Hi Res Ceres (Minor Planet / Asteroid)

Link

I was inspired by Fabio Plocostomos and Chris Go's work on Ceres at high res and decided to go for it myself near opposition or good seeing.  So that single 2 day break in rain and clouds a week ago yielded some good Venus and Saturn images and also this great view of Ceres.

I had a hard time finding some good ephemeris data for angular size so calculated it myself as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter

δ = d / D, where δ is the angular size, d  is visual diameter and D is the distance to the object.

So using the WRONG units I get:

1.64AU distance to Ceres and 950km diameter of Ceres gives 0.798".

I hope to not have overexposed the object which would have caused bloat or bloom in the data.  I stretched in post processing and resized to 200%

Enjoy!

Mike

Astronomy - Solar System - Extended Objects

1st Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3)

I was amazed at how far this comet moved. I started my search near Saturn as it was just there a week ago. I couldn't find it. I looked on skyandtelescope.com and found it halfway over to M44. It appeared easily in the 60mm finder-scope and didn't look like much in the 6" LXD. I guided via the 4" retractor on the comet for 21 x 3min subs. Turned out half were behind the tree branches and should be thrown away. I also forgot to rig a dew-shield and may also have some bad stray light. I found the DMK didn't show up on the T42, but did on the T61 under winxp. Stars were bright and round after focusing on the moon, but did find that there was not enough focus depth so I used the 90* televue diagonal. Guiding on the comet via PHD Guiding was easy and the CGE was very up to the task for over 1 hour! Unfortunately I did no align the guider and found the comet was in the corner of the frame and the tail was out of the frame. Since it was cold and dark I didn't try to align

Some things to change next time:

1) guiding and imaging on the same computer
2) alignment of the imaging and guide scopes (finder too, why not?!)
3) dew / light shield on the imaging scope

Titan Transit Teaser 20090224

Observation logs

I think there's a name for titles like that, but at 25*F and early in the AM my brain's not so straight.

Bad seeing too.. looked like the whole continental US had bad jetstream. I hope someone west of here got better as it was fairly low on the horizon here.

I forgot about the time delay in stellarium but that was OK as I overslept a bit anyway. Most of the frames are washed out by the trees but you can make out the shadow in the final 3 or so frames. I also caught Dione in a few frames riding the upper left ring, long before it's transit. So no quad transit, but I was able to get something and that still counts! Lucky me, the sky was clear.

Animation from 1018 to 1114UT:

Object: Saturn and Titan

Planet

Origin:

ObservationManager - SolarSystem Catalog 1.0

Observer Michael A. Phillips Mr. Site Home Begin 2009-02-24 um 04:00:00-05:00 End 2009-02-24 um 04:10:00-05:00 Optics C8i on CGE Eyepiece PowerMate (V=812.8) Filter Astronomik LRGB Color Camera DMK21AF04 Sitzung 2009-02-24 um 04:00:00-05:00

Visual impression Titan transit!

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References

Sessions: 2009-02-24 um 04:00:00-05:00

Begin:	2009-02-24 um 04:00:00-05:00
End:	2009-02-24 um 06:20:00-05:00

Weather:	Poor seeing Great transparency FREEZING 25*F
Equipment:	I used: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander CGE mounted 8" Celestron C8i SCT Lymax Cat Cooler DMK 21AF04 2.5x PowerMate Astronomik LRGB filters True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag
Comments:	Didn't leave the scope out overnight and it may have impacted some but little of the conditions. I miss timed the Titan Transit becuase of the time delay / light propogation issues with Stellarium. I fixed that now1

>> Observations <<

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Observer: Michael A. Phillips Mr.

>> Observations <<

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Site: Home

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

>> Observations <<

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Optics: C8i on CGE

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

>> Observations <<

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Eyepiece: PowerMate

Vendor:	TeleVue
Focal length:	2.5 mm

>> Observations <<

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Filter: Astronomik LRGB

Typ:

Color

>> Observations <<

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CCD Camera: DMK21AF04

Vendor:	The Image Source
Pixel:	640x480

Astronomy - Solar System - Conjunctions

Failed Rosette 2009-02-16

CGE with Meade LXD55.
3minute subs x 34
no dew / light shield till past half way of the observing session.
no light pollution filter
no guiding

1st image is a raw stack with no stretch
2nd image is flatted (but why the poor 'gradient'?)
3rd image is NOT flatted, but had some gradient removed in Iris

Added some new brid photos..

Pileated woodpecker, goldfinches and Carolina Wren: