Astronomy - Planetary - Mercury (all years) Gallery

I don't get much more than 1 or 2 views of Mercury each year so I'm lumping them all in together in one album

Older focus and collimation test

Red filter on Castor in Gemini
Good illustration of focus and collimation on the airy disk of a star. Set gain to full, leave gamma off / default and set exposure to a spot near where the 1st diffraction rings appear 'bright'

My weekend photo shoot of the Bluebirds

2nd nesting season for them in NC, but 1st of this season for this particular location/box.
details on the photo page

Spring's in full swing

That's honeysuckle or (Lonicera sempervirens) and one of the baby Cardinal's perched on the bushes right outside the garage door!

Nesting Cardinals 2

Tape25--2009.04.22_15-05-12.wmv

Nesting Cardinals 1

Tape25--2009.04.22_14-25-34.wmv

Moon, M45, Mercury - then Saturn and Ceres

Tons of great data the night of April 26/27.

Here's a wide-field of the conjunction of Moon, M45 and Mercury.
Taken after the Mercury caps by moving the tripod a bit further
up the road, away from the trees.


High-resolution Mercury
My 2nd high res Mercury in 2 nights. I'm not sure if its artifacts or real detail, but the CM is 114 which is on this section of the map:

http://www.solarviews.com/raw/merc/mer07.jpg

You tell me! I've only gotten Mercury at this FL like 1 time before these past 2 days.


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Moved the scope off the street back to the driveway.
Collimation and Focus on Regulus - Great!
kstars for adjustments and a good distance from the scope.
Long 300s @ RGB (no lum) caps
Seeing seemed to go bad after moving to Ceres, but moving
back to Saturn seemed it restablized and was the
best of the night and perhaps the best all year!

Saturn at 0159UT view 1:


Saturn at 0159UT view 2 - 200% OVERSIZE!! I think it held up well and am thinking it's time for a 5x PM and or scope upgrade!


....and finally Ceres. Someone help me find a site that details the angular size, but I do believe that Stellarium lists it as ~0.7"

Capture Notes:
I tried to get as much data as I could with 300s @ LRGB
NOTE: back to Saturn for last cap of the night

Processing Notes:
I didn't end up using the Lum, but took it anyway.
I had to manually align all the Blue data!  UGH!

Wrap up:
Great data all-in-all.  I still cannot find a good site for
the angular size of Ceres, but Stellarium says it's 0.7"
I am pretty confident that my exposures and processing
are giving a good view of the disk itself.



Now you pick your favorite.