We had some reasonable seeing here last night, it was the first time for about six months that I have seen an Airy disc..so it was an opportunity to continue the quest for a decent Uranus image.
The 90% moon close by made pointing a bit more difficult, but didn't affect the video. With the C11, TV2.5x Powermate, and DMK21AU04.AS camera, I managed 2700 frames of IR at 0.5s exposure (34 mins) and 5400 of RGB at 0.125s. For R, I used a deep red #25 wratten instead of the usual R. For the moons, I took 20 frames of L at 5.7s exposures.
Stacked with AS!2, layers composited with Gimp, and here is the result. The moons are, from top to bottom, Titania, Umbriel, and Ariel.
A fantastic result Ivan! I tried for the moons last time I did it but failed. Looks like I need way longer exposures than what I thought..
Yes, the moons take a long exposure. Uranus itself was very burned out. Miranda is in there in close between Umbriel and Ariel, but it is glared out by over exposure of Uranus.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cometcatcher
I swear I can see polar shading and cloud bands.
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Originally Posted by Larryp
Me too-great image!
Kevin and Laurie, That's what I've been trying to capture. I collimated just before imaging, and I was careful to only sharpen wavelet layers 1 and 2, keeping the other layers on de-noise. So I think the middle dark band may be real. It is in the expected orientation. On past experience, the polar darkening is probably an artifact. But it looks nice.
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Originally Posted by Nico13
Yep outstanding in my book to, well done and thanks for showing.
Thanks Matt, I've been trying for a while, so I'm pretty pleased with the result.
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Originally Posted by Shiraz
excellent work Ivan - must have been exceptional seeing. regards Ray
Thanks Ray, yes the seeing looked very good as soon as the scope cooled down. I took a punt it would hold for the 40 odd minutes the video would take at 0.5s exposures.
It certainly looks like cloud bands, that would be amazing! Uranus is supposed to be very bland though, but that's based on the old Voyager images. Maybe it changes with the seasons? Exceptional image
