Uranus and four moons; Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon

[Dennis]

Hello,

Last night I managed to record Uranus and four of his moons; Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. SkyTools provides the following details for Uranus and his daughters:

Uranus:
Magnitude 5.80, Size 3.6"
Earth Distance: 19.7 AU, Diameter: 51118.0 km

Satellites:
Name Mag Sep"
Ariel 14.4 13.1
Umbriel 15.1 17.9
Titania 14.0 30.4
Oberon 14.2 40.2

Details:

Celestron C9.25 F10 SCT with Tak x1.6 Extender (efl of 3760mm at F16).
SBIG ST2000 with CFW10.
Combination of 10x30sec, 10x15sec and 10x5 sec exposures blended in CS5.
15th July 2010. Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

I have previously recorded these 4 brighter moons of Uranus using a TeleVue x2.5 PowerMate and last night found the task slightly more difficult due to the lesser magnification of the Tak x1.6 Extender, although the smaller pixels on the ST2000 (7.5μ) compared to my ST7 (9μ) marginally offset this.

This is not a “scientifically” accurate image in terms of brightness and colour, due to the extensive dodging and burning performed to balance the enormous brightness variation between these bodies.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers

Dennis

[Quark]

A top effort Dennis,

Your efforts in imaging the outer Solar System are truly outstanding and this is another great example of your work.

Extremely well done.
Regards
Trevor

[Lester]

Fantastic capture of this faint system Dennis. Thanks for the view.

[SkyViking]

That's gorgeous Dennis, another top shot! :D
I'm not sure of the exact time when you took the image, but I believe I can faintly see J0002423-003305 of magnitude 17.75 about one Uranus-diameter above Titania. If that's the case, have you looked for Miranda between Ariel and Uranus? At magnitude 16.58 you may just be lucky and find it in Uranus' glare somewhere?

[Darth Wader]

Another fantastic image Dennis, well done!:)

[Dennis]

Thanks Rolf. I picked up a faint blob on one of the 30 sec frames but it looked like a clump of grain at the time. A re-visit and another look at SkyTools does show a star there, as annotated in the stretched image below (400x400 pixel crop).

I have (unsuccessfully) tried for Miranda previously, using x2.5 and x4 PowerMates but wasn’t able to tease it out of the glare of Uranus. It’s still on my ever growing "to-do" list!;)

The sets of images were captured between 2:00am and 3:00am on 16th July.

Cheers

Dennis

[richardda1st]

Nice image.:thumbsup:
How far North were you Dennis when you took this image?

I really enjoy observing the planets, I'm looking forward to observing Uranus:question: :confused2: but at the moment it's still to low (Melbourne) till about 2am, and of course to cloudy when it's high.:sadeyes:

[firstlight]

Another brilliant effort Dennis. What everyone else has said, squared.

[h0ughy]

your awesomeness, i bow in your presence photon planet god

[asimov]

Great capture Dennis!

[sheeny]

All hale Dennis!:thumbsup:

Awesome!

Al.

[Dennis]

Thanks Richard and whoops – the Uranus images were recorded between 2:00am-3:30am. In a previous reply I wrote 11:00pm when I mistakenly looked at the FITs header of sets of Neptune images grabbed between 11:00pm and 11:30pm in the search for Nereid, a mag 18.7 moon.

I image from Brisbane, 27.5 deg S.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Trevor. My quick forays into the outer solar system cannot compare with the constant stream of high quality images that you continue to post for Jupiter and Saturn. I admire your dedication and stamina in the science that you do.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thank you Lester, Wade, Tony, David, John and Al for your nice comments, they are much appreciated. The loan of Gerald’s ST2000/CFW10 has breathed some new life into my recently stalled astro activities!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

How are you finding the seeing of late in Brissy Dennis? Here in Bundy I've copped nothing but 1-4/10 on average, really putting a stop to my planet imaging 'career'..

[Liz]

Thats excellent Dennis!! Wonderful to see those beautifully named Moons so far away. :thumbsup:

[M54]

That's incredible!
Takes my breath away to see a blue disk that far away.:eyepop::thumbsup:

[Clayton]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thum bsup:

[michaellxv]

Great images Dennis, thanks for the view.

[multiweb]

Very cool shot! :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Hi John

It seems to have been a bleak couple of years in terms of seeing in SE Qld, not to mention far too many cloudy nights, so I haven’t done any hi-res lunar or planetary imaging of late.:(

When I enjoyed some good seeing back in 2006 and 2007, the hotter, more humid months of Dec, Jan, Feb and Mar seemed to be more productive. Winter can deliver some nice, clean, transparent skies – hopefully at least 10 nights’ worth for the Qld Astrofest in August!:D

Cheers

Dennis

[StephenM]

Great stuff as always, Dennis!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Ric]

Blimey, that an awesome image Dennis.

I also enjoy your presentation as well.

Cheers

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

Fabulous family portait!

Best regards

Gary