clear sky chart

Job 9:9

Job 9:9-10
9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
10 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
NIV

Monday, October 10, 2011

Another Jupiter Session - GRS

Was outside for a short time again last night, with a cold even.  Probably shouldnt have, but this time of year we have a limited number of clear nights, so I thought I would go with another run at Jupiter.  I'm getting better at imaging Jupiter with the dob, and I am getting some pretty good images with it.  I really wish it was on an eq mount tho.

Anyway, I think I got some of my best images so far.

The Great Red Spot is well resolved, as well as the grey around it.  The disk is also well lit, as Jupiter approaches opposition.



This last image is showing a fair amount of activity in the equatorial zone, with numerous white spots as well as 2 small pinkish storms either side of center.

The moon is Ganymede.

The main problem with a dob when using this high of magnification is keeping the planet in the field long enough to take enough frames to reduce the noise in the image.  Because there are no "slow motion" controls it is very difficult to reset it for another pass.  Most of these images, the planet is allowed to drift across the field and is then reset for another pass.  There are perhaps 125 or so usable frames out of about 500 in each AVI, so there is some noise in the images.

Seeing was average, about 3/5.  Transparency was so-so, as there was some high level haze but it wasnt too thick, just not as good as it has been the past few evenings.

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