My humble NEOWISE

Sent: Friday, July 10, 2020 5:48 PM to my team at work, "kicking myself for not getting up."

I made up for.  Sunday AM I got up on my own with no alarm at ~4:25AM EDT.  Drove over to a big field between Cary and Holly Springs I believe it's part of the Southeast area of Swift Creek, NC, to get this…. 

 

 

FULL resolution here

I had my alarm set for 4:45AM when the comet was supposed to clear the horizon.  I didn't account for ~10 min to drive to this spot, but I awoke on my own anyway.  I made the short trip only to find that I didn't have the tripod adapter I assumed I had packed the night prior.  I didn't feel the time to return back home and to the site again was time well spent, soinstead decided to lean the camera and adapter shoe straight on the quiet, rural road instead of the tripod itself.  Only later, after I got home did I realize that I had the 'missing' adapter on the binoculars as well.  Regardless I was able to hold the camera and 70->200mm zoom lens still enough for the planned 5s subs for several tens of minutes!  Refocusing by hand, without a trip was quite challenging, but in the end I'm glad I was able to pull it all out.

I did have to move from the road when a car passed by.  A few minutes later I had a 2nd car visit and this one stopped.  This is why I hate being alone on rural roads at that hour.  Turned out a fellow local observer had the same idea as I did.  We chatted for sometime but never exchanged info.  Hopefully someone can show him this photo taken from Pierce Olive Rd near the old cow pasture!

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

Michael A. Phillips' First Jovian Year (2007-2019)

Michael A. Phillips' First Jovian Year (2007-2019)

 Building off my last blog where I complained about all the planets being low in 2019.  I offer this illustration of a full Jovian year.  During this time period you can see Jupiter starting at a low altitude in2007 and rising to a high altitude around 2014 only to dip back down in 2019.   What's really telling to me is that even after swapping telescopes in 2011 the quality still drops from 2012 to 2019 because of the altitude.

Full RES Imgur : https://i.imgur.com/sc4xNrm.png

All my photos from amateur and some home-built equipment, taken fro my house in North Carolina, USA.

Thanks! It was quite fun to realize the journey I was on!

Links and descriptions for each year's best:

August 3, 2007
C8i - DMK21af04  - 32°

September 4, 2008
C8i - DMK21af04  - 39°

June 30, 2009
C8i - DMK21af04 - 41°
Bird Strike

October 23, 2010
C8i - PGR Flea 3 - 50°
SEB Disappeared

November 8, 2011
Akule 14" - PGR FLea 3  - 64°

October 14, 2012
Akule 14" - PGR FLea 3  - 72°

January 4, 2014
Akule 14" - PGR FLea 3  - 75° Published in S&T

March 24, 2015
Akule 14" - ASI174MM - 70°

February 28, 2016
Akule 14" - ASI174MM - 60°

March 4, 2017
Akule 14" - ASI174MM - 48°

July 11, 2018
Akule 14" - ASI174MM - 39°

July 2, 2019
Akule 14" - ASI290MM - 32°
 

2019 Solar System Bests

2019 was one of the more challenging years as all the major planets are quite low altitude for norther hemisphere observers.  The reason that altitude plays a roll is because of the amount of air you must look or image through is greatly increased as you move closer to the horizon.

Regardless I was able to get most of the major planets!



Full resolution
https://i.imgur.com/274fRuV.png

Full resolution with labels
https://i.imgur.com/9gWe609.png


Come see all my previous editions from the past 11 years here - https://maphilli14.webs.com/annual-solar-system-bests

A pair of highlights are in the top left and center which include; Transit of Mercury across the Sun and a Super Blood Wolf Lunar Eclipse!

Mercury transit was shot from Disney, hand held DSLR and hand held solar filter on the 200mm lens!

 

Additionally, I was gifted Reddit Gold for my Venus post! - https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/ees6mj/venus_in_false_color/



I was able to get both the icy gas giants but not great quality.  I was able to target a comet, 38P/Stephan Oterma on 2019.01.26, simply by happenstance and it made a stellar occultation as well!   

For those extra curious sorts, here's additional details on why altitude matters so much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_mass_(astronomy)











In essence,overhead you have a single airmass and as you move towards the horizon it gets increasingly thick amounts of air.

There's a good chart on this page here that also gets into the math (http://www.ftexploring.com/solar-energy/air-mass-and-insolation2.htm).  Essentially at around 30° alt you are looking through 2 air masses and down on the horizon the approximation is made that it's up to a total of 38 air masses.  This coincidentally is why the sun and moon rise/sets are so big and rich due to scattering and increased amounts of atmosphere!

Thanks for reading and look forward to my other post about a full Jovian season which will also highlight these effects!

- Mike