I love the sessions where the GRS is actually kinda obvious. Maybe in part because it's clarity is tied to the kind of observer planetary drawing has made me. I got up at 3 the following morning cause Io was not only casting a shadow but the moon itself was against a darker band, I was hoping I could pick it out. Saw the shadow, sadly not the moon.

Oh man was Jupiter great last night. I've seen as much detail on occasions but never more. There was a clear shadow being cast, I looked it up, it was from Europa. When I was all done I took one last look before breaking everything down and saw that the one moon not previously visible was emerging from behind the planet. I thought I was seeing the shadow of one moon and another coming around from behind. Turns out though that it was Europa in front of Jupiter, so though I was seeing great planetary detail I did not notice a tiny white ball in there. I almost decided to draw it again really fast - it be cool to capture the planet, a moon looking like an emerging pimple and a shadow ... but the cold was getting to me!!

11/28 - what a great night to have the scope out! First, Jupiter was really close to the full Moon. With a 40mm eyepiece (36X) I was able to see a portion of the Moon on one side and Jupiter and it's moons on the other side, very nice. Then I zeroed in on the planet for a sketch and caught a moon just coming out from behind. They don't want that sort of thing when you submit images, but sometimes you need to do what's fun.

I posted this on facebook as I often do, but with a nice and unexpected twist. 6 people liked it ... among them Wayne Jaeschke!

Hey all,

In the last couple of months I was only been able to image Jupiter twice, so here are some of my results:

August 13, 2012.

Conditions were fairly good (I still don't know exactly how some people rate seeing conditions on the scale of 1-10... ), but if I had to guess, it was maybe 7? Some details are visible, there is even blue regions present  in the equatorial zone. South is up, since GRS is in the South Equatorial Belt.

 Now, here is image from October 23, 2012

Unfortunately, it does not look much more detailed, although it should given few reasons:
1. It is higher up in the sky, so there is less atmosphere
2. It is closer to us and therefore it's angular diameter is bigger and it is brighter.

There are couple reasons why the image is not superior: conditions got bad really fast at by the time I ended shooting Blue channel, there was so much haze that visually I could only see no more than 5 stars in the sky. My histogram brightness fell drastically from the moment I started on Red channel. Another problem is that I only recorded at 15 fps, since I wanted to make shutter speed slower than 1/30 sec., from last time I knew the camera was making small distortions event at 30 fps.. but the next slowest rate was 15 fps, not 27 fps which I thought would be possible. Bad judgment and brain cramp on my part.

Btw, the black blurry dot on the surface of the planet is a shadow of the moon Io that was making a pass across the planet.

So, generally there is ton of things to improve on, and with the new camera coming in soon, there ability to shoot at 60 fps will be possible, so in theory we will have much crisper images coming in soon.


Vlad.

First GRS transit of this Jupiter season!

Just timing I guess, I never seem to catch the GRS. I'd done 6 drawing since my first in August, though the general condition of the bands seemed to change I was seeing similar features every time, like I was always catching the same side.

Not so this morning though. There was awesome drama in the bands, and though it looked more like the Jupiter Great Red smudge than spot, it was still real obvious and seemed to be about at the transit point. It seemed like more was going on in the southern pole too. Nice start to the day.

Early AM Jupiter watch

Another beautiful morning for Jupiter, I thought some of the features around the middle were really exceptional. The big guy has looked great every time so far this season, but thought that northern band has been more complex than earlier this year I thought this was extraordinary. Early mornings have been set aside for musical arrangement lately, it was real nice to be able to get back out to the scope.

Ahhhh, its like the return of an old friend whose been gone way too long. I miss drawing Jupiter so much that I beat back the desire to lie in bed when my eyes opened a few minutes before 5:00 this morning. The planet looks better than ever, I saw more bands than previously in the year the turbulence within the larger bands was big as life. What seemed really neat was the band that in this drawing is just below the equator seemed to make a weird dip, it bends down on the right side of the image. That was intentional, not just sloppy drawing! 

I can't believe it took me so long to get around to drawing planets! Wish I started doing this 15 years ago. Thanks again to Bill for turning me onto this. I'll make sure this image goes out to the organizations that can use illustrated planetary imagery.

Steve Gale

Lunt Solar Wedge First Light

"Disclaimer, Viewing the Sun can be extremely dangerous resulting in permanent damage to viewers eye!!!   The Sun is only to be viewed with equipment such as specific solar filters that are known to reduce the Sun's energy to safe levels.  The manufacture instruction's for solar equipment must be followed at all times!" 

