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!

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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Mike Phillips

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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

Astronomy / Solar System / Saturn / 2012

2nd season with Akule

One of my Best Saturn photos

Only my second of the season if you can believe.  I am still waiting on good or even above average seeing.  It was extra special to share this view in color on our Virtual Star Party seen here via Universe Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sskgPHsoOGs

Click image for full resolution:

Rest of the season here:

http://maphilli14.multiply.com/photos/album/204

ENJOY!

Mike

Saturn...a little something

I've been out a bit trying to improve my collimation skills and hoping to ride the seeing forecast.  I've got collimation somewhat under control, but still holding out for seeing.  Perhaps I can get a little help from my cooling project.  Detail on that later, 1st the best of the past 3 times out.

Click to enlarge.

Enjoy the rest of the season here:

http://maphilli14.multiply.com/photos/album/179

Mike

1st presentable Saturn photo in many moons...still tweakin my setup

Saturn 2011 05 09 in avg seeing

Chomping at the bit for good seeing I braved a couple nights of average seeing with no clouds or rain to grab this decent shot.

I installed some fans on the cell and practices my collimation techniques in weeks prior and still have some work to do, as the tiny star test in the lower left corner can attest to.

Here's a video from the next night, to be posted later in better collimation but worse seeing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQb5AdQoW38

Click to enlarge

I did forget about the meridian flip, i'm N/S reversed!  SORRY

Akule's 1st *real* shot at Saturn

After some long streaks of poor Astronomy weather but good people weather (aka warm and breezy) we finally got a break here in NC.  I put a simple indoor/outdoor thermometer on the mirror to measure the air and mirror temp.  I need some active cooling.  I couldn't keep the scope less than 2.5°F above ambient.  Still, the forecast of 4/5 seeing worked well and I am VERY happy with the results.

As always, click to zoom and here's the rest of the Saturn 2011 season.

http://maphilli14.multiply.com/photos/album/179/Astronomy_Solar_System_Saturn_2011

Also, here is the telescope's vital stats, details, construction and photos

http://maphilli14.webs.com/akulesvitalstats.htm

Astronomy / Solar System / Saturn / 2011

1st Saturn season for me with the Flea3 and with Akule (http://maphilli14.webs.com/akule.htm)

Astronomy - Planetary - Saturn (2009 - 2010)

Saturn from spring of 2009 in good seeing

this is a monochrome capture from my DMK21AF04 Camera in the Red channel under good seeing on an unknown day in spring of 2009

Saturn 2009.06.08 - Near perfect seeing

Object: Saturn

Planet

Origin:

ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0

Observer Michael A. Phillips Mr. Site Home Begin 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00 End 2009-06-08 um 20:40:00-05:00 Seeing 1 (very good) Optics C8i Eyepiece PowerMate (V=812.8) Filter Astronomik LRGB Color Camera DMK21AF04 Sitzung 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00

Visual impression Capture notes: Excellent seeing was forecast for a brief 3 hour period after sunset and before a drop back to average seeing. Fought equipment issues but got tons of great data, including a mutual moon event.  I wasn't sure what settings to use so I ran my regular routine hoping for something. Processing notes: Initially I thought I had caught the dimming of Tethys, but I think that because I start captures at dusk the brightness of the sky washed out the fainter moons like Tethys. I'm still not 100% happy with my routine and feel that with great seeing there's always more tweaking to be done!  Take good notes everyone! Observing notes: I didn't spend anytime visually observing as the equipment issues with the laptop and being excited for great seeing kept me distracted until the seeing went back to the usual average.

---

References

Sessions: 2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00

Begin:	2009-06-08 um 20:30:00-05:00
End:	2009-06-08 um 22:30:00-05:00

Weather:	Seeing: Perhaps 8-9/10 judged on Saturn only, the collapsed to 5+/10 Transparency:4/5 with a small T-storm cell ~15 mi away and HUGE one 45mi away which was VERY visible despitenot having any haze or clouds nearby.  STRANGE Forecast: Small window at dusk of 5/5 Seeing!
Equipment:	Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and custom coriander on Lenovo T61 (Cepheus)8" Celestron C8i SCTLymax Cat CoolerDMK 21AF042.5x PowerMateAstronomik LRGB filtersTrue Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:	Great weather locally, but horrible in surrounding areas (see Transparency report!).I made great work of some of the local seeing on Saturn and was excited for a mutual moon event of Tethys and Mimas.I am not sure I captured it or not.Then the inevitable happened I ran out of disk space on the laptop!  Wait that was after the crash, yes linux crashes too!Sill no remote control of the laptop via the computer or long HC cable.I grabbed an external USB drive (formatted fat32) but recording at 15fps was not an issue.Moral of the story is even a short window of great seeing is worth the threat of storms and always be preparedwith a clean hard drive or spare usb drive nearby!

