Solar System 24/25th July (now with added Uranus)

[von Tom (Tom)]

After failing dismally to find Uranus yesterday morning for 30min in clear skies and thus missing the chance to photograph all planets, the Moon and Sun in a 24hr period,I decided to reshoot the Sun, Moon, Venus and Saturn last night and hope to use yesterday morning's Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Jupiter with a successful capture of Uranus this morning. The goal of all major Solar System bodies would be met.

I had a 5:15am start at work and a look outside showed cloud. I resigned myself to the fact it wasn't to be, but in the 5 minutes before leaving for work I looked out again and saw very thin cloud where Uranus should be. Pulling out the Dobsonian I didn't bother with any alignment and goto (which I relied on yesterday but only let me down) and pointed it up where the planet should be. Lo and behold it was right in the finder, so I attached the EOS 600D and 5x Powermate and took a video, manually tracked.

I am pleased to display my collection of Solar System major bodies from the 24/25th July AEST Planets to apparent scale, and again to apparent scale with the Moon and Sun.

The second photo is the setup I used and taken at the time I imaged Jupiter about 6:15am yesterday. Don't be fooled by the complicated looking cables, I was using an extention cord to act as a variable counterweight for the camera. It really is a simple setup

Thanks for looking,

Tom

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

What an excellent project Tom, love the concept and the images are most enjoyable to boot. Well done

Jeff

[naskies (Dave)]

Beautifully presented, thanks!

[Dennis]

Great concept, execution, results and presentation Tom! I managed to achieve a similar result some while ago, although I was lucky enough to include Pluto which was still a bone fide planet at the time!

Cheers

Dennis

[von Tom (Tom)]

Thanks guys. And I knew Pluto would rate a mention at some point! I've only managed to catch it once and made a conscious decision not to include it this time otherwise it would open up the whole thing of dwarf planets and I'd have to start chasing down more.

I'm thinking about in the future maybe getting as many Solar System objects as possible in one night - moons, asteroids, dwarf planets, comets etc. That would be a fun thing to do.

The hardest thing about getting the major planets is getting Mercury at a decent enough elongation.

Cheers,

Tom

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

awesome work as usual Tom! well done!
do you get many of the neighbours popping past to look at what you're doing?

cheers

Rusty

[von Tom (Tom)]

Just to make sure I am not looking through their windows - although I do say that the telescope doesn't focus that close! Actually yes they do come over and have a look from time to time which is cool.

Tom

[naskies (Dave)]

Originally Posted by von Tom

Just to make sure I am not looking through their windows - although I do say that the telescope doesn't focus that close!

Does that mean you've tried?!

[von Tom (Tom)]

I said that I *say* it doesn't!

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

hahaha, very good, i was thinking it might be an opportune moment to mention turning lights off is beneficial...

[von Tom (Tom)]

Oh, I missed that opportunity! The two street lights drown out any other light source anyway! It is hard not to feel a bit self conscious when you are pointing the scope/camera near-horizontal in very bright twilight, let alone what others who see it feel!

[iceman (Mike)]

Fantastic work Tom!

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Great to see Tom - great adventure!

[Derek Klepp]

Great body of work Tom.

[von Tom (Tom)]

Thanks Derek, Matt, and Mike!

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great job getting the full set Tom! Well done.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Crow (Anita)]

Just getting my first telescope this week! yours makes it look like it came from toys are us!! Holy ****! I am not worthy!! Amazing and inspiring photos! I can only look to the sky and dream!!

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Wow that's brilliant! A splendid project.

[Solar (Ralph Smith)]

Brilliant result for the amount of time for that particular project Tom.
I can't find most of them let alone photograph them.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Thats great Tom