Jupiter Ganymede and GRS - 6-7May2018

[geoflewis]

Good seeing tonight with Ganymede and GRS putting on a show....

Here's a single IR image being the first of approx 50 AVI runs with my ASI120

20% of 5000 frames stacked in AS3! then wavelets in Registax. The other 50+ AVIs is going to keep me busy for a while, but I'll post them as I get them done...

Not only a few hours with the camera, but I also took time out for some views at the eyepiece. Seeing was excellent considering the lowly altitude and I had my best visual views of Jupiter ever. Lots of structure visible in the belts,  ahuge amount of detail in the GRS and it's wake, Ganymede and it's transiting shadow as clear as a bell - what's not to like... Definitely worth persisting for the past week, when you get a night like tonight.

Cheers, Geof

 

 

 

[MarsG76]

Great detail, especially from a object which altitude is so low... 

If you have 50+ such videos, think about re-rotating and stacking them.... you will get much more detail on Jupiter.

 

[Knighty2112]

Excelent work Geof. You weren’t kidding when you said the seeing near you was good. Well done!  

[chiltonstar]

Nice to see the hint of detail on Ganymede! What a show last night - I was observing only, but what an amazing sight with Ganymede itself so clear, and just above and to the side of the shadow, with a nicely-placed but pale GRS to add to the spectacle.

Chris

[Stu]

Lovely image Geof, presumably an animation in the making? Should be fab!

[pi_co100]

Great image.

We had months and months of clouds here in the UK - and now clear nights aone after the other - help I need some sleeep!! 

Piero

[jock1958]

Excellent well done! 

I was stuck at the eyepiece from 10.30pm until midnight and had the best views of the big planet ever. 

Just wish I had a more powerful eyepiece than my vixen 5mm to complement my Tak 100, need to start saving for something like a 3-6 nagler zoom ?

 

[geoflewis]

7 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Great detail, especially from a object which altitude is so low... 

If you have 50+ such videos, think about re-rotating and stacking them.... you will get much more detail on Jupiter.

That's the plan. I usually shoot 4000 frames each using sequence RRR-GGG-BBB then derotated each stacked filter in WinJupos, then again derotating the stacked RGB which gives me about 12-15 mins elapsed time. However, last night with Ganymede in transit I opted for RGB-RGB-RGB sequences, same 4000 frames per filter, which will allow me to better preseve the shape of moon and shadow with less smearing. Having been disappointed the past 4 nights I almost didn't go out but Ganymede and GRS both in transit was sufficient pull and boy was I glad that I did. I ended up shooting 5 full RGB-RGB-RGB sequences plus a few IR and a couple of other R to retune the ADC and check focus. the 5 x full sequnces is 45 AVIs to derotate.... I'll make a start later as I need to get the data off my laptop so that I can go again tonight, as currently I'm down to only ~40GB free space and last night's session was approx 60GB.

Cheers, Geof

[geoflewis]

6 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Excelent work Geof. You weren’t kidding when you said the seeing near you was good. Well done!  

Thanks - fingers crossed that all the data comes out good; I ran some through AS3! and Registax on the fly and they looked very promising.

[r3i]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Excellent well done! 

I was stuck at the eyepiece from 10.30pm until midnight and had the best views of the big planet ever. 

Superb image Geoff, loads of detail - congratulations.

Lie you Jock, I was viewing the scene through an eyepiece (packed up my DSO imaging kit for the summer), and despite the low elevation of Jupiter the atmosphere for some reason last night was relatively still, and was afforded a clear view of the Ganymede transit, its shadow and the GRS.  Although I've pottered on with visual astronomy on and off for more years than I care to remember I think last night was the first time I've seen a transit & shadow and it was definitely the clearest view of the GRS that I've seen.  I was tempted to get the webcam to try and image it, but right on cue, the clouds came over at midnight, so that was that.

[geoflewis]

3 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

Nice to see the hint of detail on Ganymede! What a show last night - I was observing only, but what an amazing sight with Ganymede itself so clear, and just above and to the side of the shadow, with a nicely-placed but pale GRS to add to the spectacle.

Chris

Thanks Chris,

Yes, an amazing experience and the best I have seen including from when Jupiter was up at 60 degrees a few years ago, though I've since upgraded from a 10" Meade to the C14 so a significant increase in resolution. The C14 also has fans fitted which I've been doubtful to use for imaging or viewing, but I tried them out last night and the increase in stability was stunning - seems counter intuitive to me, but I think that the steady flow of air inside the OTA yields better seeing than than the normal tube current turbulence without them.

Cheers Geof

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely image Geof, presumably an animation in the making? Should be fab!

Thanks Stu, I hadn't thought about an annimation, but yes I might give that a go too. Unfortunately there'll be gaps as I ran 5 x RGB-RGB-RGB sequences, waiting a while between each sequence to allow the planet to rotate. If I had more space on my laptop I could have imaged continuously, but I only had ~100GB free...!! Cheers, Geof

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, pi_co100 said:

Great image.

We had months and months of clouds here in the UK - and now clear nights aone after the other - help I need some sleeep!! 

Piero

Thanks Piero,

Tell me about it, that's 5 nights on the bounce that I've not got to bed before 3am, then up again at 9am as we have our 19 year old granddaughter here for the weekend and she wants to go to the beach, etc. which is understandable in this gorgeous weather . I'm borderline wrecked and have BBQ to cook this lunchtime then grass to mow this afternoon....!!

Cheers, Geof

[geoflewis]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Excellent well done! 

I was stuck at the eyepiece from 10.30pm until midnight and had the best views of the big planet ever. 

Just wish I had a more powerful eyepiece than my vixen 5mm to complement my Tak 100, need to start saving for something like a 3-6 nagler zoom ?

