Moon and Jupiter Occultation

[Dave47tuc]

Hi:)

Many of you will be aware of the Moon Occultating Jupiter this Sunday night Feb, 27.

For those in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. You should see a Occultation or a graze or near miss:whistle:

For details look in the Astronomy 2005 ( a must have )
Or use your Planetarium programmes.

In over 30 years in this hobby i have never seen the Moon pass in front of Jupiter so i can't wait. I have seen a Mars and Venus Occultation:)

My plan is to set up with some friends we will use 3 Apo Refractors one 4" and two 5". One will have my CCD video camera with images put through to a TV.

I hope we catch a few snap shots of the TV and if any good I'll post them later on this thread.

I hear Geoff has a new scope on the way, so if its cloudy watch out Geoff:fight:

Only kidding:P

Well lets prey:prey: The weather gods are kind to us.

I hope to hear your reports.

:cheers:

[RAJAH235]

Hi Dave, I was in the I.A.S. during the 90's. I and a few others set up our t'scopes at Fairy Meadow (Nth.W'gong), for the 4th Oct 1998 Jupiter/Moon occultation. We set-up at about 4pm & watched the whole event. We even saw, (I think it was Ganymede first), appear, then Jupiter and finally about 3 to 4 mins. later, the other 3 moons. The seeing on the day was steady and clear. Jupiter's bands stood out so well that we even made out details in the cloud structure. All in all a very well spent 4 hrs on a Sunday afternoon.
Will be watching on the 27th. We only get a partial this far north, but I hope you get a great show. :2thumbs:

[DougAdams]

I am keenly waiting for this. Scopes will be primed, even if we only get a 9 minute graze...

[ving]

i sooo wanna see this one!!! :)

[iceman]

In StarryNight, for my location, it's showing that Jupiter goes behind the moon just after it rises at around 9:15pm on the 27th, and comes out at around 3am on the 28th.

Is that right? I'm pretty sure it won't even go behind from my location, but starrynight begs to differ.

[ving]

take a pic of them close together anyhow ice! It'd be great

[Dave47tuc]

Sorry Mike there wil be no occultation from your area.:)
They will be close together.

I'll try to get a nice pic for you and Ving and all:whistle:


:cheers:

[ving]

thnx dave!
your my hero! :D

[Striker]

Why don't we get a good shot...not fair...bloody favoritism if you ask me....hehehehe

[Mick]

It will be a great sight even in Qld.

[iceman]

Well i'll be up at 3am to watch the graze then, hopefully get some piccies on the ToUcam if it goes close enough to the limb.

I want pics from you melbournites!

[DougAdams]

3am...???!!!

Are we still talking about the same event?

[ving]

3am???? :eyepop:

I have come to the conclusion that you are insane mike!!!! :P

[iceman]

3am is when it comes out from the other side, doesn't it?

From starrynight, it looks like i won't see it until it gets higher.. (and later)

[ving]

I have taken a trip forward in time to capture this pic...
actually this is from last year and its someone elses....

http://www.mthurricane.com/Jupiter_Graze/Jupiter_03.jpg
pic yoinked from Mike Theiss' "eye in the tropics page"

[iceman]

Who's picture are you stealing now Ving? :) Give credit or a link where you got it from pls.. thx.

[rumples riot]

Ving that is breach of Copyright if that shot is not your own. Please remove the shot or give the credit for whom owns it. You're putting Mike in an awkard situation.

[ving]

is that fixed? its the name of the site and owners name. :/

more pica the the site for more info :)
http://www.mthurricane.com/jupter_graze.htm

(oops forgot the link. check it out cause they are great pics!)

[iceman]

'anks ving.

[ving]

NP Mr Ice :)

[rumples riot]

Thanks Ving.

[ving]

NP everybody! :D

[Striker]

Sorry off topic.

Are we alowed a signature......if not I'm dobbing Ving in.....lol

[Dave47tuc]

Back on topic:whistle:

Disaster turned into happines:D

CCD video seemed not to work:mad2: Bugger what to do.:confuse3:

Friend rang and said I have a new digital camera. Not sure of type,but I think it's a Canon E10:confused:

He has diagonal adaptor fits 1.25" so a barlow can be used:D

So we shall get set up and test on Saturn, then once Moon and Jupiter rises we hope to be sorted.:P

Weather forcast is for a fine night:whistle:

So I hope we get some good shots, If not we will get a good view.

Good luck to all and enjoy this event.:eyepop:

:cheers:

[iceman]

Tonight is the night! Hope the weather is good for everyone!

Not looking too promising for sydney area :(

[Dave47tuc]

Weather looks pretty good so far, but we have a big South wester blowing so I hope and prey no cloud.

:prey:

Good luck to all:D




:cheers:

[ving]

too right it doesnt look good mike!
dang it!
cloud everywhere :(

you guys had better take pics!!!

[rumples riot]

Nice and clear here gents, just need to align the scope first and then maybe some pics.

[iceman]

Clouds! :(
You better get pics!

Good luck everyone!

