Uranus with 5 main moons (25/11/23)

[Kon]

After the very promising Jupiter session in IR, I tried Uranus in IR again. Despite being close to the moon and the glow, I got a very good capture. This was a 20min ser and it helped to get a good signal to  even resolve the very dim Miranda (even some background stars were present in my overstretched image). The northern polar hood is showing really nicely too. My usual 8" Dob but this time with the 685nm IR pass filter. From top and clockwise:  Oberon, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel and Miranda.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Kon

[Paul M]

Wow! Just Wow!

 

[geoflewis]

That's fantastic Kostas, well done. You keep raising the bar.....!!

[Kon]

15 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Wow! Just Wow!

 

Thank you Paul.

[Kon]

12 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

That's fantastic Kostas, well done. You keep raising the bar.....!!

Thanks Geof, you are very kind. I am really happy how this one came out in the end.

[Space Cowboy]

Remarkable! I'd love to see what you can get in good seeing!

[Kon]

4 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Remarkable! I'd love to see what you can get in good seeing!

Thanks Stuart. There is one thing I am after but it's pushing the 8" at its limits. We shall see...

[Zermelo]

Miranda is impressive.

[inFINNity Deck]

Hi Kostas,

that is a great image! Can you tell a bit more about the way you captured it? Was it a single 20 minute sub, or did you do lucky imaging (if so, what kind of settings)? Which camera did you use, the ASI462MM?

Did you use the Dobson at native focal ratio (I believe that is f/6)?

Nicolàs

 

[Bugdozer]

24 minutes ago, inFINNity Deck said:

Hi Kostas,

that is a great image! Can you tell a bit more about the way you captured it? Was it a single 20 minute sub, or did you do lucky imaging (if so, what kind of settings)? Which camera did you use, the ASI462MM?

Did you use the Dobson at native focal ratio (I believe that is f/6)?

Nicolàs

 

One other thing Kostas - I assume this involved some kind of automated guiding and you weren't just pushing the telescope! It's an incredible picture.

[orion25]

Amazing!

[Kon]

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

Miranda is impressive.

Thanks. I was rather surprised to see it when i processed the image (good confidence when i saw 2 other mag16 stars in my image)

[Kon]

31 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Amazing!

Thanks Reggie.

[Kon]

1 hour ago, Bugdozer said:

One other thing Kostas - I assume this involved some kind of automated guiding and you weren't just pushing the telescope! It's an incredible picture.

Thank you. I am all manual, yes manual pushing and tracking for 20min; just to clarify it was a 20min ser.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Kon

[Kon]

2 hours ago, inFINNity Deck said:

Hi Kostas,

that is a great image! Can you tell a bit more about the way you captured it? Was it a single 20 minute sub, or did you do lucky imaging (if so, what kind of settings)? Which camera did you use, the ASI462MM?

Did you use the Dobson at native focal ratio (I believe that is f/6)?

Nicolàs

 

Thanks Nicolàs. Lucky imaging; a 20min ser; drift through the sensor, recentre and repeat (no pause in between). The Uranus rotation is quite slow and in my stretched image (this is a composite here) I could not see any moon trailing. I think around 30 min you do start seeing the relative rotation.

I used the asi462mm as it already had the filter on but the 462mc has the same performance in IR. The settings were 32ms exposure with a histogram at 95% (gain a bit higher than normal due to hazy skies). I was at f15 with a 2.5x TV powermate.

The image is resized 200%. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Kon

[Les Ewan]

Great work. 😎