 

Thanks. Yes, the views at ~x300+ with my 25mm eyepiece + x2PM and ADC in train were lovely. I also used my 12mm TV Type 4 Nagler with the x2PM +ADC for ~x650 which was still really good, but probably a bit too much magnification. I wish I had something in between as I think x400-x500 would have been the sweet spot. The detail around the GRS and its wake blew me away; even think I caught glimpses of the central region. The moons were totally stable discs, no boiling at all and I think there were hints of detail on Ganymede at the eyepiece, but I'm not sure if that is even possible....!! Regards, Geof

[geoflewis]

20 minutes ago, r3i said:

Superb image Geoff, loads of detail - congratulations.

Thanks Mike, nights like this are what keep me coming back for more. So often this hobby can be a trial, but once in a while it all comes together and I'm reinvigorated .

Cheers, Geof

[Doc]

Fantastic detail, an amazing image. I saw the transit visually last night, I looked for Ganymede but unsure if I saw it as it transited across.

[geoflewis]

23 minutes ago, Doc said:

Fantastic detail, an amazing image. I saw the transit visually last night, I looked for Ganymede but unsure if I saw it as it transited across.

Thanks Doc,

As you can see from my image, Ganymede was just cresting the Jupiter's disc edge; sometimes it's easier to make out the shadow than the planet itself, being dark on the biright background. They are side by side this close to oppostion, then at opposition the shadow is directly below the moon and after that it will trail the moon as the relative position of the Sun will be the other side.

Regards, Geof

[jock1958]

1 hour ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks. Yes, the views at ~x300+ with my 25mm eyepiece + x2PM and ADC in train were lovely. I also used my 12mm TV Type 4 Nagler with the x2PM +ADC for ~x650 which was still really good, but probably a bit too much magnification. I wish I had something in between as I think x400-x500 would have been the sweet spot. The detail around the GRS and its wake blew me away; even think I caught glimpses of the central region. The moons were totally stable discs, no boiling at all and I think there were hints of detail on Ganymede at the eyepiece, but I'm not sure if that is even possible....!! Regards, Geof

Geof loved the photo and am really glad you posted the image as it confirmed that my eyes weren't deceiving me.  

Barlowed my TV 15MM plossl but the best views were through my 5mm vixen. First time I've seen a transit on Jupiter and I couldn't believe I was seeing it so clearly, the level of detail was incredible.

The GRS wasn't obvious at first but by 11.30 it was clearly visible, more the 'Great Pink Spot' from where I was viewing it from lol.

As mentioned on a previous thread when it comes to the atmosphere you have to be patient and wait for the views to come to you instead of fiddling around endlessly with the focuser. 

[jock1958]

2 hours ago, r3i said:

Superb image Geoff, loads of detail - congratulations.

Lie you Jock, I was viewing the scene through an eyepiece (packed up my DSO imaging kit for the summer), and despite the low elevation of Jupiter the atmosphere for some reason last night was relatively still, and was afforded a clear view of the Ganymede transit, its shadow and the GRS.  Although I've pottered on with visual astronomy on and off for more years than I care to remember I think last night was the first time I've seen a transit & shadow and it was definitely the clearest view of the GRS that I've seen.  I was tempted to get the webcam to try and image it, but right on cue, the clouds came over at midnight, so that was that.

Tried capturing an image with my iPhone but failed miserably, might re-search getting a holder for the phone!

[geoflewis]

19 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Geof loved the photo and am really glad you posted the image as it confirmed that my eyes weren't deceiving me.  

Barlowed my TV 15MM plossl but the best views were through my 5mm vixen. First time I've seen a transit on Jupiter and I couldn't believe I was seeing it so clearly, the level of detail was incredible.

The GRS wasn't obvious at first but by 11.30 it was clearly visible, more the 'Great Pink Spot' from where I was viewing it from lol.

As mentioned on a previous thread when it comes to the atmosphere you have to be patient and wait for the views to come to you instead of fiddling around endlessly with the focuser.

Glad you like the photo, there are better to come as I've been working through the AVIs and the images out Registax later on are superb. I still have several more to stack, then over to WinJupos to derotate and build the colour pics.

We all keep tweaking the focus, etc during poor seeing trying to bully something out of nothing. Its all part of the learning process...!!

Cheers, Geof

[geoflewis]

Well here is the first RGB stack from sequence 4, which was when the seeing was at it's best. I used just one of each RGB at 20% of 4000 frames each. A little surface detail showing on Ganymede which I had to process separately because of the shift in RGB frames, due a combination of time lapse and the derotation of the planet in WinJupos.

It will be interesting to see how much better 3 x RGB would be. Anyway I hope that you enjoy this one; I'll get to the rest later.

Regards, Geof

[Debo]

Superb image, brilliant !!!!

[U Cyg]

Love the RGB image, lots of detail.  Larger aperture pays off when the conditions are right.

Angie

[geoflewis]

32 minutes ago, Debo said:

Superb image, brilliant !!!!

Thanks Debo

Geof

[geoflewis]

32 minutes ago, U Cyg said:

Love the RGB image, lots of detail.  Larger aperture pays off when the conditions are right.

Angie

Thanks Angie,

Yes it does. I got the scope pre-owned about 20 months ago and struggled with collimation last year, so took it over to Es Reid (optics specialist in Cambridge) who did some tuning and cleaned the optics. I also sent my old Moonlite focuser back to Ron in the USA for an modification upgrade, which includes a quick release clutch option for manual focussing and a rotating mounting flange where it attaches to the visual back of the C14, which means I can get the camera side of the scope set up better. Since the scope's been tuned by Es and I have the modified focuser working it's been a lot better to use. Even so, without good seeing it really can't perform and potentially is more challenging than a smaller scope in poor seeing - I'm not complaining though

Cheers, Geof