Well, I finally obtained my Lunt Solar Wedge for white light viewing of the Sun.  This was after a 3-4 month wait.  The 2012 Venus Transit was to blame given the run on solar equipment since earlier this year.

Lunt 2" Solar Wedge and SV 105 APO

The solar wedge looks like an oversized 2" telescope diagonal.  The wedge attaches to the back of a refracting telescope.   The wedge then allows a safe amount of light from the Sun to reflect up towards the eyepiece.  The majority of the energy from the Sun passes thru a special grating in the wedge.  Since the light from the Sun comes to focus after contact with wedge's grating, no harm is done to the telescope.
The Lunt wedge itself comes supplied with an ND3 filter.

Lunt Solar Wedge and supplied case.

The benefits of the solar wedge are high light-output and a sharper image than conventional film and glass based filters.  For added safety I have purchased a Baader UV/IR blocking filter and 2" ND 0.9 filter to be used when visually viewing the Sun with the wedge.   Without the added ND 0.9 filter the image is too bright to comfortably view.  The UV/IR blocking filter is just an added measure of safety to protect against any UV/IR light that may be left after the light passes thru the wedge and the two ND filters.

From what I have seen so far, the Lunt Wedge, does indeed produce a sharp solar white-light image!  Detail across the solar disk is nice and sharp.  Solar faculae associated with the Sun's magnetic field are easily viewed too.  In one instance I could easily observe solar faculae surrounding Sunspot AR1542 as it sat on the edge of the solar disk.  The wedge can not be used with a reflecting telescope.  But it does allow for ease of use should the owner have more than one refractor.  I was able to use the wedge for solar imaging with my Stellarvue SV105 (4") APO on one day and use it for quick viewing with my WO 80 mm APO the next.

                                           Sunspots AR1542 and AR1542, 8/13/12

The above shot was taken using a SV105 4" APO, the Lunt 2" Wedge, a 2" TV 2X Barlow,  Canon T1i DSLR, and 2" Baader Continuum filter
BackYard EOS was used to collect a 1200 frame movie that was later stacked with Autostakkert2. The final composite image was later enhanced in CS2.

Unfortunately I can see that the 2X Barlow and DSLR was only sharp in the center of the image.
The image is also, not fully illuminated.  On the good side, I believe the lack of focus helps give this particular image a 3D effect.   But, next time a composite/ mosaic image will have to be considered in order to produce a sharper image with this combination.  But this was only a first light.  I hope to use a CCD-video camera at some point in the future to obtain best result.  Recent aquasition of a 4X Telvue PowerMate will also allow for sharpness and even illumination thru-out the image.

There was also a problem reaching focus with the DSLR without the barlow in place.  More in-focus is needed.  But a shorter barrel can be purchased to help bring the camera closer to the wedge.  



William Anthony

Jaw Dropping Solar Activity Sunday

We saw a hard to believe solar prominence this past Sunday. It was this wide, squatty thing over the course of the afternoon, but a little before 5 it exploded outward. At first it took on a shape like crumpled up paper. But then it expanded into this linear filament that just kept going. If you looked at 5 minute intervals it was really different every time! I believe I'm being conservative when I say at its greatest length it exceeded 10% the diameter of the Sun. Vlad and I were the only ones to stay till the end, it disconnected and by 5:20 or so it was an evaporating wisp of a prominence. Been looking at the Sun for years, some times its great, sometime it puts you to sleep. But I'd never seen anything remotely similar to this.

Very sorry to say there was no photographic provision at the time, we were set up to serve the public. All we walked away was observation.

Hey all,

My very first post on this blog and I want to share my experience using RCX and DMK camera for planetary imaging so far this year. Just a week ago I decided to purchase Astra Image 3.0 Pro software which I read good things about for a while. It has multiple deconvolution filters and it combines RGB images plus a ton of other image processing tools. I want to share couple images that I have reprocessed from a while ago. First is Saturn from March 11. For some reason this is the sharpest Saturn that I ever got and I think I know the reasons why and I will share it more in detail next time. Let me just say it had to do with too slow of a fps rate that I was choosing lately. Saturn is dim and I was doing slower than 1/15 at times (even as slow as 9fps and I think with poor or average seeing we need to be using 1/20 of a second per frame which is 20 fps or maybe even faster. Collimation and focusing were also causing "blur" and I know how to fix both (for focusing make it 3 different RGB videos and then post processing pick one with sharpest rings. As for collimation, note to myself to not be lazy and re-collimate on Spica (its next to Saturn) the night of imaging.

