Uranus Rings - 1 Dec 2023 (maybe....?)

[geoflewis]

So after not getting Neptune on 1 Dec 2023, but some nice captures of Saturn and later Jupiter, I concentrated on my lastest goal to capture Uranus ring system.

I captured 44 x 2m SERs using 40ms exposures with the ASI462MC camera through an Astronomic IR742 Pro Planet filter. I processed each SER for best 70% in AS3! (actually I tried 10%,25%, 50%, 70%, 80%), then ran them through WinJupos measurement and derotation. Aggresive gain and offset settings, in Astrosurface, combined with wavelets and deconvolution revealed what appears as an oval ring feature along with Uranus 4 main moons (again huge thanks to Kostas @Kon who showed me how to use the offset and gain settings in Astrosurface to reveal the halo / rings around Uranus). At this long elapsed duration (1.5 hours), WinJupos shows the moons as arcs rather than points and of course Uranus is completely blown out.

I next used the SETI Uranus Viewer to generate an image of the ring system and main moons for the same time stamp as the derotated midpoint of my image, which I overlayed in Affinity Photo by aligning Uranus and it's moons. The below video is a screen recording as I change the opacity of the SETI overlay to show how well it aligns with the oval ring feature in my image.

 

At worst I think I can say it's an interesting attempt (it's definitely my best attempt yet), but who thinks that I can actually claim to have captured Uranus's rings?

I have some colour data too (just for Uranus), so my my current challenge is working out how to combine the IR and colour images, together with the stretched 'rings' version and overlay them together in a single snapshow image - not sure if that is even possible.... 🤔

 

[melsmore]

Fantastic! Looks like you got them to me.

[Kon]

It's impressive, the thought alone to do it is mad! I was mad to try with my 8" and failed miserably.  I seriously think you got them. For others reading this post, and wondering, Geof sent me the stacked files after as!3 and I independently processed them without knowing what settings he had used. We both came to a similar conclusion. Although the animation is a bit grainy, aligning the SETI on the image is clear; there is a sharper ring coming through the halo.

Exquisite capture and meticulous processing!

Edited December 4, 2023 by Kon

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Kon said:

It's impressive, the thought alone to do it is mad! I was mad to try with my 8" and failed miserably.  I seriously think you got them. For others reading this post, and wondering, Geof sent me the stacked files after as!3 and I independently processed them without knowing what settings he had used. We both came to a similar conclusion. Although the animation is a bit grainy, aligning the SETI on the image is clear; there is a sharper ring coming through the halo.

Exquisite capture and meticulous processing!

Thanks Kostas, your help has been truly invaluable, not only on this challenge, but processing tecniques and capture details for the other planets.

[yelsac]

That is truly fascinating, didn't think it was possible to get that through the earths atmosphere, well done Geof & thanks for sharing 👍

[geoflewis]

38 minutes ago, yelsac said:

That is truly fascinating, didn't think it was possible to get that through the earths atmosphere, well done Geof & thanks for sharing 👍

Thanks. It is definitely possible as I've seen a couple of other version just from the UK, but it certainly ain't easy. I had a few failed attempts and even several failed attempts with the same data from which I generated this attempt. I want to try some different capture settings and go even longer, maybe over 2 hours data, to see if I can get a clearer/cleaner result.

[Space Cowboy]

Tantalising! Have you tried a 610 or 685 ir filter Geof?

[geoflewis]

1 hour ago, Space Cowboy said:

Tantalising! Have you tried a 610 or 685 ir filter Geof?

Thanks Stuart,

Yes, tantalising is a good way to describe it. Unfortuantely I only have the IR742 filter. Kostas said he'd lend me one of his, but I'm not keen on borrowing gear and can't justify buying a filter for what would be almost a single project. It's a bit like my reluctance to buy a UV filter just for Venus.

[orion25]

Incredible, Geof...or should I rephrase that...CREDIBLE! 👀You did it! Big congratulations! 👏👏What in your opinion would be the limiting aperture for imaging Uranus rings (and surface features)?

Reggie

[geoflewis]

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Incredible, Geof...or should I rephrase that...CREDIBLE! 👀You did it! Big congratulations! 👏👏What in your opinion would be the limiting aperture for imaging Uranus rings (and surface features)?

Reggie

Thanks Reggie, however, I've had a couple of very experienced and highly respected planetary imagers review my image and they are not confident to call it, so as @Space Cowboy said, it's tantalising, but maybe not a done deal. Regarding minimum aperture, I'm not sure. @Kon has no issue capturing the polar hood with his 8" dob, but the only images of the rings that I have seen are from 16" and 18" scopes. I think that I should be able to get them with my 14" in excellent seeing, but until I do, then I guess the jury is still out.

Edited December 15, 2023 by geoflewis

[orion25]

29 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Reggie, however, I've had a couple of very experience and highly respected planetary imagers review my image and they are not confident to call it, so as @Space Cowboy said, it's tantalising, but maybe not a done deal. Regarding minimum aperture, I'm not sure. @Kon has no issue capturing the polar hood with his 8" dob, but the only images of the rings that I have seen are from 16" and 18" scopes. I think that I should be able to get them with my 14" in excellent seeing, but until I do, then I guess the jury is still out.

Thanks for the aperture info, Geof. And as long as the jury is still out, we can at least enjoy the possibility of their being the actual rings

Edited December 15, 2023 by orion25