Jupiter and Io, a Shadow Transit AND the GRS!

[orion25]

I was able to capture all of the above with the ASI 224mc and Orion 180mm Mak using lucky imaging on the second night of 2023:

Clear skies!

Reggie

[geoflewis]

Very nice, well done Reggie

[Kon]

Nice image.

[RobertI]

Nice Reggie! 

[orion25]

16 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Very nice, well done Reggie

Thanks, Geof!

[orion25]

16 hours ago, Kon said:

Nice image.

Thanks, Kon!

[orion25]

14 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice Reggie! 

Thanks, Rob!

[Hawksmoor]

Excellent image Reggie!

George

[orion25]

11 hours ago, Hawksmoor said:

Excellent image Reggie!

George

Thanks, George. It was quite unexpected; I wasn't even planning on imaging! I set my 127mm "Lil' Mak" to view Mars and my reflector for Jove/Saturn for a relaxing evening of planetary observing. With my attention primarily on the god of War, I took a cursory glance at Jupiter and noticed a distinct "dot" near the right limb! A closer look revealed the shrinking GRS near the other limb! And then there's Io, off to the right, casting its shadow🤩! Wow! I bolted inside to get the ASI224mc and my 180mm "Big Mak" as Jovian events change rather quickly and captured some data! I was very chuffed with the results!

While I was at it, I got some great Mars data as well (but that's for another post, lol). On another note, my attention generally turns to Hind's Crimson Star and the Orion Nebula in January as they are ideally positioned for me this time of year. 

How are you and the missus?

Regards, Reggie

Edited January 14, 2023 by orion25
corrected telescope info

[Hawksmoor]

Hi Reggie

Nice to hear from you. I thought your processing of Jupiter was spot on (literally😀!).

Orion is better for me before Christmas rather than after. Lowestoft is as far east as you can get in the UK and the OMC now is quite a way west by the time the local street lights go out at 11:30pm. and light pollution levels near my southern horizon fall sufficiently to make astrophotography easier.  I'm not sure whether I managed to capture Hind's Crimson Star earlier in the year on some of my widefield shots of Orion, I will have a look. Anything below Rigel is very difficult from my 52 degrees North location.

Anita and I are well other than the odd seasonal virus we contracted over Christmas, hope you are keeping well too!

I'm hoping for a clear night without too much wind this month, so I can have a look and maybe image  comets C/2022 E3 ZTF and C/2020 V2 ZTF. I will have to get up early to image the first of the two and as I age, rising from my warm bed on a cold morning becomes more difficult!

We have just returned from a walk around the local bird reserve, Carlton Marshes, not many birds about but the fresh air and exercise did us both good. I am now loading astro software onto my new Lenovo laptop after my old machine died at the end of an extended Mars imaging run on a very cold and damp night at the beginning of January.

Best regards George