Parting view of Jupiter!

 Sitting around for 6 months in my 'Latest' workflow folder I found this in some decent seeing.  I was setup in a spot to dodge the trees for Mars and found a small gap to hit Jupiter while I waited!

Jupiter

Click the above link for past seasons, icons below for current season.

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Europa puts a beauty mark on the Great Red Spot

I was cruising facebook some weeks back and found one of those “On this Day” which had me wondering what happened.

So I went and checked my annual gallery for 2013-2014 and found it wasn’t finished and posted!😨
https://maphilli14.webs.com/jupiter



So, without ado, here’s my 6 year old post made of 3x derotated images with a composite single image of the shadow and moon.





Animation

WinJupos reference

Speaking of spring clouds and rain, here's 3 planets in one night to make up for it all!

Be sure to get to the bottom of this for something unique that I've never done before!

Weak spring astronomy weather, shoot three planets to make up for it.   YES!

I shot Venus, then Jupiter and finally Saturn.  I'll lead off with Jupiter since it's not as big as it used to be and well past peak.

Sporting a view of the little red spot, this is probably my last view for the year.  Although.... it's proximity to Venus might allow me a few more tries if the weather clears back up.

Rest of this spotty season here - https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/6110337235125938065

Previous Jupiter seasons here - http://maphilli14.webs.com/jupiter

Next up is a pretty nice looking Saturn.  At a low altitude of 37° altitude, this will be hard to beat this year.  The rings have opened up to 24° since being edge on in 2009

The rest of 2015 is here - https://photos.google.com/u/0/album/AF1QipMDzUOnk6T0QJnWMeivPCpLE3TwLgN6oK7dqLed

You can view all years of my own photos of Saturn here - http://maphilli14.webs.com/saturn

Finally and oddly the first photo of the night is Venus.  This image is in false color, comprised of Infra-red as Red, UltraViolet as Blue and Green is a 50%/50% blend of those two.  I used the UV as a lum al-la this technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOeog89qnPY&feature=youtu.be)

All my previous Venus' - https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5856527934636955329?banner=pwa

Now to reward you for all your hard reading!  In the past I've shot Venus over a short time period but have not really gotten a chance to show the winds move the clouds.  Here's a short, two frame animation showing the cloud movement over just a few 10's of minutes.

Thanks and clear skies!

Adventures in collaborative planetary astrophotography part 2

No, there's no part one per se.  Last January Kevin Quin, a very accomplished astrophotographer had some issues with his color filter wheel.  He lost one filter's worth of data from the whole night.  In is asking around it just so happened that I had my own images from the same date and time.  We're separated by about 235 miles straight line distance but had quite similarly good weather.  His quest to fill the gap in his own data was met with a warm welcome from me.  I always share my data and methods with all and in this instance he rescued his own data with a small help from my own.

http://www.pbase.com/skybox/image/154198802

Now onto part two: In some odd twist, I suffered a loss of the whole filter wheel itself and not just a malfunction.  I lost the ability to change filters quickly enough for me to shoot a color image.  I didn't think to ask anyone else for other shots of my own missing colors but did think the weather was good enough to shoot at least one color's worth.  Red is always my goto and usually has the best seeing.  I unscrewed the red from the wheel and put it into my imaging train.  It wasn't until many days later that I found Kevin was again out at the same date and time as me!  What luck, he was happy to share his stacks of Jupiter with me and I was able to make this color image.  Using a single stack of Kevin's blue data that he got from a 5min derotated .ser file, I combined with my own Red.  For green I used his blue and my red at a 50/50 blend.  This technique is often called RsGB or a synthesized green (http://www.astrosurf.com/cidadao/red_blue.htm)

I found it amazing that despite our differences in locations, cameras, telescope types, styles and sizes we were able to bring out data together to make great images.

In discussing this type of coimaging work, we can't think of many folks who have done similar work.  Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO), BritAstro, Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) and Section Planets Italian Amateur Astronomers Union are all good candidates for such collaborative work.  All sites tend towards gathering images at separate dates and times and using them for study of changes over time or whole planet maps.

