Uranus with northern polar hood and moons (2 days before opposition) (12/11/23)

[Kon]

I had another go on Uranus and its polar hood under suboptimal conditions. The 650 filter really suffered under the seeing but the 742 did stabilise things. This is a 15min capture with the zwo proplanet IR filter at 742. I also captured a colour to have a more true colour to it and merged the two images. The polar hood is showing well but a bit less sharp than my previous post or Geof's @geoflewisexcellent image from yesterday. Comparing his image and my image 1 day apart, the relative motion of the moons is apparent and it still gives me goosebumps that we can capture both the movemnt of moons on another planet and even see the polar hood. At the time of the capture Uranus was 149,597,870 km away from us. Unfortunately the weather is not clear to capture it at opposition tomorrow. Two images without and with labels.

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Kon

[geoflewis]

Kostas,

That's brilliant knowing the dreadful conditions that you had for this. It really is fun seeing Uranus's moons nearly 150m km away, especially when you realise that the largest of them, Titania, only has a diameter of ~1,576 km. Miranda, which is the smallest of the 5 main moons and which I have yet to capture, is not much more that a piece of space rock at a mere ~472 km, about 3/4rs the north to south dimension of England.

[Space Cowboy]

Remarkable achievement capturing that detail in last nights poor seeing with an 8" scope without tracking! Bravo Kotas!

[geoflewis]

Just now, Space Cowboy said:

Remarkable achievement capturing that detail in last nights poor seeing with an 8" scope without tracking! Bravo Kotas!

That's the understatement of the century Stuart. I have no clue how Kostas does it....🤷‍♂️

[Kon]

@geoflewisand @Space Cowboythank you both and you make me blush. To be honest the manual tracking has been a killer for these 15 min captures but I am still enjoying it.

I don't preach about collimation but you have to have it spot on for these long captures and stacking, and the new focuser has really helped me to get rid of the focuser tilt.

[Kon]

1 hour ago, geoflewis said:

Kostas,

That's brilliant knowing the dreadful conditions that you had for this. It really is fun seeing Uranus's moons nearly 150m km away, especially when you realise that the largest of them, Titania, only has a diameter of ~1,576 km. Miranda, which is the smallest of the 5 main moons and which I have yet to capture, is not much more that a piece of space rock at a mere ~472 km, about 3/4rs the north to south dimension of England.

Putting these small numbers in perspective it's even more amazing what we are achieving!