Jupiter (end of Callisto transit) 17 March 2016

[geoflewis]

Hi all,

With the bulk of the jet stream out of the way I was hoping for good seeing so set my 10" Meade LX200GPS up to shoot my first Jupiter since April 2015 - I can't believe that its been 11 months..!! Unfortunately seeing was not so good, shooting through lots of moon illuminated high fog with a stubborn finger of the jet stream persisting over southern UK, but here is the result anyway....

The image is 12 minutes (best 40% of 12 x 1 minute video stacks for a total of 12,400 frames) processed in AS2!, Registax6, PS(CS2) and de-rotated in WinJupos. I'm not sure if the soft image was just seeing as there were no bright stars visible through the fog to check collimation and it really was the first time the 10" has been out since early summer 2015.

Thanks for looking.

[PeterCPC]

Lovely image considering the conditions. I have given up on planetary until (and if) these skies ever clear.

Peter

[geoflewis]

Thanks Peter,

I guess that I'd also pretty much given up on planetary too seeing as I didn't do any since may 2015 (and that was a single crappy Saturn :-( ), but I did some solar with my 4" in the morning and the seeing was pretty good at times, so I thought that I drag the 10" out...!! This might be the last year we'll get to do any (worthwhile) planetary from the UK for a while as they are all heading south, Mars is big this year but low, Saturn is an horizon grazer and Jupiter heading in the same direction.... :-(.

Cheers, Geof

[laudropb]

Very nice capture.

[geoflewis]

Thanks laudropb

[Space Cowboy]

Good effort Geoff considering your conditions were not great. Fingers crossed you will get a better night before Jupiter sails too far away!

[Pete Presland]

Nice end result especially with poor seeing conditions.

[geoflewis]

Thanks Stuart and Pete,

I definitely need to drag the 10" out more often, but its become a real 'drag' humping that lump in and out each session - hence why I bought the TSAPO and NEQ6 for DSO, but the 4" doesn't cut it for planetary. I plan to cure that problem this summer as I'm in the throws of moving to south Norfolk where I'll have room to build an obs and should have much darker skies. I've already invested in an AP1200GTO mount and lifting pier for the obs - I can't wait to get my 10" back into regular use later this year.

Cheers

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice indeed!

[geoflewis]

Thanks Michael

[si@nite]

A nice Image Geof considering the conditions!

[geoflewis]

thanks si@nite