Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Mars' 2014 retrograde colors, a look back to my images this apparition.

As Mars only comes around every other year I pursued the red planet fairly aggressively this time around. I had a few nights that ended up solely on the cutting room floor and the rest are presented here. 19 nights worth of images.

Whole season is here

FULL HD SIZE HERE!

My images do not match the timing of the real retrograde motion of Mars as my observations are spotty based upon weather and time. Retrograde motion is explained here, http://mars.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/nightsky/retrograde/.

My images start in the lower right back in December of 2013, when Mars' apparent size was a mere 6.7 arc seconds. Mars begins my image's 'normal motion' through to April 1st, 2014 and then begins retrograde until my image on May 13th. Again these are not the dates of the real retrograde but an aesthetic representation for the sake of a pleasing looking image. I left a bit of room at top in case I get any more chances this year but the past few weeks have been quite stormy and had no chances to get anything of worth.

Highlights include a published image on SpaceWeather.com on March 29 (http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=28&month=03&year=2014)

and a few animations....

I didn't get Phobos or Diemos this year.

I do plan to make a full globe animation from the above images if that's what you're wondering!

Thanks for sharing this great ride with me watching the red planet and all the changes in weather and detail.

Mike

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Asteroid Trifecta with animation.

I've got the bug, the bug of observing minor planets. I think it started with the pass of Eros in 2012 (http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/02/asteroids-eros-and-tyche.html) When treating my images I found another little drifter, faintly moving through . I was hooked! I thought I had discovered something. Turned out the classic case of what's new to me was something already discovered in 1886 but whatever. In learning more since then I've struggled with getting the hang of things. After upgrading from a DSLR to a CCD I found myself reinvigorated. With some recent clear skies and a bit more patience and some growing discipline I have observed this group of three asteroids; (1530) Rantaseppa, (4478) Blanco, and (4687) Brunsandrej. All within the same FOV for my scope and camera of 37.5 x 28.3 arcmin. Then in an effort to get a +Minor Planet Center designation I found them again a few days later, all still 'apparently' together.

Using Astrometrica to measure position and magnitude you will see the number designation followed by the magnitude in parentheses.

NOTE there are MANY other asteroids in this fov as there are most, but my 2min subs in the 14" didn't quite make out the fainter, say mag18-20+ objects. Not yet!

Night one - 20140221

Full field

(1530) Rantaseppa

(4478) Blanco

(4687) Brunsandrej

Boring! it was fun to see, but on Night 2

Night TWO - 20140224

In this video you will see an animation of the three asteroids moving over the course of 23:27 to 23:45 EDT or just 17 minutes of movement!

Easiest to click the direct YouTube link and make fullscreen HD (http://youtu.be/rpSW-wN1NS4)

Monday, May 12, 2014

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!

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!

Friday, April 18, 2014

8" Mars quickie

My 1st since Early April. Here I live near too many trees that kick off pollen. Here's my scope in 2012

Anyway, I learned my lesson well, it's sticky, thick and doesn't clean up off the corrector easily so I decided to take my time with the 14" newt and clean and grease the mount gears, center the focuser and scrub the primary during this endless season. I couldn't resist last night and took out the C8 for only the 3rd time in almost a year. I didn't touch the collimation and only wanted to observe Mars visually. As breezy at it was and as poor as the forecast was I was impressed at how much I could see at 500x with a 4mm eyepice. I slipped in the 2.5x PowerMate and color DBK21AU618.AS camera and shot a pair of shots. It's not what I'm used to using the 14" so much but it was fun tossing about running on battery power!
Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

2006 DP14

EDIT: Thanks all! It was mag 15.4, 30s subs. Moving at 3.65"/min at time of captures.

During the +Virtual Star Party on February 16, 2014 I found Near Earth Asteroid, 2006 DP14.
This animation includes times: 2131EDT to 2154EDT using 30sec subs in Lum in my telescope, +Akule

Type: Custom Home Built Newtonian

Aperture: 356mm (14")

Focal Ratio: f/4.5 / 1,600mm FL

Primary Mirror: Carl Zambuto 14" f/4.5

Mount: Celestron CGE

Imaging Camera: SBIG STF-8300M (monochrome)

Color Filter Wheel: True Technology UK (Tru-Tek) - SupraSlim with Visual Wide Wheel (built in diagonal)

Filters: Baader Planetarium LRGB Telescope Filter Set

Guiding: Teleskop-Service TS9-OAG off axis guider

Guide Camera: The Imaging Source DBK 21AU618.AS

OS: Lenovo W530 (Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit)

Acquisition: Main Sequence Software - Sequence Generator Pro

Processing: DeepSkyStacker -> DigiKam -> Linux Convert to animated gif

Click for full screen and look in on the right side in the middle...