What Kevin and I are thinking would be a place to share raw or simple stacked images in an effort to learn and discover.  I'm curious to know what other's think about this.  If folks are interested we can setup a shared file repository and wiki to make it happen.

As a sample here is my raw red frame:

 and Kevin's blue

Special thanks to Kevin Quin for making my image really special!  Thanks Kevin!

2014 Solar System in Review

I can sit and complain about clouds being so bad this year all I want, but the fact of the matter is 2014 was a great year and I'm blessed to spend it with my friends and family!

Spanning from January 4th to December 30th (Never give up!), all photos are mine, including the Earth and all taken within the calendar year of 2014.

While last year was the year of the comet with 4, this was the year of the asteroid for me with over 12.  I say over 12 because as I learned to hunt these tiny and faint things amidst the stars I found some images of poor quality and sometimes iffy results.


Here's the high resolution version on imgur as google shrinks it.

Here's the high res version with labels on imgur

Sun - 20141021

Sunspot map from the same day: http://www.spaceweather.com/images2014/21oct14/hmi1898.gif?PHPSESSID=117sfv869vda0snais43gtol01

My other solar photos here

Solar

Earth via my amateur nature collection

Nature

Nature

Nature

Lunar Eclipse - 20141008

Lunar Eclipse 2014

Mars - 20140327

This image was featured on the Spaceweather!

Mars 2013-2014

Asteroids and minor planets

This year was the year of the asteroid as I got my MPC site designation by observing 3 asteroids in one field of view over 3 nights!

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2014/06/asteroid-trifecta-with-animation.html

My work in progress table

Asteroids

Jupiter - 20140104

This image was Published in Sky & Telescope April 2014

Jupiter 2013

Saturn - 20140508

Saturn 2014

Uranus - 20141112

I also made a moon animation! http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2014/09/uranus-and-5-moon-animation.html

Solar System - Uranus - All years

Neptune - 20140827

Neptune All Years

MISSING from 2014 are:

Mercury

1-Mercury

Venus

Astronomy / Solar System / Venus / All years

Pluto

Pluto - All years

Finally

If you enjoyed this post please check out my other work on my homepage:
http://maphilli14.webs.com/

Also check out previous years 'best of':
http://maphilli14.webs.com/solarsystemreviews.htm


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Planets x3 as the weather moves from Winter to Spring

As the North Carolina weather moves from dry, large temp swings winter to the warm, moist and hazy spring I found a spell of settled weather the days of May 7th and 8th.  Starting with the 8th in this post I observed Jupiter, the Moon, Mars and Saturn.  The first time I've had three major planets in a single night in many years!

My Scope +Akule
Type: Custom Home Built Newtonian
Aperture: 356mm (14")
Focal Ratio: f/4.5 - 5x TeleVue Powermate at f/26 / 9,315mm EFL
Primary Mirror: Carl Zambuto 14" f/4.5
Camera: Point Grey Research Flea3 - FL3-FW-03S1M (monochrome)
Color Filter Wheel: True Technology UK (Tru-Tek) - SupraSlim with Visual Wide Wheel (built in diagonal)
Filters: Baader Planetarium LRGB Telescope Filter Set


Jupiter - not too shabby for being low and late in the season.

All the rest of this past, and quite productive Jupiter season (
https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5920900341220145457?banner=pwa)

Mars

All the rest of this season (https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5962944171620737953?banner=pwa)

and the mighty Saturn sporting a 20 degree ring angle!

Here's last years collection (https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5842690900648084529)
Still working on this years! This is only the 3rd shot and 2nd with this camera.




The 7th's images are...

Mars' animation of nearly 1 hours worth of rotation

Final derotated image

And finally Saturn from the 1st night!

More of my Astronomy work on the main page: http://maphilli14.webs.com/

Also these images were assembled in an automated fashion with some custom scripts in sikuli and python.  The total time in the stacking program AutoStakkert2 and the sharpening program AstraImage is seen in my Resucetime stats for the week:

4h 34m of automated AstraImage stacking and 3h 34m of AS2 stacking = 8hrs and 8min of time back in my life instead of babysitting mundane programs that made me bored out of my mind!  ;)  Yay for automation!  Basically it frees me up to surf reddit on my cell phone!  haha!

