2020-July 7 - B. Colville - Jupiter_IRGB

I can’t recall such a stretch of clear nights like we have had in the past
month, now that Jupiter and Saturn are rising as the sky darkens there
are more targets for turn our scopes to.

Due to their position on the ecliptic, but the planets are low in the south
this summer and can make imaging a challenge with longer exposures
to account for the extra atmosphere their light has to travel through to
reach our eyes.  A friend in Australia says that they are directly overhead
form his location along the Gold Coast  (New South Wales)…lucky for him!!!

Anyway, I did get a couple of session early in the week and the Jupiter
images form the 7th turned out not bad.  Still soft but need better seeing
to get the best out of the scope.

Solar has been a lost cause this week, with it over 40C in the observatory
with the sun shing in full blast…I’ll work at -20C more easily than this oven, LOL.

The pic attached is a RGB composite form separate monochrome
images, with an IR image added in to enhance the cloud structures.

Taken by : Brian Colville
Date : July 7, 2020

2020-Oct 17 - Brian Colville - Mars_IRX_020353-RRGB

We have not had the best skies to be out viewing or imaging lately, but I did have clear skied last
night to image Mars.  I have attached an image of Mars taken last night through the C14 and a one
shot colour camera (not separate RGB filters).

2020-October 3 - B. Colville - Mars Labled

Skies here cleared after 11pm, so went out to the scope
to try imaging between 11:30pm-12:30am.  I have to say
that the views at the eyepiece were among the best I’ve
seen and the video images were probably the best I’ve
managed to take over the years
(and I’ve followed a lot of Mars oppositions, lol).

The image attached was taken through my C14 and ZWO
one shot colour camera to capture the colour data, and an
image through an IR Passing filter was also taken.  The left
most image is the colour image with the IR added in, and
the middle image is the pure IR image.  On the right is the
simulated view with eh features labeled from the link that
was sent already.  The image was taken at 04:19 Universal
Time or 12:19am EDT.


Taken by : Brian Colville

2020-October 5 - Brian Colville - Mars_10062020_0343UT

Mars seems to be a popular target these days, and I found myself out again last night.

The attached images were taken at approximately 11:43 EDT (03:43 UR), through the C14 and a ZWO
camera.  The left most image is a colour and IR images combined, and the center is the IR pass
filtered image only.  The right side shows the simulated view with features labeled.

Through the scope it looked beautiful…very steady seeing at this time shortly before midnight.

2020-September 1 - B. Colville - First Mars of the Season

We have been able to view Jupiter and Saturn in the
early evening sky all summer long, but Mars is rising
early each night and is placed higher in the sky which
helps reduce the atmospheric effects that plague
viewing and imaging target low in the south.

I went out to grab a few mars images around 3:30am
on Monday morning and was quite happy that they turned
out pretty well.  The downside was very heavy dew which
soaked my corrector plate on the C14 in less than a half hour!

Attached is a color image taken through the C14 at
prime focus, using separate red, Green, and Blue filters
to create the colour image.  Mars should make an
excellent target this fall and winter as it is currently in the
constellation Pisces.  The image is oriented with south up,
showing the south polar ice cap as well as some of the
darker surface features.

Taken by : Brian Colville

2020-September 11 - R. Forsyth - Jupiter

I didn't get a chance to join the Zoom session last
night. Rod came down with his setup and I thought
I'd try to get Jupiter with a different scope/camera
arrangement. This took some time to get sorted out
so I didn't want to try to work with Zoom and the process.

Attached please find my best image of Jupiter yet. I
swapped out the 8" Orion RC scope for my Skywatcher
ED120 APO and used the first camera I bought from
Rock Mallin the SSIC. This is a great camera designed
specifically for solar system imaging. I used a barlow.
It was 1.25" 2X with camera at prime focus

The attached image is from a stack from a short .avi
video saved from the camera and processed in
Registax6. The camera was operating at 34ms
integration, a very short period indeed. There is a hint
of the Galilean moons. Rock once told me that if I had
the exposure correct for Jupiter I probably wouldn't
have the moons in the image.

You really can't beat the image quality of a good refractor.
Just ask Brett.


Taken : by Rodger Forsyth

2020-September 21 - M. McCarthy - Mars

This is taken at f/22 with a C14 using an IDAS LPD2 filter around 12:30am.

A 5 min .ser movie and using autostakert  selecting the top 1% frames and then
adjusted using Registax for wavlets sharpen and denoise into a single frame. I've
read an ir/uv filter works better but ill put that on my want list. And an LRGB mono
as Brian's first pic is best. The seeing was not too bad considering the close
proximity to the neighbors roofline and no smoke last night unlike this evenings forcast.

I have no idea of the features I am seeing other than the polar caps but which is which!!


Taken by : Mike McCarthy

2020-September 24 - R. Forsyth - Saturn

Image I got of Saturn Friday night. Unfortunately it's not quite in
focus but there is some detail. Once again with the Skywatcher ED120 and Mallincam SSIC.

I've got to make a Bahtinov mask for this optical tube.

Taken by : Rodger Forsyth

2021-Sept 25 - Brian Colville - Jupiter_IRGB

I went out last night after the clouds cleared and the air was very humid, but the seeing was
actually very good.

Some of the best images of Jupiter in a long time!  Here is a false colour IR+RGB composite of
images taken with the monochrome camera approximately an hour apart through Red/Green/Blue and IR
filters.


Taken by : Brian Colville
Date : 2021 - Sept 25

Jupiter










5web

Saturn

Venus








May.16.04

Venus at greatest elongation on Nov 1st.  This
picture was taken looking out over the Gulf of
Mexico. Venus at its brightest with its reflection
out over the water.  Venus was so bright, that
it lit up the night.

Taken using a Sky Watcher AllView mount with
a Canon 60Da on 15 sec exposures, ISO 1200

Brian McGaffney