More mars: northern polar hood, bonus jupiter

 After imaging the mars occultation (which occurred at low altitude), I waited a few hours for mars to reach maximum elevation and increased the magnification.

A layer of clouds, referred to as the northern polar hood, covers the north pole in these images.  Surface structure is more evident in the IR images which cut through cloud cover. 

Mars 12/8/22  07:26.1 UTC

probably snowing on the north pole.  

also got some bonus time on jupiter:

Jupiter 2022-12-08 04:36.3 UTC

Jupiter 2022-12-08 04:29.9-04:42.6 UTC

Image details:

average seeing

Mars 12/8/22  07:26.1 UTC

Jupiter 12/8/2204:29.9-04:42.6

eastbluff, CA

celestron 11" Edge HD

ZWO ASI 290MC (one shot color camera)

2x powermate

baader IR/UV block filter

ZWO IR pass 850 nm for IR images

Jupiter 

Image reduced by 50% due to poor seeing

10x90 sec

FPS (avg.)=42

Shutter=2.581ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=41%

Mars

RGB 6x120 sec

FPS (avg.)=145

Shutter=1.000ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=46%

IR 2x120 sec

FPS (avg.)=147

Shutter=5.000ms

Gain=351 (58%)

Histogramm=33%

mars eclipse (occultation) 12/7/22 aka 12/8/22 ~02:27 UTC

 On December 7th, both mars and the moon were in opposition--directly opposite the earth.  for the moon that means a full moon.  for mars it means the planet is roughly closest to the earth in it's orbit, so visually much larger and brighter than other times during the year.  since the planets in our solar system generally orbit in the same plane...the moon "eclipsed" (occulted) mars this year at opposition--an excellent photo opportunity.  

Mars emerging from lunar occultation
12/8/22 ~03:34 UTC
stacked composite

A different perspective:

Mars has risen
occultation egress
stacked composite

Same image, full scale crop:

occultation egress
stacked composite
full scale crop

Occultation start, 4x speed:

I used sky safari, to preview the location of mars at egress then, eyeballing the craters, navigated my narrow high power field to where I thought mars would appear.  Miraculously it appeared dead center in the field.  

Occultation end 4x speed:

Kudo's to the sky safari app

Imaging commentary:

The occultation occurred with the moon rising low in the east (6:30 PM local), so I had to move from my usual imaging location.  Unable to set up the night before, I had to bolt from work like Fred Flintstone at the whistle and set up from scratch.  polar aligned sighting thru the saddle at polaris, then 1 object align on mars.  did not have time to tune the ADC. Whatever settings I had last time were probably better than nothing.  

Used a lower gain and max histogram to improve the dynamic range.  

Processing was a bear.  Stacking software (autostakkert) could not handle my occasional field adjustments, so I wound up having to edit the video into smaller clips with PIPP, virtual dub, and photoshop, then process separately.  

The first two images are composites combining a stacked mars image, a stacked moon image, and a single frame.  

Image details:

12/8/22  ~02:27-03:34 UTC

eastbluff, CA

celestron 11" Edge HD

ZWO ASI 290MC (one shot color camera)

ZWO ADC

baader IR/UV block filter

12 fps, 1.844 ms, 152 gain, 100% histogram

isolated mars after egress

56 fps .924 ms, 251 gain (only 41%, should have been higher)

This was my second time using the celestron CGX which has some nice ergonomic features for rapid set up

Mars is here, 11/26/22. filter tricks--IR filter with RGB camera

 Mars is here.

The seeing wasn't great this session, so i imaged without a barlow.  I wanted to test out an infrared filter with a color camera which worked perfectly (see details below).

Mars 11/26/22 8:51 UTC
RGB left, IR 850 pass center, IR-RGB composite right

as i was breaking down the gear, i noticed that the stars were no longer twinkling ;) 
broke out the barlow and got less sleep than planned:

Mars 11/26/22 9:26 UTC
single 120 sec capture

Why an infrared (IR) filter works with a color camera:

the color filters in many color cameras pass infrared light.

