A tiny Venus and end of my planetary season...for now

[Kon]

I wanted to finish my planetary season with Mercury. As it is low on the horizon, I thought I will try during daylight. Unfortunately, at mag -0.5 it was not possible to locate it manually despite finding the much brighter Venus at -4.4. I captured Venus in IR as I was already setup. A tiny disc to end this planetary season or until Venus is much larger later in the spring. My usual 8" Dob setup.

[orion25]

Nice one, Kostas. It's been quite a planetary season. I look forward to adding Mars back into the loop and Saturn edge-on!

Regards,

Reggie

[Mr Spock]

I can’t wait for the spring. It’s not viewable for me as a morning object. Houses and all that 🫤

[johnturley]

1 hour ago, Kon said:

I wanted to finish my planetary season with Mercury. As it is low on the horizon, I thought I will try during daylight. Unfortunately, at mag -0.5 it was not possible to locate it manually despite finding the much brighter Venus at -4.4. I captured Venus in IR as I was already setup. A tiny disc to end this planetary season or until Venus is much larger later in the spring. My usual 8" Dob setup.

I can usually find Mercury in daylight using a combination of a setting circles and a sidereal clock (actually an app on phone these days), provided the magnitude is brighter than zero, it helps if the sun is down below buildings or other obstructions making the sky background appear less bright. Between zero and +1 finding it becomes increasingly more difficult, and I don't even both trying if it is fainter than +1.

John 

Edited January 15 by johnturley

[Mr Spock]

Here’s a question: would you be able to find it if the mount was goto?

[johnturley]

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Here’s a question: would you be able to find it if the mount was goto?

It doesn't have to be GOTO, mine isn't, but ideally you need be able to position the scope correctly straight away, so that it is initially within the field of view of your favourite low power eyepiece without having to 'sweep around'. Another key to making it easier to find, is leaving the focusing mount in the correct focal position for your favourite low power wide field eyepiece, its a lot a harder to find if you have to re-focus first. I initially use a TV 24mm Panoptic, which is parfocal with my T6 Naglers, if you have to refocus after changing to a higher power eyepiece you can easily end up 'losing it'. 

John 

[Kon]

44 minutes ago, johnturley said:

I can usually find Mercury in daylight using a combination of a setting circles and a sidereal clock (actually an app on phone these days), provided the magnitude is brighter than zero, it helps if the sun is down below buildings or other obstructions making the sky background appear less bright. Between zero and +1 finding it becomes increasingly more difficult, and I don't even both trying if it is fainter than +1.

John 

Thanks for the advice John. I thought after I found Venus it would have been 'trivial' to spot it. I had very thin haze and it may have contributed to not spotting it. I was using my finderscope rather than an eyepiece as you mentioned below. Can you get it on your finderscope or does it need a bit more magnification?

So  you reckon -0.5 is possible at daylight. I have seen it naked eye after sunset before so unless the haziness was contributing to lower mag.

[Kon]

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Nice one, Kostas. It's been quite a planetary season. I look forward to adding Mars back into the loop and Saturn edge-on!

Regards,

Reggie

Thanks Reggie. It has been an awful winter for Jupiter. Yes we will have a busy summer and winter 2024. Fingers crossed for better conditions.

[bosun21]

I’m still going to be flogging away at Jupiter basically until it’s no longer feasible. I have just set everything up for tonight and the clouds are starting to make an appearance. As I just started planetary imaging roughly 4 months ago I need all the practice I can get.

[Kon]

12 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I’m still going to be flogging away at Jupiter basically until it’s no longer feasible. I have just set everything up for tonight and the clouds are starting to make an appearance. As I just started planetary imaging roughly 4 months ago I need all the practice I can get.

You haven't had much time with your new setup yet, have you? It's good to get all the teething out of the way now and when they are more favourable you can nail some good captures.

I am not sure if seeing will be good tonight as the Jetstream is overhead but you never know if the winds are constant then it might be ok. It's meant to be a bit cloudy from now but clearing again around 8. You might want to play with an IR  pass filter on both Jupiter and Uranus as well.

