Animation of Uranus and moons; Oberon, Titania, Ariel & Umbriel.

[Dennis]

Hello,

Straddling the midnight hour of 14th/15th September 2009, I recorded a series of images of Uranus and moons Oberon, Titania, Ariel & Umbriel spanning a period of 3 ½ hours. I recorded 8 sets of images, on the hour and every ½ hour between 10:00pm and 01:30am.

Celestron C9.25 F10 SCT with WO x2.5 Barlow at an Efl of 5875mm.
SBIG ST7 ccd camera, 20 x 10sec exposures for each of the 8 sets.
FOV 240x162 arcsec at 0.32 arcsec/pixel.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
10:00pm 14th Sept to 01:38am 15th Sept 2009 AEST (UT+10).

The sub frames were recorded in mono to produce registration frames giving the positions of the moons relative to Uranus for each of the 8 sets. A final RGB set was recorded at the end of the session for Uranus only.

The 20 sub frames in each set were blinked in CCDStack and the best frames (ranged from 4 to 7) were selected for aligning and combining to produce 8 registration frames for the positional data. Set 4 recorded at 11:30pm had the most usable frames so I used these to generate “pleasing” images of the moons that were then processed in CS3 with an LRGB image of Uranus to be used for generating the final animation frames.

I then manually generated the final animation frames in CS3 by overlaying the processed (pretty) LRGB Uranus and moons frame over each of the 8 registration frames, adjusting the positions of the processed moons to match their position on each registration frame. Due to the extensive processing involved, the brightness and positional data for the animation do not have the fidelity of the corresponding data on the unprocessed registration sets.

Approximate separations of moons from Uranus:
Uranus – Ariel 11”
Uranus – Umbriel 15”
Uranus – Titania 26”
Uranus – Oberon 40”

Magnitudes of bodies:
Uranus: 5.7m
Ariel: 14.4m
Umbriel: 15.0m
Titania: 13.9m
Oberon: 14.2m

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

That's simply awesome Dennis :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[sheeny]

Superb!

Love your work, Dennis!

Al.

[Liz]

That animation is stunning Dennis!!

[[1ponders]]

I do hope you are going to run a daylong tutorial on this stuff next year at Duckadang Dennis! :bowdown:

[DavidU]

Yep, thats very impressive Dennis.

[Bloodbean]

Awesome! Great job, I love your images/animations :)

Troy

[Ric]

Blimey Dennis that's spectacular, it even has a hint of 3D about it.

Cheers

[Rod66]

Dennis,

where in Brisbane were you able to view that? I've tried at a reasonably dark site to see Uranus moons but can't do it with the naked eye. Admittedly I have an 8 inch, but looking at the contrast of Uranus and your moons, I'd suspect I should be almost able to see the little suckers.

Rod

[iceman]

Now that is very very cool!

Awesome work Dennis!

[RB]

That is fantastic !!
Dennis you're a legend mate.

:thanx: for sharing your lovely work with us.

[Quark]

Dennis you are legend mate,:bowdown:

What a truly stunning effort, Dennis, you have brought this distant and obscure world to life.

Extremely well done.
Regards
Trevor

[Dennis]

Hi Rod

The magnitudes of the moons of Uranus in my image are:

Ariel: 14.4m
Umbriel: 15.0m
Titania: 13.9m
Oberon: 14.2m

Uranus is much brighter at 5.7m and I suspect that unless one of the (brighter) moons is a reasonable distance from Uranus, it might well be drowned in the glare from the planet’s disc? If you have a planetarium program that shows the separation of the moons from Uranus, you might be able to pick a time when Titania or Oberon are several 10’s of arcsecs from the planet?

In my case, the SBIG ST7 CCD camera makes these moons an easy target due to its sensitivity, whereas the eye is less sensitive and does not accumulate photons over time in the same manner as a CCD or film.

I suspect that mag 14 to 15 would be the limiting magnitude for an 8-inch ‘scope, so you would be right on the limit?

Good luck!

Cheers

Dennis

[Troy]

Dennis, great animation
What method are you using to find Uranus

[bird]

Excellent!

Bird

[desler]

Dazzling Dennis!


Darren

[Kevnool]

Great work again Dennis.
Fantastic to view.
Cheers Kev.

[Dennis]

Hi Troy

I use a planetarium program, either The Sky Pro 6 or SkyTools Pro 3 depending on what target I am planning to image. SkyTools Pro 3 shows the 4 brighter moons of Uranus and their positions (separation) so I can judge whether or not I should be able to record them. The program runs on my Notebook computer which is connected to the mount and I select Uranus and run a GoTo to slew the ‘scope to the planet.

Here is a screen copy from SkyTools Pro 3.

Cheers

Dennis

[Astro78]

Very cool!

Ah - what's going on with that 3rd moon from the left?

[h0ughy]

How humbling is this, that is simple breathtakingly awesome. (Like normal) I have been sitting here stupefied by the shear brilliance of that animation. This is truly a dance that has been meticulously gathered in from the sky revealing a sight that I would say the majority wouldn’t have even considered to view, let alone contemplate to image. As Paul said –that is an afternoon delight for Astrofest to impart your wisdom and enlighten us of how truly gifted you are Mr Simmons…….

