This is Jupiter I captured on Monday evening through some holes in the clouds. I was just too excited to try out the new scope and not take advantage of any clear skies available. The skies opened up before Jupiter got to a point close the the meridian where my seeing always goes bad (must be some ground feature causing air churn). No matter the seeing for the night, when I hit that point and farther west, seeing is terrible for planets. In any case, shot this with the TEC180, 2X powermate with 2X barlow and ADC, so 4.nX magnification and a ASI224MC color camera. This image was huge so guessing I was closer to 5+X but I'm not entirely sure how much added distance the ADC causes. 2 minutes of exposure for this one.
This is Jupiter I captured on Monday evening through some holes in the clouds. I was just too excited to try out the new scope and not take advantage of any clear skies available. The skies opened up before Jupiter got to a point close the the meridian where my seeing always goes bad (must be some ground feature causing air churn). No matter the seeing for the night, when I hit that point and farther west, seeing is terrible for planets. In any case, shot this with the TEC180, 2X powermate with 2X barlow and ADC, so 4.nX magnification and a ASI224MC color camera. This image was huge so guessing I was closer to 5+X but I'm not entirely sure how much added distance the ADC causes. 2 minutes of exposure for this one.
Beautiful, Terri! Imagine if you had more time and the same seeing we had the other night!
I was looking at Jupiter through the clouds on the same night (before they closed in) through my AT60ED with a 4X PM to test out a tripod. It was almost as big as yours, ah hem -- looked like the period at the end of a sentence! 🤣
Great shot...
Greg
Nice shot, Terri! What's that weird hole in the band??
This is Jupiter I captured on Monday evening through some holes in the clouds. I was just too excited to try out the new scope and not take advantage of any clear skies available. The skies opened up before Jupiter got to a point close the the meridian where my seeing always goes bad (must be some ground feature causing air churn). No matter the seeing for the night, when I hit that point and farther west, seeing is terrible for planets. In any case, shot this with the TEC180, 2X powermate with 2X barlow and ADC, so 4.nX magnification and a ASI224MC color camera. This image was huge so guessing I was closer to 5+X but I'm not entirely sure how much added distance the ADC causes. 2 minutes of exposure for this one.
Beautiful, Terri! Imagine if you had more time and the same seeing we had the other night!
I was looking at Jupiter through the clouds on the same night (before they closed in) through my AT60ED with a 4X PM to test out a tripod. It was almost as big as yours, ah hem -- looked like the period at the end of a sentence! 🤣
Great shot...
Greg
Thanks Greg, it was a fun night... praise the haze... next time I see haze, no matter what I'm doing, the scopes are coming out.
Terri
Nice shot, Terri! What's that weird hole in the band??
Hi Mark, thank you and great to see you on the forum!! Are you talking about the thing that looks like a stretches out fish hook or hanger? I'm not entirely sure, but I think the last time around it looked more like a gap and now the dark clouds are creating that interesting shape. I don't know if you can see it well in the jpg, but on the front side of that feature you'll see a bunch of small storms, a whole string of them. I've been enjoying this time with the planetary oppositions.
Terri
Hi Terri, Yes, that hook-shaped thing. It looks a bit like a small version of the GRS and the white hollow around it -- except there's no red spot in the middle. In any case, thanks for sharing the image!
Hi Terri, Yes, nice shot. Always fun to test out new "toys". Just wait until you get a new house (assuming that's still the plan) and can put in something in the way of an observatory! I fairly routinely going out in questionable skies just because it's so easy to (16 feet across the "causeway" to the deck, unlatch the door or doors to the shed and roll the sheds back). Some of those times have had good seeing even with or through clouds, sometimes not.
Not that it is critical by any means by I do like having an idea of magnification and magnification factor. On the additional magnification using the Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) with the Barlows. I don't seem to have saved the measurements I did but, with using eyepieces with the ADC and a 2x Barlow, I use an additional magnification factor of 1.37x. Since the imager's focal plane is a little farther out from an eyepiece's focal plane the magnification factor would of course be a little higher. Since I didn't save the method or data, I don't know the accuracy of the 1.37 number, I'm guessing 5%, 10% at most. I too have always assumed that with stacking Barlows, you simply multiply the magnification factors, makes sense to me and I have not heard anything to the contrary. This calculates out to 5.5x magnification. FYI- As check on the mag. factor I have both 2x and 3x Meade Barlows (only difference is the length of the tubes). Comparing the location of an eyepiece's focal plane with the 2x Barlow/ADC (2.7x using the 1.37 additional mag. factor) to the 3x Barlow, the 1.37x factor seems about right. Estimating the location of the imaging chip relative to an eyepiece focal plane I would say 1.4x (maybe 1.42) mag factor would be about right using the imager with one or more Barlows in junction with the ADC (5.6x total for your configuration)
Down here (Middlebury) it was a very good night. A brief period with some cloud interference. The seeing got better as the night went on. I planned to go to bed at a reasonable time (before midnight) but it was just too good and stayed up until 3:30 AM. I did go in for a while before midnight while waiting for Mars to get high enough.