[bosun21]

4 minutes ago, Kon said:

You haven't had much time with your new setup yet, have you? It's good to get all the teething out of the way now and when they are more favourable you can nail some good captures.

I am not sure if seeing will be good tonight as the Jetstream is overhead but you never know if the winds are constant then it might be ok. It's meant to be a bit cloudy from now but clearing again around 8. You might want to play with an IR  pass filter on both Jupiter and Uranus as well.

Yes I just noticed on the MET app that they forecast clouds from 6-8pm. I  had a few teething problems first time out but hopefully they are behind me. I keep forgetting to check the Jetstream 🙄, but saying as I'm all set up I will push ahead anyway. I will take your advice and try the IR pass filter tonight and also Uranus. I originally fitted an electric focuser but it was faulty and just kept motoring without turning the focuser. I have now removed it so back to manual. I will have to get another one or a dual speed focuser. Hitting the happy spot can be challenging manually with a single speed. How do you reach focus Kostas?

[Kon]

5 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

How do you reach focus Kostas

I do it manually until I get some of the Jupiter sharper features in focus (under good seeing) otherwise I opt to focus until the grander features look focused. I never focus on its moons as I find it can be quite off. For Uranus, I focus on Jupiter and move there, not ideal but it has worked for me to capture the northern polar hood so I don't think I am miles away (with your goto you might be able to fine tune it).

[bosun21]

Just too cold for me tonight. I still captured a nice amount of SER files on Jupiter. My fingers were too numb to change to an IR pass filter for a second load of captures.

 

Edited January 15 by bosun21

[geoflewis]

Nicely done Kostas. It’s a pity that you weren’t able to locate Mercury, though from what others said, it looks like it might just about be possible at -0.5.

As we discussed, I’m also done with planetary imaging until late Summer, when Mars and Saturn come around again, then it will be a busy season well into 2025, so fingers crossed for some good seeing.

I stripped the planetary camera optical train, beefy finder scope, CW extension bar, etc., off my mount, replaced with my QSI583 DSO camera and rebalanced ready to capture some DSOs over the coming weeks, whilst I wait for my cancelled hip surgery to be rescheduled. I did a test run on the Crab Nebula last night, but lost the sky to mist/fog before capturing even 3x5min sub exposures, so hopefully I will be able to complete that in the coming nights/weeks.

Edited January 16 by geoflewis

[Planetary Observer]

Very nice

[Kon]

33 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Nicely done Kostas. It’s a pity that you weren’t able to locate Mercury, though from what others said, it looks like it might just about be possible at -0.5.

As we discussed, I’m also done with planetary imaging until late Summer, when Mars and Saturn come around again, then it will be a busy season well into 2025, so fingers crossed for some good seeing.

I stripped the planetary camera optical train, beefy finder scope, CW extension bar, etc., off my mount, replaced with my QSI583 DSO camera and rebalanced ready to capture some DSOs over the coming weeks, whilst I wait for my cancelled hip surgery to be rescheduled. I did a test run on the Crab Nebula last night, but lost the sky to mist/fog before capturing even 3x5min sub exposures, so hopefully I will be able to complete that in the coming nights/weeks.

Thanks Geof. It has not been the best consistency, weatherwishe, but we still managed a few good shots. I am looking forward to your Uranus-ring project and  of course your other planetary imaging. I will probably do some ISS captures if weather permits.

Yes some excellent advice on Mercury and as Thursday is looking good I might give it a final shot at daylight.

 

[Kon]

14 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Just too cold for me tonight. I still captured a nice amount of SER files on Jupiter. My fingers were too numb to change to an IR pass filter for a second load of captures.

 

 

I hope you managed some good shots last night Ian. I have seen some really good images from Wiltshire (and I am kicking myself for not getting out; the jetstream did not seem to be much of a problem last night).

[geoflewis]

1 minute ago, Kon said:

Yes some excellent advice on Mercury and as Thursday is looking good I might give it a final shot at daylight.