[[1ponders]]

Who else do we know Dave that would not only think of pulling something like this off (I'd be happy to just get a moon in the image with Uranus), but actually have the skills and patience to pull the feat off with such clarity. Not too many that I can think of.

[astroron]

Brilliant as usual Dennis, your work never ceases to amaze me :eyepop:

[h0ughy]

patience - 99.9% of the populace was just eliminated :P

[Dennis]

Thank you everyone for your kind words of appreciation – I am humbled by them!:thanx:

However, to put it all in perspective, I do have an excellent mount (Tak EM200), an excellent CCD camera (albeit some 10 years old!), the superb functionality of software such as The Sky and SkyTools for telescope control/pointing and the amazing processing aids of CCDStack and the ubiquitous Photoshop CS3.:thumbsup:

I am just the monkey that drags the gear outdoors, assembles it, and then sits there pushing the buttons! But, even with all this hardware and software capability, I am still a servant to clear skies and the positions and separation of these moons. So there is a fair bit of good luck, chance and good fortune involved as well.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

And planning Dennis, don't forget the planning. ;)

[javier alves]

wow dennis is fantastic :eyepop:

[Moon]

Dennis
Congratulations on pulling this off - the end result after all that work looks great!
James

[StephenM]

That's amazing Dennis! Great work!

Cheers,
Stephen

[h0ughy]

Ahh but Dennis - your no ordinary Monkey;):lol:

[AstroJunk]

I'm a bit late in on this thread, but just wanted to add my congrats.

Nice one:thumbsup:

[Nightskystargaz]

Dennis,

Nice pic's :D, at least you can see them. I can't.

:thanx:,

Tom

[littlemat]

WOW.

Had a glimpse at Uranus last weekend. It was a pretty much a small blue dot! Even in a 12'' LX200 at about 100X.

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to get into photography.

Very nice work!

:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Wonderful animation - looks like all the background work pays off!

[theodog]

Nice sequence Dennis.
Well done.

[Dennis]

Hello,

Thank you once again for your nice words of appreciation – I appreciate them!:)

I’ve just updated the animation using a different technique in CS3 by overlaying the processed LRGB frame over the combined CCDStack registration frame and adjusting the positions of the processed moons to match their position on the CCDStack registration layer. Due to the extensive processing involved, the brightness and positional data for the animation does not have the fidelity of the raw data although the animation now looks smoother.:)

Also attached is the CS3 Layer view showing the animation tracks overlaid on the CCDStack registration frame.

Cheers

Dennis

[dpastern]

pretty much sums it up for this lad!

Dave

[Jen]

:eyepop: wow that animation looks cool nice work Dennis :thumbsup:

[Vartigy]

Was Jupiter anywhere nearby during those nights of viewing?
Any chance the huge glare from Jupiter may have hindered the quality of viewing of Uranus? Or am I imagining a stupid scenario? (sorry for silly question, rookie when it comes to these things).
Last week of nights that i've had the dob out watching jupiter, I've noticed that they've been relatively close. At least I think it was Uranus :S

Anyway. That's some awesome imagery dennis. When you were recording it with the ccd, does it record in specific jpg frames, or does it record a live feed to an avi or some other streaming media format?

[Dennis]

Hi Aaron

Thanks for your interest and questions. During that session, Jupiter was over 35° separation from Uranus, so there was no light pollution from Jupiter. I think that the planet Neptune was less than 10° from Jupiter though? The field of view of the animation is approximately 4 x 3 arcmins so it is quite tiny indeed. For comparison, the full Moon is approximately 30 arcmins in diameter, which is 1/2°.

The ST7 CCD camera records 765x510 pixel frames, one at a time in the FITS or proprietary SBIG format; it is a “still” camera rather than a webcam. When I process the frames (files), I finally save them as JPGs so that they can be viewed in the Forum and it also keeps the file size to a minimum.

Cheers

Dennis

[alphajuno]

Very, very nice Dennis. It also helped me make heads and tails of the images I took the other night. Thanks!!

[hotspur]

Dennis,

That is really amazing!you are a very gifted person in the field

of optical endevours,it is a pleasure to view your works.

I have had a quick look at other comments,"ponders" is right the

animation has 3D feel about it,also someone made the comment

about a presentation at a future astrofest,if feel that would be a

treat,You have a excellent ability to impart knowledge and educate

people in their optical pursuits.And i know i am very greatfull of

advice i have recently recieved from you,:thumbsup:

Cheers Chris:)

[Vartigy]

ahh thanks for the explanation Dennis. Keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing more good things.

[mjeremy]

that is truly awesome - I have had a look visually a couple of times recently and even allowing for the SBIG and the exposure times I wish my visuals had been 10% of that I would have spent more time looking!

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Dennis - I can not believe I missed this?
Very impressive, unique and pretty to watch. You da Man!

[Tamtarn]

What a remarkable animation Dennis. Just keep wanting to play it over and over it's so sharp and clear. Truly a superb effort :eyepop:

[Shano592]

That really is some great capture, there.

Although I do think that they should consider changing the planet's name (for us child-minded individuals), to something like URECTUM instead.:rofl:

All credits to Prof. Hubert Farnsworth for this name ...

[Paul Haese]

That is a great animation Dennis. You always seem to get these very obscure things. I really enjoy looking out for your next challenge.