Uranus - Sep 25th

[lepton3]

I wasn't sure whether to post this image, but you don't see many images of Uranus so I figure may as well.

The seeing was pretty poor last night, but I set up anyhow mainly as an exercise to get an idea of the camera settings and capture and processing methods that might be involved in getting a decent image when the conditions are better.

This is a dim target, and the fact there was a 40 to 50 m/s jetstream made it difficult to focus. Therefore I did not use any barlow, just the native 2.8m f/10 focal length of the C11. Overall, the final image has been digitally zoomed by 2.5x.

The image is IR+RGB. The IR channel was heavily contrast stretched to bring out some mottling. To be honest I expect this is more processing artifact than actual planet detail -- I think the seeing was probably too poor to allow any detail.

I plan to try for real if the jetstream ever drops below 20 m/s!

-Ivan

[Varangian]

Very crisp. I have just come inside from observing Uranus for the past 30 mins, really nothing more than a blue-grey disc, seeing was not good though.

[Matt Wastell]

Thanks Ivan - always great to see this aqua dot!

[Troy]

Nice Ivan 8-)

[lepton3]

I wish you good luck and good seeing John. I can only recall seeing one visual report of any detail. Certainly all I've ever seen visually is as you described.



Cheers Matt, it will be well placed for a while, so hopefully I'll get some more images in the next few months.



Thanks Troy.

-Ivan

[nandopg]

Hi Ivan.
Great result, as Matt said is always nice to see this pale blue dot imaged.

Thanks for sharing,

Fernando

[Larryp]

Great image, Ivan

[Sarge]

Well done Ivan. Looks a treasure, colour is fabulous.

Might even give it a try myself.

Clear skies

Rod
:D:D

[stardust steve]

Awesome. Thanks for the view. I don't recall ever seeing and image of this before.:thumbsup:
Well done.

[lepton3]

Thanks Fernando, it's good to be able to give Uranus a bit of exposure. Obviously it's not as photogenic as Jupiter, but for us down here it is better placed!

Thanks Laurie.


Hi Rod,

I tried to keep the colour balance in the final image to what the histograms showed during capture. Possibly a bit green, but we know Uranus is green, right?

Hope you get good conditions and have a go yourself.



Thanks Steve. Actually there have been some images recently posted to the Cloudy Nights forum, which are certainly worth a look if you are interested.

-Ivan

[Shiraz]

impressive image Ivan - will sure be nice when the jet-stream finally dies down a bit. regards Ray

[lepton3]

Thanks Ray,

It looks like tonight/Monday morning might be OK! Here's hoping.

-Ivan

[asimov]

Good one Ivan. I've imaged this target a couple of times the last few years in good seeing but I've never ever seen any detail on it with the C11.

[lepton3]

Thanks John, it seems that there are only controversial reports of features visible in normal light. I think IR longer than 630nm is required to see the banding. Uranus will be well placed for about 6 weeks more, so hopefully I've got a reasonable chance to get an image with detail beyond reproach.

-Ivan