Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Random Lunar Craters on 2008.07.17


Object: Moon

Moon
Origin:ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0
ObserverMichael A. Phillips Mr.
SiteHome
Begin2008-07-17 um 23:00:00-05:00
End2008-07-17 um 23:30:00-05:00
OpticsC8i
EyepiecePowerMate (V=812.8)
FilterAstronomik LRGB Color
CameraDMK21AF04
Sitzung2008-07-17 um 23:00:00-05:00
Visual impression

  • CN Folks helped me in the post imaging idenification: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10&Number=2542753 #1 is Pythagorus (Rükl plate 2) #2 is probably Copernicus (Rükl plate 31)

References

Sessions: 2008-07-17 um 21:20:00-05:00

Begin:2008-07-17 um 21:20:00-05:00
End:2008-07-17 um 23:40:00-05:00
Weather:Forecast avg Actual: S:6-7/10 T:4/5
Equipment:C8i, 2.5x Powermate, Manual focusing, DMK21AF04, TruTek CFW with visual wide, and custom Coriander under Ubuntu 8.04
Comments:Started at 2120 with ISS observation through trees visually in front sidewalk. Cat cooler filter change and then 15min of cooling starting at 2140 Cat cooler for another 20 min before start of observing Setup near bird bath near front porch as there is a small opening in the trees in the SE of the sky Targets included Jupiter, Luna and Altair
>> 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
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Bad Uranus on 2008.11.01

Observation logs
















Larger view

Object: Uranus

Planet
Origin:ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0
ObserverMichael A. Phillips Mr.
SiteHome
Begin2008-11-01 um 22:20:00-05:00
End2008-11-01 um 22:50:00-05:00
Seeing3 (fair)
OpticsC8i
Eyepiece15mm Celestron Plössl (V=135.47)
FilterAstronomik LRGB Color
CameraDMK21AF04
Sitzung2008-11-01 um 22:20:00-05:00
Visual impression

  • Visually: extremely visible and decernable disk @ 15mm eyepiece and higher power Photographically: all @ f/10 - prime focus 1st Red cap had wrong settings! use 2nd Lum too for moons - 1/2 full g and g darks for lums

References

Sessions: 2008-11-01 um 20:29:00-05:00

Begin:2008-11-01 um 20:29:00-05:00
End:2008-11-01 um 22:51:00-05:00
Weather:Forecast was S and T, both 4/5 Actual 5/10 and 5/5
Equipment:I used: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander 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 timing on Jupiter. Waited till after an early bedtime for the kids only to find Jupiter fairly low. I was happy about the weather and decided to take one last parting shot on ol' Jove before the season's end. I found it hanging above the trees and thought I had time. That was until the dec slips again. It seems that the weight of the CFW and camera kill the dec motors at around 20-30* of alt and below. I managed to get things working by pulling the offening equipment out until I got a partial align. They then cooporated after that. Focusing was hard as I've got a longer 1394 cable now. Got that as good as I could on Jupiter itself and then started an RGB coriander sequence. About 20 sec into the Red (1st channel mind you!) It slipped behind the trees. Oh well, next time! On to a recooling session with the cat cooler and the outer ice giants!
>> 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: 15mm Celestron Plössl

Vendor:Celestron
Focal length:15.0 mm
Apparent field of view:14400.0′
>> Observations <<

Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:Color
>> Observations <<

CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:The Image Source
Pixel:640x480
Posted by at No comments:

Uranus and 4 moons on 2008.10.15

Observation logs

















With Labels

Large View

Object: Uranus

Planet
Origin:ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0
ObserverMichael A. Phillips Mr.
SiteHome
Begin2008-10-15 um 22:30:00-05:00
End2008-10-15 um 23:15:00-05:00
Seeing3 (fair)
OpticsC8i
EyepiecePowerMate (V=812.8)
FilterAstronomik LRGB Color
CameraDMK21AF04
Sitzung2008-10-15 um 22:30:00-05:00
Visual impression