Now, here is Saturn image. It is 10% stack, 1.5 drizzle. The Cassini division is fairly sharp but I have seen much sharper from other people, so there is a lot to improve on.

Next is Jupiter from way back in December... This was the only image I took at 27 fps instead of 60 fps (which shows "onion ring" sort of distortion inside the planet and should not be used in the future). The fastest fps our DMK camera can handle is 30fps or maybe 45fps, if there is such option. If you look at Jupiter's moon on the left you can see that scope was not focused and collimated properly, it looks like a triangle not a disk yet and still there is a lot of detail showing on the planet. Small bends are easily see, therefore it should give us hope for a lot of room to improve before Jupiter returns in the early morning sky.

And here is Venus couple weeks prior to the transit.

In the next blog I will go into more details as far as what I think the best settings to use.

Vlad.

So Saturday I had my solar scope out, which is an old Meade 4500 with a full aperture solar filter cap. Sunspots looked just great. Lately I have been telling people how much I miss Jupiter, such a great subject to draw. Then it occurred to me ... the Sun never goes away! If you get into drawing that and it fails to come up one morning, nothing to draw is the least of your worries! So I've found a new model to pose for me.

What I think is neat here is the way the center-most cluster seems to have broken up over a day.

April 13th Research Group Meeting "Mining the Kepler Mission Database"

NJAA Research Group Meeting

Friday April 13th 8 PM

"Mining the Kepler Mission Database"

Kevin Alton Presenting

The Kepler space satellite is best known in the lay press for reporting the possible detection of Earth-like worlds circling far-off suns, yet by comparison to this primary objective, the Kepler Mission will most assuredly lead to the discovery of far more traditionally defined intrinsic or extrinsic variable stars. Started in 2009, the Kepler Mission will continue for at least 3.5 years and perhaps as long as 6 years. New data are generally made public on a quarterly basis so that there is a veritable warehouse of lightcurves available for analysis. If you only have time at night to take astro-images suitable for framing, but still are interested in the scientific aspects of variable stars, then the Kepler database could probably keep you busy for the rest of your life. Fortunately, there are a large number of freely available software tools and applications that can assist in finding, retrieving, downloading and analyzing lightcurves gathered by the Kepler space satellite and stored in the Kepler Archives. Join me on April 13th at the NJAA Research Group Meeting and I will walk you through the process of potentially discovering something new about a variable star in the Kepler field-of-view that has never been seen before.
Kevin Alton

Please check out Kevin Alton's website at :
http://www.underoakobservatory.com/

I highly recommend Kevin's Journal #3 which contains information pertaining to the talk:
http://www.underoakobservatory.com/UnderOak_Issue3_Final.pdf

Please join us this Friday as expert variable star observer Kevin Alton presents. 
Refreshments will be served.

Saturn, Jupiter, and Martian Volcanoes.

Saturn, Jupiter, and Martian Volcanoes

Displayed are some of the images taken thru March of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.  

The first two images were taken by Vladimir Alexandrov and Mitchell Revalski of the NJAA Research Group.  These images were captured the night after Wayne Jaeschke’s presentation on lunar/planetary imaging.  We learned a lot from Wayne and everyone was excited to image.  The last two images of Mars were taken by yours truly a week later.  

Saturn 3/11/12 by

Vladimir Alexandrov

12” RCX 400, @ F20

DMK21AU04,  2X Telvue Barlow

Schirra Observatory

Saturn

Saturn is considered the most beautiful planet in the solar system.    Saturn is also one of the most difficult planets to image!  Unfortunately, Saturn is not as bright as one would expect.  This creates a host of problems as we try to capture the detail on the planet.  To obtain this image, NJAA Research Group member Vladimir Alexandrov stayed out till 5 am in the morning.   By 4:30 am the planet was high enough for a good image to be obtained.  Vlad had to increase the gain on the DMK21AU4 CCD imaging camera due to the planets low magnitude.   The exposure time was much longer than typically used for Mars and Jupiter at f20.   Still, Vlad’s hard work paid off with an excellent image of the ringed planet that shows a wealth of detail.   Close scrutiny of Vlad’s image shows 8 belts/zones along with the A,B, and C rings.  The Cassini division is evident along with a hint of the Enke Minima.

Jupiter 3/10/12 by

Mitchell Revalski

12” RCX 400, @ F20

DMK21AU04,  2X Telvue Barlow

Schirra Observatory

Jupiter

Imaging Jupiter was no easy task.  The low altitude and smaller size of the planet make it more difficult to image than a few months ago.  After imaging Mercury and Venus, Mitchell Revalksi turned the 12” RCX on Jupiter.  Three images were obtained with the DMK21AU04 CCD camera, and later processed with Autostakkert 2.  The separate R, G, B filtered images were than compiled in Photoshop CS2.   This image is important considering that it clearly shows the thinning of the Northern Equatorial Belt (NEB).

If the observer looks at the two main belts of Jupiter they will note that the NEB is going thru a dramatic change.  Many of the drawings by Steve Gale clearly show the thinning NEB too. 

Mars 3/23/12   1:46 UT

  

Mars

Mars is changing with the seasons.  As noted before, the planet is currently going thru summer as the Northern Polar Cap (NPC) shrinks.  Clouds have been seen on the Red planet just about every day.  On the night of March 23, I was able to image the planet at two different times, three hours apart.   This was after the discovery of a strange high altitude cloud by lunar/planetary imager, Wayne Jaeschke.  

(More information about the strange Martian cloud can be found here:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/30/10945735-mars-mystery-cloud-explained)

   I was not able to image the cloud feature observed by Wayne.  But the 8” SCT used for imaging did not disappoint!  The image taken at 1:46 UT shows three dark circles that correspond to the location of volcanoes on the Martian surface.  The large Nix Olympia can also be seen to the right of the three smaller volcanoes.  Nix Olympia contains a dark surrounding area coupled with a cloud formation over the volcanoes peak area and to the north of it. 

     Mars 3/23/12   3:35 UT

    Three hours later, at 3:35 UT, the planet was imaged again.  By this time, the previous volcanoes had rotated to the side with Nix Olympia dead center.  A tiny cloud can be viewed over its peak coupled with a larger cloud on its western side (left side in image).

These images were sent to the British Astronomical Association Mars Director, Richard Mckrim.

Richard, remarked that the detail was excellent for an 8” scope and that the Martian volcanoes do become darker at this point in the Martian season.  (the dark circles in the 1:46 UT image).   This was a relief as I originally could not match the appearence of the surface markings in the 1:46 UT image with the expected view from the Mars Previewer II software.   A follow up with a Mars iphone app, showed that volcanoes were located exactly where the three dark patch circles were located in the 1:46 UT image.

Conclusion

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and many more images of the planets will follow.

I am very pleased with our success and Wayne Jaeschke’s advice has really paid off.   I am extremely thankful for all the hardwork done by the members of the NJAA Research Group.  To top it off, we have had excellent support from the NJAA board members.  One of the board members (Al Witzgal) even donated a rare Telvue 2.5X barlow for imaging. 

As for the planets, Saturn will be nearing opposition in the coming weeks.   Mars is going to start shrinking in size (as viewed from Earth).  Hence the detail on the planet will be more difficult to image.   Still, now is an excellent time to keep an eye on Mars planet as other observers stop following it.  

William Anthony
NJAA Research Director

Planetary Submissions

I just sent out my 50th submission!  Steve

Mars on March 27th

Was anyone else observing Mars last night? In the past I've had to really concentrate on what I was seeing, do two or maybe three sketches to test myself. I do the finished drawing when the sketches all look about the same. But last night I took a look and BAM! There was everything right there. The usual 10 or 15 minutes to get enough info for a finished drawing was more like a minute and change. The features along the top and through the middle were the darkest I'd ever seen - by a lot. It was the very first time I had no question as to what exactly I was drawing.

My first shadow on Jupiter!

Maybe I've seen them before but didn't realize. Thing is this was do different. The spot of dark was more extreme than anything I'd seen on the planet before, trying to make sense of it is when the shadow theory dawned on me. Wayne Jaeschke released an image the next day that corroborated that, in fact he identified the shadow as coming from Europa.

Mars: In Living Color

Its finally Summer!  Oh, not on Earth, for that we still have to wait, but on Mars, Summer is in full bloom.

We were able to image Mars on two different dates at NJAA using the new Image Source DMK21AU ccd video camera.  This was coupled with an Orion Telescope filter wheel manually controlled.  Both the large NJAA 26” scope and the 12” Meade RCX were employed for imaging.  The resulting images produced scientifically useful data along with a pretty pictures of the Red planet.

Imaging Mars thru different filters can target specific features.  A red filter will help attenuate the dark maria surface markings of Mars.The red filter can also help display dust clouds and help determine if a Martian dust storm is brewing.  Blue filters in turn will show the haze and cloud features.

A green filter will show both the surface aldebo markings and the atmospheric features.

NJAA's 12" Meade RCX with DMK21AU camera

 and Orion filter wheel attached

Once images are obtained of the planet thru a red, green, and blue filter, we can produce an RGB color image.  While not as scientifically useful, the RGB color image does produce a pretty picture of the Red planet.  This might sound like a long drawn out process, and to be honest, it is!  Luckily the process is becoming faster as we gain practice. 

Here is a quick run down for how these images were acquired and image processed. 

Video of the planet thru the telescope was captured using NJAA’s Image Source DMK21AU camera.  The manual filter wheel was employed to capture 2 minute video of the planet thru a red, green, and blue filter.   Then each video was run thru AutoStakkert 2, where 1000 frames were aligned and composted using 3X drizzle.  Once completed, each final image was brought into Adobe Photoshop.  From there, the Astra Image plug-in for Photoshop was used for a tad of wavelet sharpening (40 each) and lucy-richardson deconvolution (7 iterations of 5.7 PSF).   Then, each image was placed in its appropriate channel (R, G, and B channel).  Finally the combined RGB channels gave us a nice color image of the planet.  This was after adjusting the levels and curves for each channel.  But for scientific reasons, each channel is displayed too.  For example, the blue image from March 11^th shows the cloud features over the planet on that date.   Hopefully the process will be come much faster with practice. 

So, what did we capture you might ask??

Mars 3/11/12 thru

NJAA 26" Reflector

The images thru the NJAA 26” on March 11^th show clouds over Elysium Mons (the white spot on the left side of the planet).  This is quite obvious in the blue filtered image of the planet.  We can also see haze on both sides of Mars.  We can also determine how small the polar cap has become too.  While difficult to detect, the red filtered image shows the shrinkage of the northern polar cap.  Certain features that were previously covered in ice are now visible.  The large Syritis Major is quite prominent in the middle of the image too.

Mars 2/27/12 thru the

NJAA 12" Meade RCX

Shot a few days before, the images thru the NJAA 12” RCX show a haze/cloud feature on the setting western side of the planet on February 26th  (27th in UT time).  This feature is quite obvious in the red and green filtered images too.  The red filter also shows very good detail around the Northern Polar region of Mars.  This again reinforces the notion that the ice has melted making features once covered, visible.

A few of the major surface features are present in this image.  The dark arm looking feature on the left side of the planet is Sinus Meridiani.   To the right of this is Aurorae Sinus.  This feature looks similiar to an upside down hand with the thumb and pinky raised.  (What a scientific description!).  Below this coming up across the bottum right side of the image is Mare Acidalium.  The clear area between these two is Chyrse.

    

Special thanks to Wayne Jaeschke for his advice and tips.  In 3 hrs, Wayne dispelled quite a bit of information and invigorated everyone to image and or draws the planets!!! 

Check out Wayne’s website at http://www.exosky.net/ for some truly amazing planetary images.

Also, a big thanks to all the members of the NJAA Research Group.  Their hard work and dedication is greatly appreciated.   I would also like to note that each image will be submitted to ALPO USA and ALPO Japan.

William Anthony

NJAA Research Director.

Research Session #3: Imaging Mercury, Venus, & Jupiter

Research Session #3

March 10, 2012

Mitchell D. Revalski

I arrived at the NJAA around 4PM EST. Vlad, Bruce, and I opened both the 26” and RCX domes. We moved swiftly as the sun set to catch elusive Mercury. We managed to get it in the RCX just before sunset. It is always surprising just how small Mercury appears even with high magnification. Both Vlad and I got video recordings with the DMK Camera just after sunset. Unfortunately, the combination of low altitude, and looking through the heat stack coming from the rear vent of the NJAA, made imaging difficult. Despite this we both obtained an “image” showing the partially illuminated nature of Mercury.

Next we moved on and imaged Jupiter and Venus. Using some tips from Wayne Jaeschke’s talk just the night before we got some good, and more scientifically useful results shooting through both the IR and RGB filters. I obtained the images below for Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. I chose not to submit the Mercury image due to the overall low quality. It was still an excellent learning experience.

Primary lessons learned consist of the following. For Jupiter, as I did not intend to make a RGB color composite, the duration between color filters is less important. As such I would like to double the capture time for each color to get a cleaner stacked image. Furthermore, it seems adjusting the exposure settings while keeping the gain as low as feasible should produce cleaner images with less noise.

ALPO Image Database Link: http://www.alpo.arksky.org/alpoimg/Ven1767D4BA.jpg

ALPO Image Database Link: http://www.alpo.arksky.org/alpoimg/Jup1767D2F9.jpg

This image was not submitted to ALPO.

Image Comments: Note some images were processed using Registax 6 while others were done with AutoStakkert 2 per Wayne Jaeschke’s recommendation. This program is much simpler, but still has some bugs being worked out by the creator for the newly released second version.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the images above regarding the capture or processing procedure. Direct questions and comments to mitchellrevalski@gmail.com

In addition, Vlad and I tried using the 26” on Mars with a 2X Barlow shooting at an incredible 16,000mm focal length. The image on the screen, while huge, was also surprisingly clear! Unfortunately, due to the high magnification, the light was so dim that after stacking a poor image was produced. However, using the 26” telescope without a barlow will likely produce much better images rivaling that of the RCX perhaps. The Research Committee will experiment further with this in the coming months.

Furthermore, Steve Gale stopped in later in the evening with drawings he had just produced; it was fun and interesting to compare the camera pictures with good old pencil and paper. We noted a number of similarities in the banding characteristics of Jupiter.

William Anthony, director of the Research Committee, was also present for the majority of the evening and provided good guiding tips on producing better images by utilizing the histogram feature of the capture software as well as doing astrophotography of his own. Bill also changed the filter wheel setup per Wayne Jaeschke’s recommendation, putting the IR filter in front of the wheel to stop any “IR leaks” the color filters may have. Thus now all images are through solely the IR or IR and RGB combinations.

On an unrelated note we had several curious visitors come to our front door. While it was not actually a public night Vlad and I showed half a dozen people objects through the RCX telescope. All left with smiles.

Toward the end of the night I decided to forego waiting another hour or two for Saturn, which was also very close to the moon, in favor or waiting a month or so when it will be better placed during opposition.

Overall, a very successful night with some good images produced and many lessons learned for the future.

---

End of Report

March 10, 2012

Research Session #2: Imaging Jupiter

Research Session #2

March 6, 2012

Mitchell D. Revalski

Arrival at the NJAA Observatory was around 6PM EST. After opening the Schirra and setting up the telescope and camera, patience was tested as clouds rolled in and out. The clouds cleared out completely within an hour. The seeing and transparency were very good. I was able to obtain a few videos of Jupiter with and without the 2X Televue Barlow lens. Imaging details are included on the image. Lessons learned include that the telescope should be focused by eye with the barlow lens before inserting the camera. Otherwise, when switching from the standard eyepiece to the camera with attached barlow, the image is so far out of focus due to the extra path length from the barlow, that you cannot see it on the computer monitor at all even when it is dead centered. Also, handling of the camera should be kept to a minimum whenever possible, as a few additional dust spots on the chip by the end of the session were noted.

ALPO Image Database Link: http://www.alpo.arksky.org/alpoimg/Jup1767D3AB.jpg

ALPO Image Database Link: http://www.alpo.arksky.org/alpoimg/Jup1767D363.jpg

Image Comments: Note the second image is just 19 minutes after the first, and yet you can see the Great Red Spot on the lower belt has rotated around toward the face a noticeable amount! It really goes to show just how fast Jupiter rotates.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the image regarding the capture or processing procedure. Direct questions and comments to mitchellrevalski@gmail.com

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End of Report

March 6, 2012

Research Session #1: Imaging Mars

NJAA Research Session #1

March 5, 2012

Mitchell D. Revalski

Arrival at the NJAA Observatory was a little after 10PM EST. Bill Anthony and myself used the 12” RCX400 in the Schirra Observatory to do imaging of Mars. With my limited experience I chose to image solely in monochrome. The video was shot using the clubs DMK021AU camera. I took several videos and used the best video based on sharpness of focus and steady seeing to get the image below. The details such as fps, length of video, and processing using Registax 6 are detailed in the image. Lessons learned consist primarily of being better prepared for the cold.

  

ALPO Image Database Link: http://www.alpo.arksky.org/alpoimg/Mar1767D475.jpg

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the image regarding the capture or processing procedure. Direct questions and comments to mitchellrevalski@gmail.com

---

End of Report

March 5, 2012

Lunar and Planetary Imager Wayne Jaeschke, March 9th

March 9^th, 8 pm

NJAA Research Group Meeting.

NJAA Observatory, High Bridge, NJ

“Expert Lunar and Planetary Imager, Wayne Jaeschke”

At the March 9^th Research Group meeting, expert lunar and planetary imager, Wayne Jaeschke will present.  Wayne is one of the top imagers of the planets!  Wayne has worked with Professional Astronomers, along with having numerous images published in magazines such as Sky and Telescope.  Mr. Jaeschke’s presentation will cover the basic principles and techniques of  planetary/high resolution imaging. 

Checkout Mr. Jaeschke’s website:

www.exosky.net

William Anthony

NJAA Research Director.

http://www.njaaresearch.blogspot.com/

Mars on Feb 27, 2012

by W. Jaeschke

Jupiter on Dec. 12, 2011

by W. Jaeschke

Generating Light Curves With Minimal Equipment

I attended a small Orange County Astronomers seminar out here last night that was really fascinating. A member from the SAS and AAVSO did an experiment to see what kind of light curve data he could generate with the least equipment. What he ended up showing us was how to generate light curve data for Delta Cephei using ONLY an old Canon Rebel 300D (at least 4 generations ago) and a home-made barn door tracker.

 

He showed a very precise light curve over several periods. Additionally, he was able to separate out the Red, Green, and Blue curves and show that heir slight differences show that Delta Cephei changes color slightly from brightest to dimmest. The only software he used for this data acquisition and manipulation was Maxim DL. The observations were made under a Bortle Scale of 5

 

I was very impressed with the quality of what he generated with the minimal equipment he used. If anyone is interested in more info, let me know and I'll contact the speaker and see if I can at least get the Powerpoint presentation I saw. 

Tom Kucharski

Dialing in the Red Planet

Man, Mars is getting better. Or maybe its just the scope. This week I plugged in the colimator, I realized the 2 dots I thought I'd been seeing were actually 3, the third one way out in left field. I adjusted the mirror so the alignment was right, and as good as everything was looking now its so much better. Seeing sooo much more with Jupiter, and the last two drawings of Mars are a big improvement over the first few.


The one common point is in all observations since the 13th the dark area surrounding the ice cap has been as obvious as the ice cap itself. I've described the task of drawing beyond that as trying to remember a dream. Details seem to whisp in and out, necessitating repetitive visual study of the surface to confirm and re-confirm what you THINK you see. In one case I did three rough sketches, the final drawing only happened after I saw those 3 roughs were pretty similar. Sort of like the idea of recreating an event by consulting several witnesses! In the end though patterns start to emerge. Last night was the biggest exception, that was like remembering a dream you were still having when somebody woke you up! The details seemed far easier to visualize then over the past week.   Steve Gale

Focusing More on Mars

Last night was annoyingly wet, condensation all over my scope and the Telerad was too blurry to be useful. But through this the seeing was really very good. Mars was shrouded in a huge halo from all the condensation, but the planet in the middle of that was nicely defined. I did 3 sketches, the second because I thought I had overworked the first, the third was to test myself - make sure my results were all pretty similar. That worked out so I went inside to make the final sketch from those while it was all very fresh in my head. I was using the same paper as two days prior when I also did a drawing of Mars. To protect that from smudging I covered it, when I pulled the smudge-guard away I noticed how similar the two pictures looked. Mars should have been rotationally in nearly the same position as Monday Iit's day is only a little more than a half hour longer), I thought what I'd just done looked like a more detailed version of the previous one. Almost like the same image but the first a bit over-exposed. I really thought that after drawing Jupiter I'd be bored by Mars, but it turns out I like it more.
Steve Gale

More Planetary Illustration

Man, Mars is hard to draw. It's still so small, the only really obvious feature is the ice cap. I need to stare at it for like 10 minutes before I can see things that I'm pretty sure I'm seeing. After that Jupiter is pretty easy! Since Mars rotates at a slower pace, I figure 1 drawing a night is all that really makes sense (whereas Jupiter can be pretty different after a couple hours). So, a few Jupiter's and drawing of big red.

I'll try to get out there every night that seems to have observing potential. Mars is coming up from behind a house across the street, so Mars drawing makes it a later than usual night. But we'll keep plugging away...

Steve Gale

SAS-AAVSO Spring Meeting

The Society for Astronomical Sciences and the AAVSO have recently announced their second joint spring meeting May 22 - 24 at Big Bear Lake, California. They did a joint meeting for the first time two years ago and it was great for all levels of expertise. I know its a long way from NJ from but I think it may be worth while for interested parties. Another plus is that RTMC starts on the 25th at a dark site about 12 miles away. Its a great astronomical combination. Details are just starting to come out about the meeting on both the SAS and AAVSO web sites. Nice area for a short vacation too. My wife usually joins me just for the mountain air and climate. Big Bear Lake is about 2 hours by car from either LAX or John Wayne Airport at about 7500 feet. I hope I can see some of my old observing buddies there as well as make some new NJAA friends.
Tom Kucharski

Grazing the Moon

Dave Nelson tipped me off about an neat astronomical event, a "grazing occultation". Between 9:05 and 9:15 on January 31st the Moon passed in front of the star Botein, resulting in an occultation. In this case only the edge of the Moon covered the star, making it a grazing occultation.

What really stood out for me was the optimal path of this event. As we all know, astronomical events don't look the same from everywhere on the planet. Take an eclipse, people sometimes take cruises miles out into the ocean to catch the perfect fit of the Moon over the Sun, while a thousand miles away the eclipse appear to be more partial. Lunar eclipses, ugh. It's going to be years before New Jersey is in a good spot to see the show. But this was an amazing exception. Dave sent me a map showing the line of optimal positioning for this event - and it went right through New Jersey! And not just anywhere in the state, for northerners like me it was a true gift from the heavens. The line passed through Rockaway and Andover. I'm in Roxbury township, so I was pretty close to the front row right from my yard!

I was able to get a couple shots by placing my digital camera to the eyepiece on my 10" Discovery Dobsonian. I dimmed the Moon by using an approach John Andrews told me about just this weekend. He mentioned "stopping down" his scope on bright objects to increase contrast. He simply placed a cover on a 8" scope with a 4" hole cut in it. I did the same, cutting a 12" piece of cardboard in a circle, then removing a 4" circle from the center. I still got a great view of the Moon, but a lot less blinding! Cutting back the light enabled me to get the star in there too.

The top image shows Botein at 9:01PM before it disappeared behind the Moon, the bottom image show it at 9:14PM, moments after it reappeared.

 Steve Gale

Imaging Jupiter the olde fashioned way!

During the December research meeting Bill explained and demonstrated that modern imaging techniques are not the only option for recording images of the planets. Over the last couple hundred years imaging equipment was pretty much paper and pencil! Sure, the mechanical approach offers way more detail, but drawings provide an apples to apples means of comparing today's Jupiter to Jupiter of a century ago. I'm not so much into gizmos thus I thought that as a Dob user that I was left outside looking in. Not so! Get good, clear magnification between 150 and 200X and even with a non-tracking scope you can pitch in and help with the research effort.

There was another benefit I learned back when I completed the lunar challenge that I'd forgotten about. In preparation for drawing Jupiter I spend a few minutes studying it, making sure I see all the things I think I see. It makes you really focus on details that are otherwise too easily lost. As a result I am seeing more when I observe the planet now. Having a goal like this really makes you stop and smell the roses.

The illustrations here were the result of observing at 204X magnification using a 10" 5.6 Discovery Dobsonian mounted telescope with a 27mm Nagler placed in a Teleview 4X barlow. BTW I had real doubts about a 4X barlow, Televue insisted though that this is not yer Daddy's barlow. They were right, the thing is awesome. After 5 minutes or so of really studying the planet I did a rough sketch, recording every feature I could in terms of size and positioning along with any necessary notes. With my previous study time that just took a few minutes, the time I recorded represents the conclusion of the note-taking part of the process. I then went inside and did a more rendered drawing, following the notes to a tee.

Steve Gale, NJAA President

12" Meade RCX and Schirra Observatory update!!

Good news!!! The NJAA 12” f8 Meade RCX400 is back up and running. 

The scope was placed back into the Walter Schirra observatory a few months ago.

This was after a slight renovation of the observatory.  The goto problems that plaqued the

scope have also been completely fixed.  

Walter Schirra Observatory



 During the end of December, Research Group member Vladimir Alexandrov took the time to collimate and polar align the scope.  This is just in time as the 12” RCX is an ideal imaging platform for lunar and planetary work.  The telescope has a thermally stable carbon fiber tube.  Also the electronics are able to readout the temperature inside of the telescope tube.  Not to mention an electronic focuser.   All of this adds up to a telescope that should be exceptional for lunar and planetary imaging. 

12" f8 Meade RCX400

   Below is one of the first images from the scope by Vlad.  In the coming weeks this scope will be instrumental in an imaging campaign aimed hopefully at Mars and Venus with images being regularly sent to the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO).

Saturn by Vladimir Alexandrov, 12” Meade RCX400  2x Barlow, ~ f/16, 1/1/12

W. Anthony
NJAA Research Director