[ballaratdragons]

They are up and looking good!

Very clear skies. I wanna camera!!!!
<b><- </b>Quick, look in the eyepiece to the left.
Only a couple of hours to go for the big event! YAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!

[Vermin]

Looking good down here too.

[rumples riot]

Moon has not risen yet here, at least not over my neighbours house.

[[1ponders]]

I'll pop out and get a photo right now if you like.

[jackenau]

Moon is just starting to rise, a bit too low for my scope and some trees in the field of view. Can visually pick it out, but unfortunately not with the scope.

Good luck Paul

[[1ponders]]

Here it is the first pick from SE Qld. Canon 300D ISO400 Exp 1/125, f/12 approx 450mm focal length

[ballaratdragons]

It is going to make a fantastic photo folks.

The 4 Gallileans moons are putting on a show!

For those that can't see it, this is how they look:

<font size="5"><b>. . O . . ( </b></font>Moon

[[1ponders]]

Hope someone gets a better one :)

[[1ponders]]

Those Gods are tricksters. I thought what the hell. I'll drag my refractor outside and whip of some better ones. Guess what? The clouds have appeared from nowhere. And I mean literally nowhere. five minutes ago not a cloud in the sky. Now the whole eastern sky is blanketed

[RAJAH235]

At least someone got to see the moon. I've been socked in for days. :tasdevil: Think I'll take up drinking red wine again.

[Vermin]

Arrgh!

I took a few test shots and went inside to make sure they were OK, had a bit of a play with Photoshop, went back outside and...

100% cloud cover! Where the heck did that come from?

[astrodave]

Limb of moon has just taken a chunk out of Jupiter. Oh my this is something to watch !!

[astrodave]

Now that was quite something! Therewith a quick extract from my ToUcam avi set ..

[rumples riot]

Well I got something with the toucam and LX200. Will process the avi in the next couple of days. Some of it looked pretty good. We got a full occultation here and it only lasted for 45minutes. No clouds to be seen. Looks like South Aussies have to produce the goods.

[Comet Hunter]

View from here gives Jupiter approx. 1/2 moons width from the moon.

[Mick]

Quick photo using 12" dob no occultation for me, beautiful sight though.

[Mick]

This one overexposed to show the Moons.

[rumples riot]

Here a couple of the avi's of the occultation.

[rumples riot]

and the other

[[1ponders]]

Damn I didn't even think of the ToUcam, good onya David. Brilliant shot. Nice shootin Mick. We'll certainly make the most of what we get :)

[rumples riot]

And finally one more

[[1ponders]]

Hey congratulations Paul, you got it up and running in time. Nice shootin'

[rumples riot]

Thanks Paul, Just made it, I finished the alignment and then turned to the moon, and just saw jupiter just slipping behind the moon, thought I had enough time but by the time I got the toucam and laptop out it had slipped behind altogether. So I thought I would do some avi's of various regions of the moon and ten minutes later it began to emerge again. So those shots are the ones that you see now are the emerging Jupiter. I thought they were quite good just for a rushed processing job. But I do like Davids shot better.

[Mick]

Nice work Paul and David, good night :zzz2:

[iceman]

Damn so annoyed I missed it, great shooting dave and paul, excellent excellent shots.

[ving]

great shooting guys! :)

well at about 12 I was locking up the house for the night and noticed a few stars out.... raced outside to look and locked the door behind me. there was but only a small break in the clouds and normally i wouldnt have even bothered but the moon was just showing thru the clouds.
I raced around the front of the house to get back in, grabed the scope and camera and set up.
no cooling down time as it was only a small gap and the moon kept disappearing. wacked in a low power EP and waited for the clouds to clear enough to see jupiter took 2 snap shots (hand held) before jupiter and the moon went behind clouds again. then i set up my camera holder with a 15mm EP to get closer and the moon didnt show again. :(

glad i saw them tho even if they were still far apart :)
scope at f6, 48x magnification, 1.3 sec exposure @ 400 iso, afocal hand held.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/982e7a89.jpg

[rmcpb]

Nice to see the photos. Total cloud cover here all weekend :(

[ballaratdragons]

WOW! What a night.

I had my neighbour in to watch it (retired Physics & Maths professor) and he kept saying Wow too. I purposely made sure I set up in the glow from the strret light.:D

I said "Gee that damn street light is annoying":whistle:

He said " Yes, you are right. Now I see what you mean, we'll have to do something about that".

Hallellujah!!! Got him! :wink2:

The occultation was absolutely fantastic. Thanks for the photos folks.

:thumbsup: :2thumbs: :cool2:

[seeker372011]

thanks for posting some great photos folks.

[MiG]

Damn it's hard to take photos afocally without an adaptor. I tried doing it with a seperate tripod. It turned out pretty crap. I'm not sure whether my scope is properly collimated and I probably wasn't using the centre of the eyepiece due to the dodgy method. Anyhow, here are the errr...best ones. :ashamed:
Did some levels, cropping, resize and unsharp mask in photoshop.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/mig_82/best_low.jpg

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/mig_82/best_high.jpg

[RAJAH235]

Ken, There's more'n S***'n Sticks, eh! WELL DONE! 2 complaints is way better than 1. A really nice series of pics you guys. Thank you all. :2thumbs:

[ving]

hey they are great mig!
looks like you had a good night of it :)

[Vermin]

Seconded!

