Posts Made By: Jason Higley

Alan Friedman said:

Nothing makes a better mousetrap than good seeing. I enjoyed a little bit of this before sunrise this morning. After imaging the moon, I shot Venus again using the CaK and green filters.

best -
Alan

Jason Higley said:

This is from an MPEG (converted to AVI for Registax) recorded in July on a Kodak EasyShare Z730

http://setisociety.org/jupiterjuly07.jpg

on a 6" Criterion, afocal. NO COMPUTER OR OTHER EXTERNAL RECORDING DEVICE WAS PRESENT WHEN THIS WAS TAKEN! I know other methods are currently better, but I imagine that if someone tries this with a bigger scope that the results could be pretty interesting, and no hassling or exposing the laptop or other devices to the elements!
Regards, Jason

Steve Fugardi said:

C11 + 2.5x barlow + Toucam in below average conditions, best 200 frames stacked. With Mars higher in the sky, the image can tolerate worse seeing compared to Venus. While the mirror temp was within 0-0.1degC vs ambient, the atmospheric seeing was marginal. Sadly, these were the best conditions in the last 3 weeks here.

Regards,
Steve

Steve Fugardi said:

I had the rare opportunity to view and capture Mercury on the morning of its greatest elongation in above average seeing. Taken at 6:17am today, with the elusive planet 15deg above the horizon, just clearing the tree lines, I took my best Toucam avi with 1/50s shutter, 50% brightness, no color, 100% sat, 0% gamma, 34% gain manually tweaking to 24% by the end of the 10fps 4981 frame video. The best 277 frames were stacked in Registax. From 11/5 to 11/8, the apparent diameter decreased from 7.5" to 6.8" and the illuminated phase increased from 44 to 57%. High power eyepiece views at 318x showed a strange rainbow colored glare coming off the edge of the planet. It almost seemed like the -0.5mag reflected sunlight was refracting through the thick atmosphere. From my backyard observatory location, there is a small window to see Mercury. Sometimes you have to be lucky to get just the right conditions.

Regards,
Steve

Dan Petersen said:

Hi, Mercury's one tough target, this shot was taken through early afternoon heat on the seventh of September, 2007. Diameter: just 5.3"! It sort of looks like the Moon only 500 times farther away or 118 million miles when this image was captured. Thanks for viewing, Dan

Jason Higley said:

Conditions-Moon almost full, clouds rolling in, seeing=go back inside.
60mm telescope on a tilt-a-whirl mount (i.e. no tracking)
9mm eyepiece, $10 from Bill Burgess at a star party.
3 filters stacked: Celestron 96, Parks PL & a Tasco green moon filter.
Camera - The Amazing Spiderman 3-in-1 Digital Camera, $19.67-Walmart.

Relief on the Moon's Limb
http://setisociety.org/moonspidermanPhoto005.jpg

Moon (w/vignetting, it's hard to keep this tiny chip centered)
http://setisociety.org/moonspidermanPhoto037.jpg

http://setisociety.org/moonspidermanPhoto150.jpg

The camera can shoot stills, video clips, and can be used as webcam, and has a Quarter-20 screw that permits using the Orion Steadypix to keep it next to an eyepiece. Although low-resolution, 640x480, the camera seems somewhat light sensitive as I had to use 3 filters (even resorting to a green Tasco Moon filter out of desperation) even though I was only using a 60mm with a 9mm EP.
Testing the bottom :^) Jason H.

Steve Fugardi said:

I compiled my best f25 shots from 2007 using my C11 Compustar, Toucam Pro, 2.5x barlow & IR blocking filter for my daughter's science class and attached it below. There is definitely an improvement comparing Saturn (earlier in the year) to Mars, both taken at comparable altitudes. With Saturn's rings almost edge on, resolution will be even more difficult this season. Of course a few perfect nights wouldn't hurt either

Regards,
Steve

Dan Petersen said:

Hi, I thought the rings were narrow last March when this image was captured but now when I look back it's quite obvious that they really weren't. It's funny how much perception changes with time! During Saturn's current apparition those magnificent rings are only open half as wide (about 8 degrees), now that's narrow... I think? We should finally be able to observe and image some good detail in its northern hemisphere, I wonder if there are any Saturnian surprises lurking this season? The Ringed Planet is already perfectly positioned for viewing, high up in the southern sky before sunrise. In this image if you look just left of Saturn's south pole you will find the moon "Tethys", its surface is almost entirely composed of water ice, I wonder what that tastes like? Cheers, Dan 8)

Jason Higley said:

Here's a short stack from last night (Dec. 13) with a Panasonic Lumix camera (no external computer present to record) at the eyepiece of a 6" newt.

http://setisociety.org/marsdec1307-047regproc.jpg

(Just reporting what happens when you do this; don't kill the messenger. :^)

Regards, Jason H.

Jason Higley said:

Mars
http://setisociety.org/mars4Jan08MeadeElecEPproc3.jpg

Taken Jan. 4th using Meade Electronic Eyepiece, 6" newtonian, ~400 frames saved using home DVD burner (no pc/laptop present to record) and manually ripping each frame to a bitmap, software - old copy of Power DVD full edition, Registax 4, Roxio Photosuite 5.

Regards, Jason H.