(which is why you should use an IR blocking filter)

The ZWO 290 MC passes the IR from an 850 nm IR pass filter equally through all color filters.

as a result, you can get a uniform full resolution monochrome IR image when using an IR filter with a color camera.  

just be sure to set the color balance for all filters to neutral (see below).  

Image details:
11/26/22  08:34-09:26 UTC
celestron 11" Edge HD

first set
ZWO ASI 290MC (one shot color camera)
baader IR/UV block filter for RGB images
400 fps, .191 ms, 351 gain, 40% histogram, 120 sec x 4
ZWO IR pass 850 nm for IR images
set green and blue gain to .5 in fire capture for IR
400 fps, .855 ms, 351 gain, 35% histogram, 120 sec x 3

second image
ZWO ASI 290MC (one shot color camera)
baader IR/UV block filter
televue 2x barlow
152 fps, 2.132 ms, gain 291?, histogram 49%, 120 sec
single 120 sec capture

firecapture, autostakkert 5% stacked, winjupos, maxim, photoshop
elevation ~80 degrees
Eastbluff
Southern California

for IR-RGB blend IR was used as red channel and 30% luminance, color rebalanced on white pole structure.  

ref:

IR filter with ZWO camera

https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/1-25-ir-850nm-pass-filter

"just don’t forget to keep the WB_R and WB_B to 50 (no White Balance applied)."

fire capture screen shots:

click for full size

click for full size

another try at mercury

detail on mercury is still on my wish list.  unfortunately, the goto on my failing mount is not up to mid day imaging.  so i gave it a shot as it set near the horizon.  seeing was pretty bad at low altitude.  a low pass IR filter pulled out the planet, but no evidence of detail. 

Mercury 5/4/22 02:56 UTC

processing notes:

for reasons which escape me, my stacking software (autostakkert) was completely unable to distinguish bright, but totally distorted frames (which were the majority) from a well defined crescent.  as i result i had to manually select approximately 200 frames out of 8,651.  a process made even more tedious by a windows update blowing all my work about half way done.  needless to say, this one sat on the hard drive for a while.  finally made it thru all the frames, but alas, didn't get anything more than a crescent, no detail.  to be expected i guess with such poor seeing.  

prior attempts

image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290mm IR pass filter 850
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
8651 frames @75 fps 6.085 ms gain 351

upsampled ~2x
5/4/22 02:56 UTC (5/3/22 ~8 pm local)
East Bluff, CA
poor seeing, IR filter helped

more craters: petavius and langrenus

cruising along the 3 day old crescent moon from mare crisium leads to this pair of craters with prominent central peaks and terraced walls:

craters patavius and langrenus
3 day old moon 5/4/22 03:04 UTC

to the left is Patavius, notable for a 
-wide double rim
-complex central mountains 1.7 km from the floor and a 
-deep fracture from the peaks to the rim of the crater. 

Patavius

views of petavius are reportedly very sensitive to contrast:  

"The shadows retreat with surprising speed and for the rest of the lunation, until just after full Moon, Petavius is identifiable as a white oval. Its grandeur then reappears briefly before the whole region is engulfed by the lunar night."(Sir Patrick Moore)

to the right is Langrenus notable for a 

-20 km wide terraced rim 3 km high on the eastern side

-1 km central peak

Langrenus

there is a ray system on the crater floor which appears when the sun is directly overhead (not evident in this image).  

In 1645, Michel Florent van Langren was the first person to draw a lunar map while giving names to many of the features. This is the only one of his named features that has retained his original designation (wikipedia). 

Among his contributions were attempts to determine longitude...He believed he could improve the accuracy of longitude determination, particularly at sea, by observing peaks and craters of the Moon as they appear and disappear, hence the map (wikipedia).

between the two craters lies Vendelinus, an ancient crater lacking a central peak who's rounded walls and floor are covered with newer impact craters.  

