Jupiter with Io Shadow Transit, March 29th 2009

[iceman]

Hi all

On Sunday morning, we had beautiful clear skies and I was able to capture an image of Jupiter with Io’s shadow in transit, followed by Io itself shortly after.

Unfortunately the conditions weren’t great and the image is really affected by the poor seeing, even though Jupiter is now climbing to a respectable 40-45° in altitude before dawn.

I captured 9 RGB runs but chose the two sharpest images for display here. They were taken approximately 30 minutes apart. Io can be seen just inside the limb in the second image.

More here:
Jupiter with Io Shadow Transit, March 29th 2009 (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2009/03/31/jupiter-with-io-shadow-transit-29th-march-2009)

Thanks for looking.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Mike,

Nice one! I am yet to brave the wrath of the missus by staying up that late or getting up early to try Joop yet.

Quick question, are the features on the planet slightly blurred by too many frames over too long a capture? It seems to me that the cloud belts and Io's shadow are slightly elongated or is that perhaps the seeing at the time?

Cheers

Chris

[iceman]

Hi Chris

A combination of things:
1) Bad seeing
2) Potentially high-frequency vibrations coming from the mount.

I'm taking my mount to get a tune-up service at Bintel today, so hopefully that'll rule out #2.

[Screwdriverone]

Ahh, OK,

Looking again I noticed the seeing was only rated at 4/10 so I thought that might be the case, but I do remember you saying that too many frames make the images blend into a blur. Also, I have noticed the same issue on some other Jupiter shots lately so I thought it could have been the seeing is crappy with the Jet Streams etc.

Hope the mount checks out OK, I am looking forward to some picture perfect Jupiter shots. Sooner or later I am going to have to try my hand again with the 12 inch Dob doing the planet shuffle across the CCD chip on the webcam. But I am enjoying visual too much at the moment.

Cheers

Chris

[iceman]

Too many frames could definitely cause it in bad seeing, or if your capture time is too long.

But in this case, my capture time was only 30 seconds each channel so it's caused by seeing, low altitude and potentially vibrations.

[bird]

Nice capture Mike, hope the problems with the mount get sorted out. I had something similar last year, if you get stuck give me a call and maybe some of my tests might help you out as well.

cheers, Bird

[Lester]

Nice images Mike and hope you get the vibrations fixed.