frosty saturn 8/23/26

first saturn of this apparition:

my astronomy club received an unusual request from an author writing a book about Robert Frost (the poet) as amateur astronomer: images from an instrument of the same caliber and quality as Robert Frost's telescope.  

Frost "...followed the science of his day closely, and was interested in astronomy and cosmology. This is reflected in some of his poems and lectures. He lived from 1874 to 1963.

Frost had a 2-inch achromatic telescope, purchased around 1890 when he was in high school."

we're specifically tasked with an image from an instrument of this caliber and quality, to show what his views were like.  spoiler: not good.

my reply:

an amherst college grad,

i'm compelled to give it a try

i'll view, and image this weekend

2" finder's moon and saturn

on the way

points for style?

OK i'm sticking to astrophotography

thank god Frost had a crappy scope

so anyway, i spent a saturday night on the task

dusted off my 8" SCT on an alt-azm mount because it has a 50 mm finder scope.  

it was a wonderful evening in coastal southern california, 

one of the rare nights warm enough to be out until 2 AM in a T-shirt.  the seeing was excellent. 

sadly, i was unable to bring my camera to focus on the finder, but can assure you i could not see saturn's rings.  

frustrated by the experience i decided to image with the camera on the back of the SCT, capturing the surprisingly sharp image above despite the fact that i was imaging through a diagonal with saturn low in the sky.  a bit red due to the low altitude.  

the next night i tried again with the 50 mm finder scope i use for my FS 60: 

note the camera is on the finder scope,
while the high-end Takahashi refractor lies idle
with optics far better than Frost's scope.

Having viewed through a 5 mm eyepiece with stacked barlows (which increase magnification), here's my rendition of saturn through Frost's scope.  

it should be noted that i was using a tracking mount.  it would have been exceedingly difficult to get saturn in the field of the scope at this magnification.  here's a lower power version more easily tracked.

The blue halo due to chromatic aberration
was evident visually.

for comparison here's my capture through an 8" SCT again.

here's the moon through the 50 mm finder:

looks decent at this scale.  no barlow was used to increase the magnification.  

imaging details:

Eastbluff, CA

8/23-27/26

camera ZWO ASI 664MC (one shot color camera)

small saturn

svbony

50 mm f/3.8 guide scope

2 element achromatic design

this is representative of my view with a 5 mm eyepiece with stacked 2x and 2.5x barlows.

smaller version missing barlows

moon without barlow

large saturn

nexstar 8 GPS (8" SCT)

Jovian moons: Io eclipsing Europa 2026-05-25 03:19 UTC

 Here's an image of Jupiter with moons Europa and Io to the left.

I caught it mid eclipse missing the beginning at which time Europa was in Io's shadow, but not occulted (not directly blocked from earth's view).  

Here's a time lapse starting mid eclipse:

Jupiter 
Europa (left) emerges from Io's shadow
 2026-05-25 03:19.8 - 03:52.9 UTC

Image details:
see annotation in first image

mediocre seeing

elevation 32 degrees
The animation took forever to process due to collimation artifacts manually edited in each frame :(

8/27/26 partial lunar eclipse

clouds stole the show on this one.  here's a cellphone shot of a "lunar nebula"

clouds reflecting partially eclipsed moon
8/27/26
20:33 local

closer view through a break in the clouds:

partial lunar eclipse 8/27/26
20:36 local

I've boosted the color below to highlight the red and blue sections (explained in a prior post).

partial lunar eclipse 8/27/26
20:36 local
color boosted

image details:
eastbluff, CA
passing clouds
8/27/26 20:30-21:33

wide view
Samsung galaxy S22 ultra
f/1.8
1/4 sec
ISO 2000
6 mm
reduced to 50%

close view:
nikon D850
first light Rokinon 135 mm F/2.0
(inspired by Wally)
ISO 640
f/2.8
15 mm
.77 sec
cropped, reduced to 20%

Mercury 2026-06-14 03:12 UTC. Eureka, surface detail.

I've been trying to capture surface detail on mercury for years.

finally succeeded. It's subtle, but you can see more than just a white/gray disk. the white blotches are likely bright spots around surface craters:

Mercury 2026-06-14 03:12.8 UTC
The bright spot that lies just below the mid-point of the second limb ringing is the crater Fonteyn and it's bright ejecta
IR-850

Here are 3 consecutive 9 minute captures showing consistent structure arguing against noise.  

Mercury 2026-06-14 03:12.8 UTC
3 separate 9 minute captures
IR-850

Here's a second version processed differently:

Mercury
6/14/2026 03:03.6 UTC
IR-850

image details:
East Bluff, CA

6/14/26 03:03-03:22 UTC 
camera ZWO ASI 290MM 
filters: ZWO IR-850
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
firecapture
autstakkert (best 3%)
biggsky
photoshop upsampled 2x

the top image is the average of 3 with the outer section blended with the unsharpened version to cut down on the dark ringing artifact.

the bottom image is a single 9 minute capture upsampled 2x during stacking in autostakkert

sharpened in registax then photoshop, blended with unsharpened to cut down on dark ringing artifact.  

Thanks to Mercury Maven John Boudreau for confirmation and crater identification.  

the key seems to be a deep IR filter which minimizes the distortion from poor seeing at low altitude and maybe imaging in June with mercury's orbit more perpendicular to the horizon than other times.  biggsky's sharpening algorithm also helped.  

will have to try again some other time with more disk illuminated.  