Almost forgot, on the seeing issue as objects get up towards the zenith. At first, I was thinking it may your house and maybe sometimes, but looking at Google Maps (no, not spying on you : ) ) and assuming you set up in your driveway, it may be residual heat from your driveway. Have you noted whether the wind direction makes a difference?
I have been taking lots of images of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and Mars but haven't had much time to process them.
Hi Mark, I'm not sure but the feature may be what's called a festoon, not that that actually tells you much. Gary Nowak is the planetary observing expert in the club. You could send him a link to the post and see what he can tell you.
Hi Terri, Yes, that hook-shaped thing. It looks a bit like a small version of the GRS and the white hollow around it -- except there's no red spot in the middle. In any case, thanks for sharing the image!
Hi Mark, sure thing. In looking at it maybe it's starting up a new storm, who knows?? It would be good to see the very beginnings of one.
Terri
Hi Terri, Yes, nice shot. Always fun to test out new "toys". Just wait until you get a new house (assuming that's still the plan) and can put in something in the way of an observatory! I fairly routinely going out in questionable skies just because it's so easy to (16 feet across the "causeway" to the deck, unlatch the door or doors to the shed and roll the sheds back). Some of those times have had good seeing even with or through clouds, sometimes not.
Not that it is critical by any means by I do like having an idea of magnification and magnification factor. On the additional magnification using the Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) with the Barlows. I don't seem to have saved the measurements I did but, with using eyepieces with the ADC and a 2x Barlow, I use an additional magnification factor of 1.37x. Since the imager's focal plane is a little farther out from an eyepiece's focal plane the magnification factor would of course be a little higher. Since I didn't save the method or data, I don't know the accuracy of the 1.37 number, I'm guessing 5%, 10% at most. I too have always assumed that with stacking Barlows, you simply multiply the magnification factors, makes sense to me and I have not heard anything to the contrary. This calculates out to 5.5x magnification. FYI- As check on the mag. factor I have both 2x and 3x Meade Barlows (only difference is the length of the tubes). Comparing the location of an eyepiece's focal plane with the 2x Barlow/ADC (2.7x using the 1.37 additional mag. factor) to the 3x Barlow, the 1.37x factor seems about right. Estimating the location of the imaging chip relative to an eyepiece focal plane I would say 1.4x (maybe 1.42) mag factor would be about right using the imager with one or more Barlows in junction with the ADC (5.6x total for your configuration)
Down here (Middlebury) it was a very good night. A brief period with some cloud interference. The seeing got better as the night went on. I planned to go to bed at a reasonable time (before midnight) but it was just too good and stayed up until 3:30 AM. I did go in for a while before midnight while waiting for Mars to get high enough.
Almost forgot, on the seeing issue as objects get up towards the zenith. At first, I was thinking it may your house and maybe sometimes, but looking at Google Maps (no, not spying on you : ) ) and assuming you set up in your driveway, it may be residual heat from your driveway. Have you noted whether the wind direction makes a difference?
I have been taking lots of images of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and Mars but haven't had much time to process them.
Thanks Paul! We've stopped looking for now, and might even put up a small observatory here. Skies are dark enough and now I have more open view to the south. Thanks on the ADC. When I saw jupiter on the screen I had a feeling I was getting more focal length than my 11" at 2X (5600mm). I'm only going to get so much resolution with a 7" scope so probably getting what I should expect. My 11" should do better if I can ever get good seeing. I did an software collimation last time I used it which measures the energy dispersion measurement around a fully focused star and you collimate until you get a peak energy in the airy disk and minimal dispersion. But seeing never seems up to fully utilizing the 11" aperture. The view through the 7" refractor is something like heavenly!! I remember looking through an 18" at the winter star party and thinking it had one of the best views I had ever seen. This is like that, maybe better.
I'm set up out back on the southern edge of my patio so I am looking over the lawn. Looking over the house isn't usually that good. I've looked at a map and tried to figure out why my seeing goes to $#@$ just about due south and farther west. All I can think is that it has something to do with ground structure (hills) causing air churn. It's not obvious on a map and I am looking over houses behind me (couple hundred yards) well before that point.
Terri
Another capture of Jupiter from the 9th/10th. A pretty nice night of decent seeing. Taken with a 7" refractor at ~F20. I was using a 2X barlow with ADC just about nulled out and an ASI224MC camera. I was using 5ms exposures for this.
Nice image. I have noticed on the better images taken this Fall that the Great Red Spot has developed a dark red center. I am not aware that this feature has existed previously. A question for Gary Nowak.
Here's Jupiter from my last session on the evening of the 12/13th. This time using an 11" SCT with a 2X powermate and ASI224MC camera. The whole system is around 6000mm focal length