Vendelinus

image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290mm IR pass filter 850

celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

3865 frames @59 fps 6.928 ms gain 351

5/4/22 ~3 AM UTC (5/3/22 8 pm local)

East Bluff, CA

poor seeing, IR filter helped

refs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petavius_(crater)

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/moon/petavius-crater/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langrenus_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_van_Langren#Contributions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendelinus_(crater)

sea of crisis, a lunar mare

a lunar mare (latin for sea) is a large smooth dark region on the surface of our moon.  early astronomers thought they resembled seas on the earth, hence the name.  
mare crisium caught my eye, emerging from lunar night on a 3 day old waxing crescent moon:

Mare Crisium, Sea of Crisis
5/4/2022 03:01 UTC

mare crisium is a realtively small lunar mare on the northeast quadrant of the moon.  it can be easily seen on the full moon:

mare crisium is the dark circle top
in front of the "bunny rabbit's ears"

it's the first mare to appear after the new moon, forming the "eye" of the moon's crescent:

mare crisium, the eye of the crescent upper left

lunar maria are thought to have been formed by huge asteroid impacts on the young moon which had a thin crust over hot magma.  the huge asteroids created large craters and cracked the crust.  liquid magma then flowed in--filling the craters and cooling to a smooth surface.  so at one point, they sort of were seas.  the high concentration of iron in the magma darkens the surface.  

refs:

https://lovethenightsky.com/how-did-lunar-maria-form/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lola-20100702-crisium.html

https://www.glyphweb.com/esky/surface/marecrisium.html

image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290mm IR pass filter 850

celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

880 frames @16 fps 6.928 ms gain 351

5/4/22 ~3 AM UTC (5/3/22 8 pm local)

East Bluff, CA

poor seeing, IR filter helped

full disk

11/27/12

FS 102, SX H9 (probably)

crescent

5/26/2006

FS 102, SX H9 (probably)

falcon-9 launch 10/27/22

tonight's falcon-9 launch exceeded expectations despite a relatively bright sky:

Image details:

nikon D850

F-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR

first image f/5 @55 mm 1/80 sec ISO 1600

close ups:

 1/250 sec f/5.6 @300 mm ISO 1600 

wide views 

Samsung galaxy S22 ultra

f2.2 1/30 s 2.2 mm ISO 640

f1.8 1/10s 6.4mm ISO 1000

10/27/22 Newport Beach, CA

Jupiter and Saturn on a warm summer night

had a rare warm summer night with clear skies and decent seeing.  unfortunately my mount is on the fritz, so i was unable to get out the big scope, but had a nice session with my C8 cruising the summer sky, then finished off imaging saturn and jupiter which just happen to have the GRS in view:

Jupiter 9/4/22 07:00 UTC
click image for large size

It's been a while since i've imaged saturn, the ring tilt is really decreasing.  better view of the globe, north pole difficult:

Saturn 9/4/22 07:15 UTC

Imaging Details: 
celestron nexstar 8 gps, zwo adc, baader IR/UV block filter, zwo asi 290 MC
90 sec captures

jupiter 
FPS (avg.)=66
Shutter=1.000ms
Gain=351 (58%)

saturn
FPS (avg.)=70
Shutter=14.24ms
Gain=351 (58%)

Eastbluff, CA 9/3/2022

color boosted lunar eclipse

some models predict all the colors of the rainbow can be detected at the edges of an eclipsed moon.  here's an image at the end of the total eclipse with the color saturation boosted to bring out the color:

5/15/22 lunar eclipse
color saturation boosted

A discussion on the cloudy nights forum covers it.  There are 3 phenomenon leading to color on the eclipsed moon:

1. preferential scattering of shorter wavelength light as it passes through the earth's atmosphere (red sunset effect).

2. atmospheric refraction of light (prism effect).

