a blog entry in "We are made of star stuff..."
21 of June 2017 / 22h30 UTC+01:00 / Stargazing Conditions: 88% So, I crammed all of my new acquired stuff together and went to the darkest place I could find near my town. It's a mere 5 minute drive from my home. As I set everything up, I tried to wait for 20-30 minutes to give the 'scope a chance to acclimatize but I really couldn't! Jupiter I looked west south west to find Jupiter, pointed my finderscope at it and I was amazed by how clear the image from the 'scope was!! I had a 5 minute stare through my 25mm BST eyepiece where I could distinctly see the two belts, the north and south equatorial belt. As clearly as the belts were also three of its moons were, namely Callisto, Europa and Io, although Europa was quite close to Jupiter. The color was also great and the view, simply mesmerizing! I then switched to the 15mm BST eyepiece. First I was a little, let's say disappointed, but not that strong, by the magnification, and immediatly switched to the 8mm BST. To my surprise I wasn't convinced by the view either... So I decided to get back to the 25mm and calm down and enjoy the view as I clearly was getting hasty. As I started over, I remembered some words from a friend of mine who told me that watching the stars often comes down to 50% of actually seeing the stars and 50% imagination and concentration. So I tried the 15mm a second time and... I was hooked. I could now clearly see eight different colors and belts! I'm not quite sure what it was I saw, except the north and south equatorial belt, but I will have a look at some Jupiter maps and educate myself about the planet's surface. This will help in better understanding and watching next time, the case given that the seeing is as clear as it was that night. With the 15mm eyepiece Europa was now very distinct from Jupiter. I couldn't manage to get more detail out of the 8mm eyepiece, everything just got a tad bigger and a little fainter if my impressions were right. After good half an hour of watching the delightful planet and its moons I sat down and searched for Saturn, which was south not very high above the horizon. Saturn I switched back to the 25mm eyepiece, pointed my viewfinder at Saturn and peaked through the eyepiece. What a marvel! I clearly could see some colors on the surface and easily distinct the ring from the planet itself. As I switched over to the 15mm eyepiece, the separations on the planet's surface became a tad clearer and the ring/planet separation obviously bigger. I encountered the same problem as before of not knowing what I was looking at, which bothered me a little. I have to do a little homework here and get myself started with some fancy vocabulary. Milky Way All in all it was a marvelous first light experience and I clearly have to learn the stuff I'm looking at, but I think that's just me and my endless thirst for knowing things. I randomly gazed through the skies at the end, beeing absolutely overwhelmed by everything I saw. Furthermore, I simply was flabbergasted when I ran across the milky way in the north east... There were so many stars I couldn't see with my bare eye, but only with the 'scope (which made aiming with the finderscope a nightmare... How do you guys do that really?!). I'm glad I acquired the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P with the eyepieces. It is one of the best things I got myself and I think I will have a lot of fun with it and furthermore learn so many new things. Thanks for reading, Abe -
From the album: Eris image gallery
Image taken with an ASI120mm and Baader RGB filters using a 8" Celestron EDGE HD. -
From the album: Eris image gallery
Image taken with an ASI120mm and Baader RGB filters using a 8" Celestron EDGE HD. -
From the album: Eris image gallery
Image taken with an ASI120mm and Baader R filter using a 8" Celestron EDGE HD. -
From the album: Jupiter
Latest try at Jupiter, with GRS and Io's shadow., It MAY be that a slightly bright patch to the right of the GRS is Io or I may be fooling myself...
