Uranus and Neptune

iceman (Mike) · #1 23-09-2005, 10:25 PM

Was going to get outside and image these tonight.. my wife has gone on a "craft night" with a friend and the kids are asleep so was planning to get outside and do some imaging..

But I had to wait until after 9pm when they were high enough, and so I got into some online games and then by the time I got outside at around 9:45pm, there was some high cloud about..

I also didn't feel like starhopping my way there, so I looked up my chart for some alignment stars for my DSC and there were a couple visible, but by now it was almost 10pm and my wife will be home at around 10:30pm.

30 minutes just isn't enough time to drag the platform, the scope, the laptop, the cases, align the DSC, find Uranus, start imaging etc etc etc.

Oh well, maybe next time

btw I did observe Uranus and Neptune visually for the first time about a month ago. They were quite like I expected, small, green/blue and featureless. But they were a disc!

Imaging them won't make them look much better than a blue/green disc but I still feel the need to record them digitally, to add them to my captured list of planets this year

h0ughy (David) · #2 23-09-2005, 10:39 PM

I have seen both in the LX200 very clearly (although that was a long while ago. Why dont we make it a go to image these cold planets? surely someone can do that, (Scott are you listening)

lets have a where's wally post to find these planets mike

iceman (Mike) · #3 23-09-2005, 10:43 PM

I've seen some quite good images of Uranus, taken by a C11 with a Lumenera cam (by Saburo76 in the CN forums).

Mine won't have the image scale, but it's still something I feel I need to do.

iceman (Mike) · #4 23-09-2005, 11:12 PM

My wife still isn't home yet.. turns out I would've had enough time to do some imaging

Oh well, there's always next time

Oh and just saw Mars rising! Not long until I can stay up late to image Mars, instead of get up early.. but then, there's always Saturn to get up early for

RapidEye · #5 24-09-2005, 12:23 AM

I saw both of them last summer in my 4.5" - just tiny little blue/green disks, but clearly disks. About a month or so, I turned my 10" loose on them. Guess what they looked like??? Yup: still little blue/green disks, just a little bit brighter

I tried to snap a few images of Uranus a few weeks back using the Rebel+Barlow, but it just isn't bright enough. Sure, I could rip off a couple hundred, and try and stack them, but at 6MP - its not quite as easy as that

<shrug> I'm hoping to have better luck with Mars, but so far, clouds, seeing, or both have prevented me from trying more than a couple of test shots.

I have seen some pretty decent amateur shots of both Uranus and Neptune, but I'm pretty sure they were taken with longer FL scopes than my 10" F/5. I'd bet a 12" or 14" F/10 or F/12 SCT would do well on them!

#6 24-09-2005, 07:26 AM

Both are actually fairly easy to find, Uranus is a naked eye object from my place. And Neptune is close to 23-Theta Capricorni at present, if I throw in the GSO 30mm SV it lays in the same FOV. Both are currently moving in retrogard or moving towards the west.

regards,CS

asimov (John) · #7 25-09-2005, 10:40 AM

Hi rapid. I got both planets on a 6" achro using a kodak easyshare camera, 3.1 mp I think.

mickoking · #8 28-09-2005, 03:16 PM

I was too lazy to find Uranus so I just photographed the field using a canon SLR with a 50mm lens and compared it to a star atlas, It just looked like a star (Suprise suprise)

. However, I got a big bonus. The negative with the image of Uranus on it also included a Gamma or Cosmic ray burst.

ving (David) · #9 28-09-2005, 04:41 PM

what is a er... "gamma or cosmic ray burst" when its at home?

mickoking · #10 28-09-2005, 05:47 PM

Ving mate

I went to see an Astronomer at Perth observatory with my Cosmic/Gamma ray
Photo and he said it was probably a Cosmic ray. But apparently cosmic and gamma rays look similar on photographic emulsion.

By the was does anyone know what causes cosmic rays?