  • Much easier to find as it's apparent size is larger. Visually it's more grayish-green than Neptune. After processing I found that Neptune and Uranus are very similar in color, photographically at least. RGB exposures are 1s and same Gain settings as Neptune 3min capture time per channel and resulted in about 174 frames per channel, best 100 used (estimate) Moons are at f/25 still, and were 4sec at full gain and 50% gamma

References

Sessions: 2008-10-15 um 18:45:00-05:00

Begin:2008-10-15 um 18:45:00-05:00
End:2008-10-15 um 23:30:00-05:00
Weather:Forecast called for S 4/5 and T 3/5 Actual S: 4-6 T: 2-3/5
Equipment:I used: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander 8" Celestron C8i SCT DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag Since the 3 day stretch of good seeing in early Sept, I have used the T61 Also used WinXP and IC Capture with the TrueTek Hand Controller for > 1sec exposures
Comments:To get Uranus and Neptune I had to move exposures beyond 1 second. Currently the custom coriander 1.0.0 does not support exposures beyond 1 second. Even at 1sec and 3.25fps I was unable to get usable data. As quickly as I could I switched to WinXP and IC Capture for camera control. A reboot and install of drivers burned some time, but a valuable lesson in prepareness. I did try to leverage previous whitebalance exercises on Jupiter for Uranus and Neptune. I found tracking and alignment horrible, but since finding 6-7mag planets isn't easy, I decided not to re-align. More and deeper exposures would have helped the moon shots.
>> 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
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Astronomy - Solar System - Uranus




Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

Friday, November 7, 2008

Luna - Albategnius crater 2008.10.08

Observation logs
















With labels

Large view


Object: Moon

Moon
Origin:ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0
ObserverMichael A. Phillips Mr.
SiteHome
Begin2008-10-07 um 19:50:00-05:00
End2008-10-07 um 20:00:00-05:00
OpticsC8i
EyepiecePowerMate (V=812.8)
FilterAstronomik LRGB Color
CameraDMK21AF04
Sitzung2008-10-07 um 19:50:00-05:00
Visual impression

  • Albategnius crater and nearby area were of visual interest without prior planning. This always makes it hard to find out what you photographed after the fact. I wanted to get a nice mosaic together, but it didn't work out that well. I picked the main crater for now.

References

Sessions: 2008-10-07 um 19:50:00-05:00

Begin:2008-10-07 um 19:50:00-05:00
End:2008-10-07 um 20:40:00-05:00
Weather:Haze and thin clouds S: 8/10 T: 1/5
Equipment:I used: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander 8" Celestron C8i SCT DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:Not a night I'd normally be going out as a slow moving cold front was moving in and brought a great amount of humidity and haze. Seeing forecast was good so I eyeballed the skies near Jupiter and decided to take a stab at it, especially with an attempt at an Io transit too. (Missed that)
>> 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
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Astronomy - Solar System - Lunar Gallery




A collection of all my Lunar Photos
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Jupiter 2008-10-01
















Full Size

Labels

Object: Jupiter

Planet
Origin:ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0
ObserverMichael A. Phillips Mr.
SiteHome
Begin2008-09-30 um 20:30:00-05:00
End2008-09-30 um 21:40:00-05:00
Seeing3 (fair)
OpticsC8i
EyepiecePowerMate (V=812.8)
FilterAstronomik LRGB Color
CameraDMK21AF04
Sitzung2008-09-30 um 20:30:00-05:00
Visual impression

  • Transit of Io. Poor seeing, but a good 45min+ time lapse imaging session shows the spot where Io is/should be.

References

Sessions: 2008-09-30 um 20:22:00-05:00

Begin:2008-09-30 um 20:22:00-05:00
End:2008-09-30 um 22:00:00-05:00
Weather:Forecast called for clouds. Surprisingly it cleared near dusk and stayed clear until a line of STRONG T-storms came in at 3am the same night. Seeing was avg or below 4-5/10 T: 3/5
Equipment: I used: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander 8" Celestron C8i SCT DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
>> 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
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Blog Archive