Venus and Jupiter in the east

[pmrid]

I didn't expect to get any opportunity to shoot this. We had some pretty wild weather here last night with more forecast for today. So I didn't set anything up ahead of time. I should know by now.

So when my wife nudged me at 4 this morning and said the sky was clear, I had to stagger out and open the obs before (a) the sun came up; (b) the fog rolled in.

All I had available and that would take in the two planets in one frame was an old Orion 4" achromat with a IR modified 350D attached (inside a cooler box). The camera is set up for long exposures using BEOS so I couldn't quickly pull the cooler apart and allow myself to take short sub-second exposures (BEOS limits you to 1 second subs) so I dropped down to 100ISO and did a short run of 25 frames.

Registax 6 wouldn't recognise the CR2 format so I couldn't stack that way. CCD Stack wouldn't recognise them either and DSS would only stack one frame. So all in all it has not been my finest moment.

However, here is a single-frame stack with bias and no darks. Taken on the verge of daylight and one step ahead of the eastern clouds, rising mist and residual moonlight.

But I did get an image - honest!!

Peter

[Derek Klepp]

Thanks Peter was still too many clouds here

[Ryderscope]

Good on you Peter and a good catch.
Your wife is obviously very supportive of your hobby as well I see.
R

[astronobob]

Good catch - close enough to have both in the frame at this F/Length - Keool !

[OzStarGazer]

Very nice!
I saw Jupiter and Venus too this morning. I could not see Mars with my naked eye (maybe because it was already dawning and if you look at this video for example http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34638603 you will see that even in the darkness Mars is pale at the moment), but I took a pic with settings for "low light" and then I could see it very pale in the photo (like in the video above), so I basically have all three of them, although Jupiter is without its moons...
I was happy anyway.