3 separate captures:

Mid(UT)=030337.900

Duration=541.287s

FPS (avg.)=417

Shutter=2.347ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=73%

20:03 local

alt 19 deg

Mid=201249.229

Duration=540.001s

FPS (avg.)=419

Shutter=2.347ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=69%

20:12 local

alt 18 deg

Mid=202200.484

Duration=540.006s

FPS (avg.)=394

Shutter=2.347ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=58%

20:22 local

alt 16 deg

Venus conjunction with jupiter and a new Thorlabs filter for venus

hope you've all enjoyed the conjunction of jupiter and venus after sunset.  here's a cellphone shot from my front yard:  

venus above jupiter
6/9/2026 8:48 pm

i've been taking the opportunity to point the bigger scope at venus with some success, catching cloud structure in ultraviolet light:  

Venus UV-IR
6/13/26
used the Baader UV for this

Venus UV
6/13/2026 03:33 UTC
cloud structure visible

Venus IR
6/13/26 04:07 UTC
partially illuminated disk without cloud  structure

Thorlabs ultraviolet filter:

i was informed that the Thorlabs UV filter (bandwidth 380-420 nm) is better than typical filters such as the baader U-filter for my system as the coatings on SCT scopes block much of the UV light in the range of the  U-filter.  i've been trying to capture images with this filter for the past year with no success.  i've dispensed with the barlow, tried earlier and later in the day...nothing but a white disk.  Having tried 2 days in a row with no contrast, i decided to run a comparison between the two...and voila i detect cloud structure with both filters!

i guess the take home is that you need to keep firing away for good atmospheric conditions on both earth and venus.  

Comparison below:

Baader U filter
320-380 nm
average of 2 nine minute captures
details below

Thorlabs UV filter 
380-420 nm
average of 2 nine minute captures
details below

My impression is that the contrast is better with the Baader filter, but the image is more blurry.  The Baader filter required 10 times the exposure as the Thorlabs (10 ms vs 1 ms) likely making the latter more effective at "freezing" seeing, giving a sharper image.  Now it's time to get out the Barlow where the transmission difference will be a more significant factor.  

Note, the Thorlabs filter came in an unconventional size, requiring a separate order of an adapter, so be sure and speak with someone about the appropriate adapter if ordering.  

image details:

East Bluff, CA

wide field Samsung galaxy S22 ultra

6/9/2026 8:48 pm

venus

6/13/26 03:15-04:07 UTC

camera ZWO ASI 290MM 

filters: Baader IR pass "685", Baader U-filter bw 320-380 nm, Thorlabs UV filter 380-420 nm

celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

firecapture

autstakkert (best 10%)

biggsky

photoshop

UV 350 nm 

03:33.5 UTC

20:33.5 local

alt 24 deg

Duration=540.004s

FPS (avg.)=91

Shutter=10.80ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=71%

UV 350 nm 

03:43 UTC

20:43 local

alt 22 deg

Duration=540.000s

FPS (avg.)=67

Shutter=14.80ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=91%

UV 400 nm

03:15 UTC

20:15 local

alt 28 deg

Duration=540.004s

FPS (avg.)=451

Shutter=1.022ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=78%

UV 400 nm

03:58.3 UTC

20:58.3 local

Alt 18 deg

Duration=539.989s

FPS (avg.)=451

Shutter=1.818ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=85%

IR 685 nm

(IR image above)

04:07.4 UTC

20:07.4 local

alt 17 deg

Duration=180.005s

FPS (avg.)=451

Shutter=0.119ms

Gain=306 (51%)

Jupiter International Observing Campaign entries.

Here are some of my better entries, more details below.

Where's Waldo:

can you find the great red spot in this image?

hint: look at the stuff next to it in the next image.

Best great red spot:

Jupiter with great red spot
the great red spot is noticeably small this year
bonus ganymede transit to the right

OK here's the first image again (below). the GRS is perfectly on edge, right side, just below the southern equatorial belt (lower brown band).  there's a hint of red right on the rim followed by the trailing turbulence seen to the left of the great red spot in the image above.  this is the great red spot rotating away from us.  

sharpest image:

The Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (of course i'm a member) asked jupiter observers to participate in an international observing campaign to coordinate with observations from the 

 James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) complemented by professional imaging through Juno’s Perijove 81 on February 25.

"Because both JWST and Juno observe Jupiter only intermittently, amateur contributions are important. High quality ground based images provide the continuous coverage needed to track rapidly evolving atmospheric features and place spacecraft and space telescope data in broader context. Even modest backyard telescopes can supply scientifically valuable information when paired with careful documentation"

so i went crazing imaging every night from Feb 20th to 25th, good seeing or bad, even shooting through light clouds...processing as fast as i could, including image annotations with jovian coordinates measured in win jupos.  

for those who are interested they've extended the project through the end of March if anyone's interested.  

needless to say, it was a lot of work. annotated images below

Methane filter on great red spot:

lunar eclipse from the big easy 3/3/26

got up at a a silly hour to catch the lunar eclipse while at a meeting in New Orleans.

final sliver of direct sunlight

the view to the eclipse was across town. so i went scouting the night before.  it looked like it might line up along the streets a la stonehenge, but my phone compass wasn't that accurate.  so i looked for height.  none of the tall hotels would let me in at that hour, but i found a relatively tall parking garage with a view to the west:

Lunar eclipse over WWII museum
New Orleans Louisiana
approximately 5 AM local

After all that i walked back to my hotel to find a perfect framing right out front

NOLA-henge lunar eclipse
3/3/23 5:30 AM local

image details:
samsung galaxy S22 ultra