3. preferential absorption of red light by ozone in the upper atmosphere (blue filter effect).  

i'm only seeing red going to blue, but none of the rest of the rainbow in this image. 

if you look below the blue section, there's a hint of teal (the blue level is equal to green, but never exceeded by it).

Here's an over-the-top article on the topic:
High-resolution spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry of the totallunar eclipse January 2019

image details:
5/15/22 
near pacific ridge trail head overlooking el moro canyon in crystal cove park (southern california)
nikon D850
poor transparency 
F-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR @ 300 mm F/5.6

lunar eclipse 5/15/22

 The 5/15/22 lunar eclipse began with the partially eclipsed moon rising during full daylight--it being May:

full moon rising

Well, not exactly full:

eclipsed moon rising

In this wider view the partially eclipsed moon is visible rising in the shadow of the earth beneath the pink belt of venus, indicating the sun has set...a shadow within a shadow

partially eclipsed moon rising in the shadow of the earth, opposite the set sun

Here's an attempt at the progressive eclipse:

rising lunar eclipse sequence

And a star aligned view of the second half of the eclipse, showing part of the earth's shadow (thanks dave):

Eclipse end, star aligned.  

A bright star (upper left of moon) popped into view after being occulted by the passing eclipsed moon:

At the end of the eclipse the "blood red" moon had a prominent turquoise stripe.  Thought to be due to ozone in the upper atmosphere blocking red light. 

blue stripe at eclipse end (no saturation boost)

Short video showing the color change (4x speed):

refs:
https://www.phenomena.org/atmospheric/beltofvenus/
https://science.nasa.gov/blue-banded-blood-moon

image details:
5/15/22 
near pacific ridge trail head overlooking el moro canyon in crystal cove park (southern california)
nikon D850
poor transparency 
wide view:
AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR  @ 32 mm f/16?
close ups:
F-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR @ 300 mm F/5.6

the rig:

samsung galaxy note 9

f/2.4 1/15s 6.0mm ISO 250

eta aquarid?

i've recently had bad luck hunting bright meteors under my light polluted skies. Here's my latest effort during the eta aquarid meteor shower.

star trails 5/6-7/22

didn't catch much in the way of meteors, but distortion and chromatic aberration at the edge of the fisheye lens made cool oval star trails and subtle color fringing around polaris:

star trails around the north star, polaris (short arc)

here's a meteor candidate:

Meteor? 5/7/22 ~01:34 PDT
(north upper left)

pretty sure it's not a plane--i'm expert at identifying those, living near an airport.

heavens-above.com (link requires login)  lists one potential satellite.  it's about the right place, direction and time:

Cosmos 1980 rocket pass 5/7/22

Meteor or Cosmos 1980 rocket pass?

but stretching the chart out, aligning on the stars, and allowing for fisheye lens distortion in the image...

the streak in the sky appears to be in cygnus while the satellite passes in cepheus on the chart:

Meteor or Cosmos 1980 rocket pass?

the direction is also about right for an eta aquarid.

so cosmos rocket or eta aquarid?

i'm thinking meteor...

or is it something else?

 

imaging details:

5/6/22 10:46 PM - 5/7/22 2:54 AM (battery died), Eastbluff, CA

poor transparency

nikon D850

Sigma 15mm F/5 EX DG fisheye

30 sec, iso 200

sunspots (AR 2991, 2993--2997, 2999?) 4/23/22 22:07 UTC

a nice set of sunspots were on display the weekend of 4/23/22.  Here's an animation comparing two views: a traditional "broad band" view showing the spots visible with neutral filter, and a view with a hydrogen alpha (Ha) filter showing ionized hydrogen plasma in dancing magnetic fields above the visual surface.  

Sun WL vs Ha 2/23/22 22:07 UTC

while i generally find the Ha view more interesting, it tends to mask the detail of the sunspots as well as the subtle "granules" on the surface of the sun.  

the visual surface of the sun is called the photosphere, while the Ha/plasma layer is called the chromosphere as hydrogen plasma emits mostly red light.  

