Posts Made By: Jason Higley

This shot is also from 1 night after opposition

http://setisociety.org/MVI_0288MODTRIMREGPUSHFIFTYROX.jpg

It has a little better scale and more details than the last one I posted at

http://setisociety.org/saturnMVI_0298tworegproc.jpg

What is the name of the thin belt bisecting the Equatorial zone? (looking at my April '08 Sky & Telescope magazine article "Savor Saturn 2008" by Alan MacRobert, I don't see that belt listed, could somebody please post the name of that one for me.)

Shot details, 480 frames in Registax, afocal at 10mm EP, 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow, Canon A530 Powershot, 6" Criterion RV-6

Thanks and regards, Jason H.

Jupiter in Saggitarius star clouds March 9, 2008

http://setisociety.org/MilkyWaySaggitariusIMG_0471ad.jpg

The brightest object in the image is Jupiter taken at Central Florida Astronomical Society Astrofest just before sunrise using only Canon A530 Powershot camera on a table (it was either a 13 or 15 second exposure at ASA 800.)

I would have used my tripod except it snapped in half when I tried to rotate the head, which the cold probably contributed to (I showed others that there was literally a layer of ice on my Ian Ridpath/Wil Tirion Monthy Sky Guide. And we were way south of Orlando, in March!)

We had a great night. Jason H.

Here's a 5 frame movie (around 786K in size) where I accidentally caught a satellite flying through Milkyway during a star party last weekend.

http://setisociety.org/SatelliteMovieMilkywayJupiterEarth.wmv

Single frames taken with a Canon A530 point-n-shoot. It's noisy (sorry), and I had to increase the noise so you could see it in Windows Movie Maker (which decreases the brightness.)

Regards, Jason H.

Jupiter passing through Saggitarius star clouds

http://setisociety.org/MilkywayandJupiterpushed.jpg

It's a single 15 second frame from a Canon A530 (whose objective lens is no bigger than my pinky nail), no telescope, pc or mount used, only mounted on a table leaning on a plastic tub lid. :^)

Regards, Jason H.

Using MY camera on the Cassini spacecraft (I know it must be mine now after all the tax payments I've made :^), I grabbed some just-received raw images off their website showing the sheparding/rippling effect of small moons on the F ring, so I put them in this Windows movie sequence

http://setisociety.org/Saturn-Ring-Shepharding-Effect.wmv

They over-exposed the moons to show the rings better (the Cassini site doesn't identify these moons in the image data, but looking around their website I'd guess they are probably Prometheus(63 miles wide and the inner one that's stirring things up) and Pandora (52 miles wide.)

Image credit NASA/Cassini/JPL

Regards, Jason H.

I was looking over some Jupiter clips I did last July and was able to stack this diminutive Jupiter

http://setisociety.org/jupiter100_6057regrox.jpg

For that I used a 6" 1978 Criterion RV-6 Newtonian, Kodak EasyShare Z730 (may it rest in peace after falling to it's end) no computer present to record, afocal shot, not barlowed. I finally just read a little about the Nyquist Sampling Theorem (so that's what I'm supposed to do :^) If only I could get up early enough for a Jupiter session! Regards, Jason H.

Here's my diminutive first shot of the globular cluster M13 in Hercules

http://setisociety.org/M13-15sec-RV6-Afocal.jpg

The stats - An un-guided single 15 second exposure via a Criterion RV-6 (an F/8 6" newtonian made in 1978 with a clock drive pedestal mount), 16 mm Parks EP, afocal Canon A530 Powershot attached to EP using Orion SteadyPix camera mount, shot at ASA 800. Image processed, cropped and reduced in Adobe PhotoDeluxe (software circa late 1990's.) I could not see Polaris behind the trees next to my driveway, so I just hoped for the best and tried to remember how it was oriented during the Winter when there were no leaves on the trees (I guess I was close enough.) Most exposures were bad tracking-wise, but the variability of the clock drive had several brief 15 second intervals that were close to mimicking tracking.

Regards, Jason H.

Tiny Jupiter from May 2,'08, ~160 frames - 6" newt, afocal, 10mm EP, video mode - Canon A530 (no external computer present)

http://setisociety.org/MVI_0787-REG2ROXI.jpg

Regards, Jason H. (in Central FL)

Yeah boy, this bad puppy is comin' at ya with 50 millimeters of light suckin' power! All shots taken afocally with Canon A530.

Moon taken
http://setisociety.org/MOON-50MM-VIVITAR-15DOLLAR-SCOPE-IMG_0933.jpg

A Jupiter stack
http://setisociety.org/JUPITER-IN-VIVITAR-MVI_0901ROXI.png

Saturn stack
http://setisociety.org/SATURN2-VIVITAR-MVI_0897.png

Side view of the 50 MM Vivitar
http://setisociety.org/50MM-VIVITAR-SIDE-VIEW.jpg

The business end of it.
http://setisociety.org/50-MM-VIVITAR-GLASS-IMG_0910.jpg

Comes with 2 eyepieces, a 12mm and a 6mm .96" w/plastic cases, an aluminum and plastic tripod with quarter-20 screw that can double as an ultra-light weight camera tripod, a metal OTA, weather-resistant genuine plastic rack-focuser, pen-like finder scope with glass on the end of it. The box has what appears to be demi-photo-realistic art work showing nebula and what appears to be a shot of the far side of the Moon from orbit (dang this scope is good!) I'm amazed that a $14.99 toy scope from Walgreens/China would even work! It's even better than a 60mm Meade I once tested.

That was fun! Jason H.

Jupiter and Moons from last night - personal best:

http://setisociety.org/JupiterMVI_0912regrox28May08.png

6" Criterion RV-6, Canon A530, 10mm EP, Ultima Barlow (but not maxed on the magnification, yet, but this seemed the tightest of the runs at this scale.) Started with ~1100 frames, but I don't know how many both I and Registax eventually discarded.

Jason H.