Missed the show due to clouds and so really appreciate you lot sharing your great pics.

[Thiink]

Wow that was an excellent sight!

I actually almost totally forgot about it. I walked out of my friends house last night/this morning at 12:30am, looked up at the moon and noticed jupiter shining brightly next to it and then it clicked (luckily I had been reading the forums on the weekend)! Ended up racing home, grabbing my cheapy 60mm refractor (ugh) and had a look. Being able to almost see the moon and jupiter at the same time was great. Really makes me wish I had the dob organised before this weekend though. Then again I'm sure if I had the dob I wouldn't of been coming to work today, was hard enough getting up anyway (was about 1:45am by the time I got the 60mm back inside).

rmcpb: you got very unlucky, was clear here last night (seeing and transparency were both good). You're on the wrong side of the mountains! :P Now only if I could destroy the street lights..

[MiG]

On the way home from my holiday I stopped by Avalon airport to check it out because I haven't seen it since Jetstar moved in.
The moon was just coming up and through my binocs it looked like something out of a sci fi painting. Thin cloud streaking across it, a very yellow hue and good contrast on the craters.

Then I rushed home to see the occultation.

[ballaratdragons]

It was actually the first time I have seen Astronomical objects appear in such a very clear 3D perspective!

It certainly didn't look like a small body moving close to the Moon. I could see the depth. Amazing sight.

[Chrissyo]

:eyepop: Wow, those are some amazing pictures guys! Good job!

I didn't get to see the occulation at my house, though I did go outside at 12.30am to see Jupiter quite close to the moon. I was going to go grab my scope, but I noticed a huge cover of clouds heading towards me, so I didn't bother.

[rmcpb]

You are not wrong sometimes. Its really common this time of year when we get the gentle onshore winds. They rise up the mountains and we get the beautiful mountain mist. It has happened again tonight but I will get up early in the morning to have a look as it often clears overnight.

Here's hoping!!

[Thiink]

All too familiar with that mist, then comes the fog in winter, makes coming back from Sydney during winter a real task sometimes (even going the Bells Line way).

Good luck with the clear skies tomorrow!

[Dave47tuc]

Hi All,:)

Terrific to see so many great shots:cool2: well done to all.

I spent the night with two friends at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula here in Victoria. We set up 3 scopes A 4" and 5" Apo's. and my 10" LX200.

The seeing was very good, we used the 5" for a video feed onto a TV. Used the 4" as our visual scope and mine was used for takeing shots.:D

So were are they:confused: Sorry takeing some time for my friend Roger to send to me:whistle:

I hope to have a few photos tomorrow.:D

It was a great night and we got a full occultation with about 5/8 minutes of disapearance.

:cheers:

[astrodave]

A collection ... You obviously cannot see Jupiter's moon in these images , but the line of them made an awesome sight as they approached the moon...

[jjjnettie]

Great pictures guys!
There was a lot of patchy, heavy cloud, coming in a line right over the moon last night but I managed to get some shots between the clouds with the video camera, I processed them today. Not as good as what has been posted so far, but it does show how close Jupiter got to the moon, west of Brissie.
Jeanette

[ballaratdragons]

So it didn't even occult the moon up there?

What a bummer for those that sat up all night to see it!

[RAJAH235]

Really nice series Dave and Jeanette.
Twas only full occultation in the deep south of the continent, Ken. Anyone north around Albury? would only experience a graze. Further north and we got zero. (can't find exact lats,all approx.).

[iceman]

Excellent photos MiG Dave and Jeanette! I'm so jealous we were clouded out :(

Can't wait to see your's Dave47!

[jjjnettie]

It does look as though a tennis ball was thrown at the moon, and then ricocheted off it!
Jeanette

[Dave47tuc]

Well some good news and bad:mad2:

The set up Roger and I used, my scope (see photo):P

Rogers camera was a Nikon D70, we used eyepiece projection useing a 7 mm Nagler old type:D

Now we are new at this and I see why i'm into viewing not takeing photos:P

Roger forgot to lock the mirror when takeing a shot so out of the 200 odd he took most are blured a bit:rolleyes:

Hard lesson learned:whistle:
Oh well it was a great event:D

Below me and a few friends:eyepop:

:cheers:

[Dave47tuc]

This shot is Egress I think. We are finding it hard to find any good ones.:whistle:
I hope you like it.:D

[silvinator]

Wow such wonderful pics everyone! Well done, you should all be proud of yourselves for capturing such a momentous event. They are all great shots :D

[Dave47tuc]

Another, Damm that mirror lock:P

[Gordon]

Nice work all - Lovely shot Dave
Not so lucky with the weather here on the big day but I could see the close proximity of Jupiter from time to time through occassional breaks in the cloud.