Friday, February 14, 2014

Asteroid 2006 DP14 PLANNING - A bad spell of weather

If you didn't know my weather at 35 degrees North Latitude is typically pretty moderate. This winter has served up the coldest temps since my move to the area 10 years ago. We've also suffered 2 large snow storms in as many weeks. In between has been wrought with clouds, rain and just very unfriendly astronomy weather.

Some history:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KRDU/2014/1/01/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar

Undeterred,I am trying to get Asteroid 2006 DP14, the next clear night which may coincide with the +Virtual Star Party February 16, 2014.

It's fading fast and slowing down in apparent motion. Still well within my 14" and SBIG CCD, I hope to get a chance to image SOMETHING again soon.

Via the MPC (Minor Planet Center)

Minor Planet Ephemeris Service: Query Results

Below are the results of your request from the Minor Planet Center's Minor Planet Ephemeris Service. Ephemerides are for the geocenter.

2006 DP14
Display all designations for this object / # of variant orbits available = 3
Perturbed ephemeris below is based on 4-opp elements from MPEC 2014-C58. Last observed on 2014 Feb. 13.
Further observations? PHA: Very desirable between 2014 Mar. 15-Apr. 14.

     K06D14P       [H=18.9]
Date       UT      R.A. (J2000) Decl.    Delta     r     El.    Ph.   V      Sky Motion       Uncertainty info
            h m s                                                            "/min    P.A.    3-sig/" P.A.
2014 02 10 000000 22 39 50.6 -51 53 31   0.020   0.971   39.7 139.6  17.2   87.36    131.7         1 314.7 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 11 000000 04 36 54.4 -55 34 19   0.016   0.986   86.5  92.6  13.2  134.59    054.6         0 070.7 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 12 000000 06 54 19.5 -26 21 08   0.025   1.001  122.9  55.9  12.9   58.67    031.0         0 357.0 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 13 000000 07 26 40.9 -12 53 19   0.038   1.015  136.7  41.8  13.5   24.85    028.3         0 312.6 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 14 000000 07 40 24.7 -06 31 19   0.053   1.030  142.4  35.8  14.0   13.01    027.8         0 058.2 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 15 000000 07 47 59.6 -02 56 00   0.068   1.044  145.2  32.7  14.5    7.89    027.8         0 043.6 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 16 000000 07 52 49.8 -00 39 00   0.083   1.058  146.5  31.0  15.0    5.28    028.0         0 038.9 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 17 000000 07 56 12.9 +00 55 36   0.099   1.072  147.1  30.0  15.3    3.79    028.5         0 036.7 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 18 000000 07 58 44.7 +02 04 51   0.114   1.086  147.3  29.4  15.7    2.86    029.0         0 035.4 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 19 000000 08 00 44.0 +02 57 46   0.130   1.100  147.2  29.1  16.0    2.24    029.8         0 034.6 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 20 000000 08 02 21.6 +03 39 34   0.146   1.114  146.9  29.0  16.2    1.81    030.8         0 034.0 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 21 000000 08 03 44.2 +04 13 28   0.162   1.127  146.5  28.9  16.5    1.51    031.9         0 033.6 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 22 000000 08 04 56.1 +04 41 33   0.177   1.141  146.0  29.0  16.7    1.28    033.3         0 033.3 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 23 000000 08 06 00.3 +05 05 13   0.193   1.154  145.5  29.1  16.9    1.11    034.9         0 033.1 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 24 000000 08 06 58.7 +05 25 27   0.209   1.167  144.9  29.2  17.1    0.98    036.6         0 032.9 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 25 000000 08 07 52.9 +05 42 59   0.226   1.180  144.2  29.3  17.3    0.87    038.6         0 032.8 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 26 000000 08 08 44.0 +05 58 19   0.242   1.193  143.6  29.5  17.5    0.79    040.8         0 032.7 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 27 000000 08 09 32.8 +06 11 50   0.258   1.206  142.9  29.7  17.7    0.73    043.0         0 032.6 / Map / Offsets
2014 02 28 000000 08 10 19.9 +06 23 52   0.274   1.219  142.2  29.9  17.8    0.67    045.5         0 032.5 / Map / Offsets
2014 03 01 000000 08 11 05.8 +06 34 37   0.291   1.231  141.4  30.1  18.0    0.63    047.9         0 032.5 / Map / Offsets
2014 03 02 000000 08 11 51.0 +06 44 18   0.307   1.244  140.7  30.3  18.1    0.60    050.5         0 032.5 / Map / Offsets

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

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:

Go to your Settings page
Select Always play HD on fullscreen (when available)
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