There is an imaging opportunity tonight (7:43pm) for Brisbanites, where the HST transits Jupiter for those in the north. The CalSky Ground track is here: http://www.calsky.com/?Transitline=&...231&mainbody=5
and it is only about 300m wide, meaning you must be within 150m of the displayed track to actually see the HST cross the disc of the planet. The track is through Redcliffe, Deception Bay, and Narangba/Burpengary). Charlish Park (http://www.mustdobrisbane.com/kids/o...tons_beach.asp) looks good!
Every km away from the track will add 2 arc minute's distance of the pass, so that someone 24km away (like me) will see the HST pass by 1 degree from Jupiter.
Thanks for making the information available Tom. It was a pleasure to meet You and your Family.
Afocal Imaging with Panasonic DMC-FT1 compact in AVCHD Lite Video Mode (have to do the best you can with the gear that you have). Camera mounted onto 25mm EP & 2x Barlow combo.
SW 12" GoTo Dobsonian.
Suttons Beach, Redcliffe, QLD. Wednesday 16th January 2013. 27deg 14' 01.8" S 153deg 06' 56.8" E 1943 hrs EST (0943 hrs UT)
Last edited by Shark Bait; 17-01-2013 at 03:13 PM.
Reason: Suttons Beach image moved
Hey Stu nice to meet you too! Yeah we lucked out on the transit even though we were at the predicted location. It just shows how tiny the tolerances really are! I was about 46m south of you and it'll be interesting if we see any parallax. I'm processing my images at the moment. Also got a wide view video with my Dad's camera.
Here's a couple of images. The first is a composite of 12 frames of video taken with a Canon EOS 550D at prime focus of a 12" SkyWatcher Goto Dobsonian, 640x480 crop mode, ISO 400, 1/2000th sec at 60fps. The second is a Startrails image taken from video with my Dad's EOS 650D.
I was about 46m south of you and it'll be interesting if we see any parallax.
Hmm, maybe you did, too lazy to do the maths but the pics do indicate something. I rotated & scaled your shots, then aligned them on the moons. The blowout on Jupiter is evident in the first set (I stacked those) but even if the 'Jupiters' are exactly centred there still appears to be a noticeable difference.
Yep, in any case I did another alignment, centreing Jupiter and it's still clear. I'd say that the apparent difference between the two sets is due to some lens effect with the DSLR, blowing the big, bright Jupiter out more one side than the other. Perhaps!
I appreciate the effort that went into the layered images. It looks like we needed move a fair way South to capture the transit. I have not done the math, but it looks to be at least 200m.
My humble imaging setup was pushed to its limits when taking the video. When I managed to extract the still shots there was no room to move in reducing the blown out effect seen at Jupiter. I am glad they can still be used to compare parallax.
Dennis is right Tom, you have this astro niche sorted.
Tom, your father mentioned an old image of Sputnik during a pass. If it can be found, is it possible to post a copy of it on IIS?
Following in Ian Musgrave's footsteps, if you know the distance between the scopes, and can work out the angles from parallax, you can calculate the distance to HST!
I did some rough measurements and calculations and came up with distance to the HST being about 1000km.
Hi Tom
Good job! Starry Night Pro displayed a value of 835.6 kms in the “Info” panel, “Position in Space” Tab for Brisbane (bottom LHS of screen capture attached).
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