>> Observations <<

---

Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.

>> Observations <<

---

Site: Home

Longitude:	35.682°
Latitude:	-78.743°
Timezone:	UT-300 min

>> Observations <<

---

Optics: C8i

Type:	SCT
Vendor:	Celestron
Aperture:	203.0 mm
Focal length:	2032.0 mm

>> Observations <<

---

Eyepiece: PowerMate

Vendor:	TeleVue
Focal length:	2.5 mm

>> Observations <<

---

Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:

Color

>> Observations <<

---

CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:	The Image Source
Pixel:	640x480

>> Observations <<

---

Fun with dancing Saturnian moons

Ful RES:

And animation!


And facebox labels!


Capture notes:
Seeing makes the rings quiver and nowhere as good as a few nights ago. I still have not touched the focus or collimation, but did capture Regulus in Red. My regular routine 1/15s per channel (still all channels full gain). Initially the fps were set wrong as I work the kinks out of this setup. That was not as bad as it sounds, I lost some frame per channel, but it was only 180s per channel. Fixed for the 2nd run at 300s per channel which is what I really like on Saturn especially with variable seeing. Seeing degraded towards the 3rd cap, despite more cooling between 2 and 3

Observer Michael A. Phillips Mr. Site Home Begin 2009-05-30 um 21:00:00-05:00 End 2009-05-30 um 22:21:00-05:00 Seeing 3 (fair) Optics C8i Eyepiece PowerMate (V=812.8) Filter Astronomik LRGB Color Camera DMK21AF04 Sitzung 2009-05-30 um 21:00:00-05:00

---

References

Sessions: 2009-05-30 um 20:30:00-05:00

Begin:	2009-05-30 um 20:30:00-05:00
End:	2009-05-30 um 22:30:00-05:00

Weather:	Seeing: 7/10 Transparency: 3/5 Forecast: Initially, 4/5 for both, but recently clouds crept in, which didn't appear at all in dusk. I hope the seeing holds!
Equipment:	Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and custom coriander on Lenovo T61 (Cepheus) 8" Celestron C8i SCT Lymax Cat Cooler DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:	Bad drift even after a rough leveling of the tripod and auto-two star eq align. I didn't check the errors per axis, but I can't survive the drift without a reposotion of Saturn after 1 - 2 minutes, which is only annoying as I've yet to get scope control in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty jackalope in Kstars/Indi. Took a break from Saturn imaging ~2140 for re-cooling of scope... not sure it helped, but back imaging at 2202

>> Observations <<

---

Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.

>> Observations <<

---

Site: Home

Longitude:	35.682°
Latitude:	-78.743°
Timezone:	UT-300 min

>> Observations <<

---

Optics: C8i

Type:	SCT
Vendor:	Celestron
Aperture:	203.0 mm
Focal length:	2032.0 mm

>> Observations <<

---

Eyepiece: PowerMate

Vendor:	TeleVue
Focal length:	2.5 mm

>> Observations <<

---

Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:

Color

>> Observations <<

---

CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:	The Image Source
Pixel:	640x480

Created: 06/03/2009 20:14:11

Good Saturn while dodging the clouds May 28

Capture notes:
The forecast called for ~50% cloudiness at the beginning of the evening and I wasn't really prepared to go out as my computers weren't setup for my captures software. I was able to get things running pretty quickly and with some luck caught some data before the clouds came in for good. Seeing was as good as predicted. Amazingly enough, I have not had this scope outside in over 1 month! I didn't even touch the focus or collimation for these captures! Clouds killed a straight up 3x min per channel run, so I mixed a few captures together. I hate shooting through the clouds, but the atmosphere was actually very steady so that made up for it.

Processing notes:
Being on the new Ubuntu 9.04 install I had to reinstall all my programs. Registax 5 is now out in full and I tried that out. Initially I thought my saved HowTo-v7 wavelets scheme's were too harsh, but I think they still worked well. I tried a different, lighter scheme but wasn't impressed so I went back to the old scheme.

Observing notes:
Despite varying cloudiness the RGB image came out well. Everything is well balanced. Does anyone know what the dark line is that is below the rings in the EZ area?