Europa shadow transit just started…

[IB20]

Setting up both the Tak and the 200P, skies are nice and clear, transparency looks good too!

[Ags]

I was watching it on my computer screen. Seeing was really bad though - I dropped down to 2.5 ms subs.

[wulfrun]

I've watched some of it, as per report in "what did you see tonight" thread. Not good conditions here, sadly.

[Ags]

Heres the first frame of the animation:

Edited September 24, 2022 by Ags

[IB20]

That was awesome, seeing was average but managed around 144x in the Tak and 120x in the dob. Preferred the Tak’s contrast and light scatter control to the blazing bright dob image and spent 95% of the transit with the 3”.

When the shadow neared the planetary limb, Europa suddenly appeared, imposed just over it creating an amazing 3D effect between moon, shadow and Jupiter… just wow. 

The shrinking red spot even graced us with an appearance too ☺️.

Love planetary season!
 

 

[Ags]

first few frames...

 

[markse68]

caught a little of the shadow in poor seeing between clouds but just been out again and it's very sharp now from London. More clouds rollin in though

[markse68]

Just now, Ags said:

first few frames...

 

That's awesome Ags!

[RobertI]

52 minutes ago, IB20 said:

When the shadow neared the planetary limb, Europa suddenly appeared, imposed just over it creating an amazing 3D effect between moon, shadow and Jupiter… just wow. 

Agreed, it was quite a moment to behold, the black shadow right next to the bright moon against the swirling clouds of the planet, and with the GRS nearby……just awesome.

I was lucky enough to have some great seeing at times, and the binoviewers in the C8 at around 170x revealed some wonderful detail in the cloud belts and around the GRS. One of those times when the C8 lived up to its potential for planetary observing. I wish my sketching powers were up to the job - next time I’ll have a go.

[Ags]

Here is the full animation. I should have shot for another half hour. Coulda shoulda...

[Alkaid]

8 hours ago, RobertI said:

Agreed, it was quite a moment to behold, the black shadow right next to the bright moon against the swirling clouds of the planet, and with the GRS nearby……just awesome.

I was lucky enough to have some great seeing at times, and the binoviewers in the C8 at around 170x revealed some wonderful detail in the cloud belts and around the GRS. One of those times when the C8 lived up to its potential for planetary observing. I wish my sketching powers were up to the job - next time I’ll have a go.

Same here.  Seeing in Leeds was actually good(!) and my C8 was giving me some pretty darn good views.  Detail seen in North Eq Belts, plus strong detail of cloud structures of the 2 or 3 faint belts between the NEB and SEB.  GRS vividly on show.  Just great.

[markse68]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Here is the full animation. I should have shot for another half hour. Coulda shoulda...

Hi Ags, that’s really beautiful! Having Io and Ganymede either side was a stroke of genius luck- they give it such a 3D effect with their trajectories and GRS emerging round the limb is tantalising.

Would you share some details about the process? like camera, scope, exp time, exposures per  frame, frame interval etc? And how you processed them? I really want to have a go

Mark

[Ags]

Thanks!

I have just started doing animations, this only my third. I use a C6 and AZ-GTI with an ASI485MC. I used a wider 640 by 480 ROI to include the moons, I was very lucky they were so close. At 640x480 I can only get 100 frames per second. I had to put frame length down to only 2.5 ms because of atrocious seeing, but at least the night was clear and Jove was relatively bright.

I just shoot 2 minute sequences in a loop, batch stack the vids in AutoStakkert 3 (making sure to remember to put an alignment point on each moon), then I load all the TIFFs as layers in Gimp and make the animated GIF.

[markse68]

Thanks Ags, that’s great info. I really love animations of Jupiter like this

Mark

Edited September 25, 2022 by markse68

[Ags]

I forgot - inbetween AS!3 and Gimp is some wavelets and color balancing in RegiStax 6.

[RobertI]

I did a rough  sketch at the eyepiece and tried a better rendition this morning. Not an expert at sketching but hope it conveys the overall view. 
 

[IB20]

3 hours ago, RobertI said:

I did a rough  sketch at the eyepiece and tried a better rendition this morning. Not an expert at sketching but hope it conveys the overall view. 
 

This perfectly captures what I observed, great sketch. 

[RobertI]

1 hour ago, IB20 said:

This perfectly captures what I observed, great sketch. 

Thanks! And thanks for the heads up about the transit - I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t spotted your post. 🙂