WinJUPOS Image Measurement Tutorial

WinJUPOS Image measurement basics

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2014/02/winjupos-image-measurement-tutorial.html

Sit back and click WATCH IN HD (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/91449?hl=en)

If you have a fast Internet connection, you can change your settings to make sure videos always play in HD qualities when they’re available:

1. Go to your Settings page
2. Select Always play HD on fullscreen (when available)
3. Click the Save button

Project homepage: http://jupos.org/

Other based tutorials: http://www.grischa-hahn.homepage.t-online.de/astro/winjupos/tutorials.htm

Navigation shortcuts: http://alpo-j.asahikawa-med.ac.jp/Latest/WinJUPOS/winjuposcuide_english.html

Keyboard operation when the position of the circle is adjusted by hand
       Arrow keys ---direction buttons for moving the outline
       PgUp ---increases the size of the outline
       PgDn ---decreases the size of the outline
       N --- rotates the outline clockwise
       P --- rotates the outline counterclockwise
       Backspace --- rotates the outline by 180 degrees

GETTING STARTED in WinJUPOS: Review ephemeris here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJf-XvVVC0c

START WATCHING NOW!

 Part 1 - Review Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mky7JvMlDHw

 Part 2 - Understanding your image orientation http://youtu.be/mky7JvMlDHw?t=1m57s

Start this one at 1min 57sec

 Part 3 - Learn to navigate the image outline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkPiKgdpcAg

 Part 4 - Tricks for more accurate measurements http://youtu.be/psdw0TPmuwA

Also you can customize your WinJUPOS texture maps here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/+MichaelAPhillips/albums/5698361559079913249

usage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTgnbzA4sGs&feature=youtu.be

Music

Artist of the track: Chris Zabriskie

Title of the track: “I Am Running Down the Long Hallway of Viewmont Elementary”

Direct URL of the track: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chris_Zabriskie/I_Am_a_Man_Who_Will_Fight_for_Your_Honor/I_Am_Running_Down_the_Long_Hallway_of_Viewmont_Elementary

Link to the license terms: http://chriszabriskie.com/licensing/

Terms of the license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Notes about creation of this screencast.

WinJUPOS version 2013-12-15, 10.1.0 was used in Win7 32bit running on VirtualBox

Host OS is Ubuntu 12.04 64bit on a Lenovo W530

- Recording done with gtk-recordmydesktop

- Thumbnail talking head HD webcam and guvcview (ontop wm setting)

- Slides and overlays done with gimp

- Screen recording converted with Arista

- Video editing done in openshot

tags:

science astronomy solar system winjupos jupiter saturn mars astrophotography processing imaging tips tutorials screencast

Jupiter j2012-08-17_09-47(-02)_rgb

My 2nd of the season, but off to a great start!

Astronomy / Solar System / Jupiter / 2012

Finally Finished Jupiter 2011/2012 Season

A total observation count of 28.  Of which, some were only live streamed on Google+ or not processed because of just terrible seeing.

Rest of season here: https://picasaweb.google.com/108750361778865447048/Jupiter2011

Some highlights include winning the November 2011 Cloudy Nights Imaging Contest Finals: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4959350/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

The almost lost ones are here, starting with this nice gem of Io transiting the GRS!

3 GREAT nights on Jupiter Nov 7-9, 2011

We finally got a break and some nice seeing from November 7th to the 9th.  I got a shot of Uranus on the 2nd night which I'll post later.

As always click to get full size and here is the rest of this season!

Night one's 2 shots:

and the seeing deteriorated later

2nd and BEST night!

Moons with reference:

and monochrome channels:

I knew the progress of the High Pressure moving overhead meant peak on the 2nd night, but the forecast for the 3rd was good.  I knew it couldn't be as good as the 2nd night and I only stayed out for 1.5hrs on the 3rd night.  Managed one nice shot: