Welcome Back Old Friend!

I love it when a solid night sleep has come to conclusion at 4:45, Jupiter's up and its a beautiful clear sky. I got my first drawing in for this apparition, and was delighted to find 2 stripes I could not see when we parted ways last spring. I took a quick look at the last 6 I did earlier this year (I do them 6 to a page), the bottom 2 stripes are definitely new to me.

At this point I'm back to the Discovery, great as the Obsession is the 15-20 minute set up and break down are less fun early AM. The Discovery is in place in a couple minutes though, glad it did not end up being sold! A great choice for those still waking up!

Looks like the Sun is heating up!

Thanks to Tim for posting a pic of the solar scope he's building on facebook. He took it for a test drive, the image that the scope produced (which I think was projected) looked like there was good stuff happening on the surface. Between that and news of big solar activity I made sure Friday night when I got home to pull out my 4.5" and see for myself. Its an old Meade reflector with a solar cap. The first look I counted 25 spots! I waited a bit till drawing it, a few near the edge seemed to have faded, but here's what I came up with (the image with the more centrally located clusters). Nice drawing objects through a scope in broad daylight.

Finally clear again last night when I got home, so I did it again. For anyone out there who has either a HA scope or a regular reflector with a solar cap - things seem to be getting fun on the sun!

50 Jupiters Down!

My goal of 50 Jupiter illustrations was realized Saturday night. Way better seeing than the night before, plus we had a GRS transit AND a moon shadow! So the big gassy guy really took on a special pose for this 50th drawing. I'm sure I'll get a few more in before its too low to deal with, but this drawing officially completes what I set out to do for this year.

Comet Pan-STARRS Update!!!

Pan-STARRS from NJAA March 14th
March 14th was a cold, windy and night as Wayne P. and I stood on the roof of NJAA Observatory. Wayne arrived just before me, and was scanning the horizon for Comet Pan-STARRS. As expected with the weather in NJ, there would be limited chances to view Pan-STARRS in its prime. The comet would appear just 10 degrees the horizon around 7:30 pm just after sunset.

After 10 minutes of scanning the horizon, the comet was finally spotted just over a few degrees above the trees. As predicted, the only way to see the comet was to go on top of the roof of NJAA. Not the best idea, but the higher location of the roof gave us a clear view. A quick check from the parking lot proved that the comet could not be observed from the ground. The sky cleared completely just as predicted by the Clear Sky Clock and www.wunderground.com. Unfortunately the wind was a constant nuisance the entire time. The temperature dropped into the 20s that night, not what you would expect for the month of March.

Comet Pan-STARRS imaged from the roof of NJAA Observatory with Canon 50D and Canon 300 IS, 2.5 sec exposure. ISO 800

The comet was quite spectacular with a bright nucleus and sparkling short tail. Viewing the comet against a dark sky background would have greatly improved the view. But alas the comet's close proximity to the Sun meant viewing the comet against the sunset sky. Just past 8 pm the comet was starting to sink down towards the trees. Before we knew it, the comet was gone. I took a few pictures with my Canon 50D and 300mm lens set on a small portable tripod. Obviously my picture of the Pan-STARRS is not going to win any astrophotography awards. But atleast it did show up quite well in my images.

Pan-STARRS fragmenting ??
Interestingly, an amateur astronomer Peter Rosen has discovered possible fragmentation of comet Pan-STARRS. He took cod video images using a 10 Newtonian and Image Source camera. His image shows a small dot near the nucleus of the comet that follows along with it. This is in contrast to the background stars which do not follow along with the comets movement.
Click here to see Peter Rosen's images of possible Pan-STARRS fragmenting


Comet Pan-STARRS Wed. March 20th at 7:30 PM

Comet Pan-STARRS March 18-25th.
During this week the comet will start to become slightly higher in the sky, but harder to view. On March Wed March 20th, the comet will be 14 degrees above the horizon.
Unfortunately, the comet is expected to fade. Secondly the Moon is going to become increasingly brighter each day as it heads towards full Moon on the 27th. Still, my gut feeling is that the effect of the Moon may be minimal. Right now Pan-STARRS is a sunset comet. Hence the added light from the Moon may be nothing compared to the brightness of the sunset sky. The greatest concern is how much the comet will fade. Luckily for us, there are some reports that the comet have become brighter than previously expected. Some estimates have placed it at magnitude 0.5 Mag!
If that is true, the comet may be brighter this week, than previously expected!

NASA has produced an excellent video about Pan-STARRS called "Sunset Comet"
Click here to watch Sunset Comet Video

Words of Wisdom!
Watch the weather forecast obsessively.
Keep a pair of binoculars handy and ready to go.
If the weather clears around sunset, find a good view of the western horizon
and start scanning around 7:30 pm.


William Anthony
NJAA Research Group Chair

Comet PannStarrs Aproaches!

For Northern Hemisphere observers the week of March 10-16 will be the best time to view Comet Pann-Starrs (C/2011 L4).
Southern observers have already been enjoying the comet which is expected to brighten to 2nd magnitude. This makes the comet a respectable object that can easily be viewed low over the western horizon just after sunset. The comet should be easy to view with a pair of binoculars and maybe even by eye. Of course this all depends on how significant your local light pollution is. But from a good site, the comet should be easy observe and to photograph.

Pann-Starrs March 13th, at 7:30 PM EST just 10 degrees above horizon

Spaceweather.com contains a good selection of recent news related to Pann-Starrs. The photo gallery on the site also contains many images from astrophotographers too.

www.spaceweather.com

The greatest challenge to viewing comet Pann-Starrs is its low elevation on the horizon. From NJ, by 7:30 pm, the comet will only be 10 degrees above the western horizon. Therefore it is important to have a clear view to the West and to start looking for the comet right after sunset. Binoculars are perfect for viewing the comet. Be warned that some telescopes will not be able to view that low. For example my 12” scope dobsonian can not slew to an object only 10 degrees above the horizon. But widefield scopes are what you want for viewing the comet and its tail. The larger the field of view the better.

Pann-Starrs Saturday March 16th, about 10 degrees above the horizon at 7:40 EST.


Timeline:

March 10th the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun. The comet is 0.3 AU from the Sun.

March 12th-13th, the comet reappears in the western sky after Sunset. Hopefully the comet will peak at 2nd Magnitude.

March 12th-17th the comet is well placed low on the western horizon after sunset.

During this time the comet is heading out of the inner solar-system.

March 17th- 30th the comet is still low on the horizon, but rapidly fades with each passing day. The Moon also starts to interfere with viewing the comet.

Comet Pann-Starrs location in the solar system on March 16th.

Unfortunately, the comet does not climb much higher in the evening sky until weeks later as it heads towards the constellation Ursa Minor (Little Dipper). By this time, the comet will be very faint and require a large telescope to view.

Therefore the best views will be the week of March 12th – 17th. The weather in New Jersey this year has been atrocious. But there have been numerous days when the sky is clear to partly cloudy around sunset. This is followed by completely overcast skies. But it is worth going out with binoculars on these days to look for the comet just after sunset. Hopefully we will be able to spot this inter-wanderer as it makes its trip through the solar system. This is also a good warm-up for comet ISON later this year. ISON is expected to be a spectacular comet and there is even a chance it will be visible during the day!

Note* All images prepared using the Orion Starseek APP for ipad and iphone

Long time no imaging....

Hey all,

Well, it has been more than 3 months since my last imaging session which was on November 15, 2012. It's either a holiday or it is very cold. Either we got snowed in or once the road re-opens, clouds would come in... then it will clear up, but the seeing would be atrocious... Conclusion: did not get a chance to do for a long time!

It is especially frustrating since we got a new and better camera available to us. At this point, Jupiter is getting smaller and dimmer, although not very significantly, but still. It is also lower in the sky.

Now, back to my last imaging session. Here are couple images of Jupiter and its moon Io taken on 11/15/12 at 12:15am and 12:32am.




Forget the difference in image processing and color balance for now. I guess I would have to work on that to get consistent results.. but,

First of all, it is amazing to realize just how fast the planet rotates. Images were taken 17 minutes apart.
Of course, Jupiter's moon Io is even faster than the planet's rotation itself. It is so fast, that it is really difficult to get it sharp because taking even 30 seconds per channel of recording (total of about 2 min for RGB given some extra time to rotate filter wheel). The moon looks discolored, especially in first image. You can see layers of blue, green and red if you look closely. It's tricky to align it properly.

Another issue I wanted to mention is the focus. Now, we are using Meade LRGB filter set and I have a feeling they are not exactly parfocal. So far, I have never attempted to refocus before switching to different channel. From reading some reviews, pretty much all of people say great things about Astronomik LRGB imaging set. Not only they are parfocal, but they also have broader transmission and more accurate bandpass for each R, G and B and therefore easier to calibrate combined RGB. Of course they are probably fairly expensive. For our own set, we will need to re-adjust focusing and I think it will be hard to do for Jupiter but easier for slower rotating Saturn and Mars.


Overall, it has been a bit more than a year now, since my first attempts at planetary imaging and there are a lot of positives and improvements, although the learning curve is a bit steeper than I initially though.


Vlad.

Last night I finished drawing #32 for this season, after several kinda boring looking surfaces the last 6 viewings have been great, something different and interesting every time. I first lighted my new 12.5" Obsession, though I think I can improve my results with deep sky objects I'm a little stunned to say I don't think it will improve my viewing of Jupiter. We'll see though I guess. So this drawing was done still using my 10" Discovery ... which I was going to sell but now probably not!

I thought the interaction between the northern (lower thick) band and the thin one depicted just above it was really neat. Also the way the southern band seemed to fade to the left was unusual. I do love being part of the research team!

2012 Research Award

This post that should have been made a month ago. But sometimes later is better than never. So lets take a stroll back to 2012, a very productive year for the NJAA Research Group. The support from the NJAA board and membership in 2012 was outstanding. The participation from the members of the Research Group was exceptional. We were finally able to utilize for research purposes the previous donations to the club such as the 12” Meade RCX scope. Hence I felt it more than fitting to bestow Researcher of the Year to two particular members of the NJAA Research Group. While many of the members of the group contributed, I would like to point out two particular individuals.
The 2012 Researcher of the Year Award consisted of a 5X7 framed image of the Horsehead Nebula by yours truly.

Vladimir Alexandrov our first recipient was gung-ho to start imaging the planets from the minute the idea of purchasing a CCD Video camera was mentioned. What made Vlad unique was his perseverance to stay up into the late hours of the morning working to capture images of the planets. On many nights Vlad drove home just as the Sun was rising. I remember one night when all of us decided to call it quits by 1:30 am, but Vlad was determined to tough it out until 4:30 am to image Jupiter as it was transiting the meridian. Vlad’s work paid off in more ways than one. His willingness to stay into the late hours also translated into his willingness to work thru the many problems related to the 12” Meade RCX-400 (our main planetary imaging scope). This was quite a boon to myself and otherss. It soon became apparent that many of the problems we faced with the RCX were user-error. Vlad became and expert on the scope and provided very useful knowledge. He even conducted a quick training on the scope and its proper usage.

In 2012, Steve Gale produced more scientific planetary data than all the members combined! This was completely unexpected. But Steve can draw, and draw very well. He took to drawing the planets like a bat out of hell. He even did drawings of the Sun! His drawings were sent to organizations such as ALPO USA, and ALPO Japan. He drew the planets on a nearly consistent basis. This was very useful even at NJAA. At a few of the NJAA Research Meetings we were able to compare Steve’s drawings next to images taken with our new DMK21 imaging camera. When Wayne Jaeschke came for a presentation last year, he stated that professional astronomers do make use of drawings of the planets. Infact a large percentage of the systematic data on the planets consist of drawings.

I am indebted to both Vlad and Steve for their hard work and willingness to share. They exemplify what amateur research is all about. Professional astronomers have only limited telescope time and resources. They count on dedicated amateurs to help maintain a constant observation of the planets. The information provided by amateurs may appear small at first glance, but we must remember that it was amateur astronomers who first spotted such events as the 2009 impact on Jupiter. Not to mention that amateurs have systematically tracked the weather patterns of numerous planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars for more than 100 years!

Nothing like the feeling that Jupiter is looking back at you! Almost offset that I was starting to loose feeling everywhere else. God it was a cold night to be out there, then a wind blast hits you, makes it worse and shakes the scope. Any normal Jupiter night and I'd have been back inside without a moments thought. The view was just too extraordinary though, to the left is Io (in front of the planet) just poking out. Europa (upper) and Callisto are just off to the other side. And Io is casting a shadow right on top of the great red spot. The position of the moon relative to the shadow tells you something of Jupiter's alignment to the Sun relative to our position.

Last night I produced my 25th Jupiter drawing from this season. My goal is 50 before its too low to work with, I should have 3 months to get that done. Kind of an added bonus, I saw a feature on the northern band I'd never seen before. Looked a lot like the GRS, not quite as big but still gigantic and considerably darker.

Finally, a weekend with 2 clear nights. I love being home when the Sun has set but the sky is still light blue to draw Jupiter. Somehow with the contrast beaten back the detail really comes out. 3 in a weekend (1 Friday night, 2 Saturday), quite the treat. It's kinda neat to get more than one in a night, the GRS was not apparent when I did the first, 2 hours later totally in yer face.