I hope you get it 🤞

[geoflewis]

14 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Just too cold for me tonight. I still captured a nice amount of SER files on Jupiter. My fingers were too numb to change to an IR pass filter for a second load of captures.

 

The image on your laptop looks promising 🤞

[bosun21]

1 minute ago, Kon said:

I hope you managed some good shots last night Ian. I have seen some really good images from Wiltshire (and I am kicking myself for not getting out; the jetstream did not seem to be much of a problem last night).

I managed a load of 90 second captures and will process them this evening. My previous outing was poor due to terrible seeing. If last night was better I'll post an image of the result.

[bosun21]

I guess the Jetstream wasn't that benign over Oxford last night. I tried for ages to get more out of them but it was in vain. The collimation was spot on so it has to be either the Jetstream being overhead, the seeing or both. I was getting better from my 150 Mak. I guess it's just the roll of the dice regarding the conditions. Caught a couple of the moons in sync though. Pushing the images was just introducing noise.

 

 

Edited January 16 by bosun21

[geoflewis]

14 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I guess the Jetstream wasn't that benign over Oxford last night. I tried for ages to get more out of them but it was in vain. The collimation was spot on so it has to be either the Jetstream being overhead, the seeing or both. I was getting better from my 150 Mak. I guess it's just the roll of the dice regarding the conditions. Caught a couple of the moons in sync though. Pushing them was just introducing noise.

 

 

It's a pity that the seeing didn't play well for you, but it's still a nice capture of the event, with the moons heading towards occultation.

[Kon]

3 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I guess the Jetstream wasn't that benign over Oxford last night. I tried for ages to get more out of them but it was in vain. The collimation was spot on so it has to be either the Jetstream being overhead, the seeing or both. I was getting better from my 150 Mak. I guess it's just the roll of the dice regarding the conditions. Caught a couple of the moons in sync though. Pushing the images was just introducing noise.

 

 

 

Nice capture Ian. It seems that seeing wasn't great or at least it was good but more localised. A friend of mine 30miles west of produced a very good Jupiter similar time last night.

Are these your sers derotated or a single capture ?

Thursday is supposed to be clear but with Jetstream but worth trying. I will retry for Mercury.

[bosun21]

6 minutes ago, Kon said:

Nice capture Ian. It seems that seeing wasn't great or at least it was good but more localised. A friend of mine 30miles west of produced a very good Jupiter similar time last night.

Are these your sers derotated or a single capture ?

Thursday is supposed to be clear but with Jetstream but worth trying. I will retry for Mercury.

No derotation as I could tell looking at them that it would be a waste of time and effort. This is just a single 90 second SER through the usual steps of Autostakkert III and Registax. I didn't even open Astrosurface for final tweaks. Oh well, onward and upward as they say. I'll be back at it the next clear night.

[PeterStudz]

On 15/01/2024 at 13:55, Kon said:

I wanted to finish my planetary season with Mercury. As it is low on the horizon, I thought I will try during daylight. Unfortunately, at mag -0.5 it was not possible to locate it manually despite finding the much brighter Venus at -4.4. I captured Venus in IR as I was already setup. A tiny disc to end this planetary season or until Venus is much larger later in the spring. My usual 8" Dob setup.

 

Hi Kostas, 

Yesterday I had an attempt to find Mercury during daylight with my 200p. I have never actually seen it as my views low to the horizon are obscured. I didn’t want to image it, just see it! To try and locate Mercury I did my usual way of finding Venus during daylight, by syncing on the Sun (white light filter) as I’ve described before. In fact I went to Venus after the sun as the more points I can sync to with the app the better. I located Venus straight away in the middle of my finder which showed I was accurate. Synced on Venus then pushed to Mercury. From experience I know it would be close to the middle of the finder and within the FOV of a low power eyepiece. But as hard as I tried I just could not make out Mercury and after about half an hour I gave up.

Ahhh, well, there’s always another time.