Here's a composite Ha view combining a surface image with a much brighter image showing the prominences projecting off the disk edge:

Sun Ha Composite 2/23/22

Here's a small animation of one of the prominences over 4 minutes:

Prominence 4/23/22 22:43-22:47 UTC

another of surface filaments between the sunspots no flares :(

Prominence 4/23/22 22:29-22:37 UTC

next day i pulled out a big scope for higher resolution views of the spots, but the seeing wouldn't really support the magnification

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:18 UTC

a 2x barlow added no detail :(

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:25 UTC

Imaging details:

the "broad band" images were actually taken with a Lunt 60 Ha scope with the pressure tuner "off band". this is basically the equivalent of a red continuum filter which, to my eye, passes as "white light".
this conveniently allows "white light" and Ha images through the same imaging train with only a minor adjustment.
  
4/23/22
Ha Lunt 60 PT 
sky-watcher star adventurer mount

full disk
zwo ASI 174MM 
Ha disk
FPS (avg.)=172
Shutter=0.458ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=75%

Ha prominences
FPS (avg.)=114
Shutter=4.575ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=100%

Ha tuned off band
FPS (avg.)=121
Shutter=0.131ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=72%

close up animations
ZWO ASI 290MM 

disk face
FPS (avg.)=71
Shutter=0.468ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=78%

prominence
FPS (avg.)=253
Shutter=3.946ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=100%

4/24/22
white light images 2/24
celestron 11" Edge HD
ASA mount
ZWO ASI 290MM 

"wider" close up
IR pass 685 filter (sharper than green due to poor seeing)
FPS (avg.)=21
Shutter=0.091ms
Gain=256 (42%)

close up with 2x powermate
ZWO green filter 
FPS (avg.)=38
Shutter=1.847ms
Gain=256 (42%)

processing:

autostakkert
best 20 frames of 20 sec captures

registax, photoshop

East Bluff, CA
4/23-24/22 

Starry Stormy Night

I don't usually post others' work, but I sort of collaborated:

StormyStarry Night

Notice anything unusual about the sky?

The sky is not filled with van Gogh's stars, but rather swirling storm clouds on jupiter's north pole captured by the juno mission.  The foreground is my daughter's rendition of van Gogh's Starry Night.  After seeing this awesome flyby of jupiter captured by the Juno space craft, my brother commented that the clouds were reminiscent of Starry Night.  So I took a picture of my daughter's painting, a screen shot of the NASA flyby and combined the two in photoshop.  

Here's her original a la van Gogh:

Starry Night by Alice circa 8th grade

and here's the flyby paying homage to kubric (suggest full screen view):

Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
Video Credit: Images: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SWRI, MSSS;
Animation: Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichstädt, Mike Stetson; Music: Vangelis

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

more than you wanted to know about 2001 a space odyssey

Ice Giants and Moons

Here's a capture of Uranus equatorial north (earth's) up:

Uranus
11/29/21 06:50 UTC

Uranus' north pole is rotated to the left 90 degrees relative to the orientation of the rest of the planets in the solar system. a cloud on the north pole makes the left side brighter.  

Here's a wider view using a much longer exposure showing...

the moons of Uranus
Miranda is above, but lost in the glare as it's too close
11/29/21 06:36 UTC

Here's Neptune:

Neptune 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

and a brighter view showing Triton:

Neptune and Triton 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

The magnetic fields of the ice giants uranus and neptune are unusual in that, they are highly skewed/off center from the axis of rotation.  a recent study suggest this is due to super ionic ice (which is just fun to say).  

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM with ZWO RGB filters
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA

11/29/21 04:04-06:36 UTC
120 second captures
gain 456, exposure ~5-12 ms, 30% histogram, ~60-200 fps

3x upsample (drizzle)