Animation of Uranus and moons; Oberon, Titania, Ariel & Umbriel.
Hello,
Straddling the midnight hour of 14th/15th September 2009, I recorded a series of images of Uranus and moons Oberon, Titania, Ariel & Umbriel spanning a period of 3 ˝ hours. I recorded 8 sets of images, on the hour and every ˝ hour between 10:00pm and 01:30am.
Celestron C9.25 F10 SCT with WO x2.5 Barlow at an Efl of 5875mm.
SBIG ST7 ccd camera, 20 x 10sec exposures for each of the 8 sets.
FOV 240x162 arcsec at 0.32 arcsec/pixel.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
10:00pm 14th Sept to 01:38am 15th Sept 2009 AEST (UT+10).
The sub frames were recorded in mono to produce registration frames giving the positions of the moons relative to Uranus for each of the 8 sets. A final RGB set was recorded at the end of the session for Uranus only.
The 20 sub frames in each set were blinked in CCDStack and the best frames (ranged from 4 to 7) were selected for aligning and combining to produce 8 registration frames for the positional data. Set 4 recorded at 11:30pm had the most usable frames so I used these to generate “pleasing” images of the moons that were then processed in CS3 with an LRGB image of Uranus to be used for generating the final animation frames.
I then manually generated the final animation frames in CS3 by overlaying the processed (pretty) LRGB Uranus and moons frame over each of the 8 registration frames, adjusting the positions of the processed moons to match their position on each registration frame. Due to the extensive processing involved, the brightness and positional data for the animation do not have the fidelity of the corresponding data on the unprocessed registration sets.
where in Brisbane were you able to view that? I've tried at a reasonably dark site to see Uranus moons but can't do it with the naked eye. Admittedly I have an 8 inch, but looking at the contrast of Uranus and your moons, I'd suspect I should be almost able to see the little suckers.
Dennis,
Admittedly I have an 8 inch, but looking at the contrast of Uranus and your moons, I'd suspect I should be almost able to see the little suckers.
Rod
Hi Rod
The magnitudes of the moons of Uranus in my image are:
Uranus is much brighter at 5.7m and I suspect that unless one of the (brighter) moons is a reasonable distance from Uranus, it might well be drowned in the glare from the planet’s disc? If you have a planetarium program that shows the separation of the moons from Uranus, you might be able to pick a time when Titania or Oberon are several 10’s of arcsecs from the planet?
In my case, the SBIG ST7 CCD camera makes these moons an easy target due to its sensitivity, whereas the eye is less sensitive and does not accumulate photons over time in the same manner as a CCD or film.
I suspect that mag 14 to 15 would be the limiting magnitude for an 8-inch ‘scope, so you would be right on the limit?
Dennis, great animation
What method are you using to find Uranus
Hi Troy
I use a planetarium program, either The Sky Pro 6 or SkyTools Pro 3 depending on what target I am planning to image. SkyTools Pro 3 shows the 4 brighter moons of Uranus and their positions (separation) so I can judge whether or not I should be able to record them. The program runs on my Notebook computer which is connected to the mount and I select Uranus and run a GoTo to slew the ‘scope to the planet.
How humbling is this, that is simple breathtakingly awesome. (Like normal) I have been sitting here stupefied by the shear brilliance of that animation. This is truly a dance that has been meticulously gathered in from the sky revealing a sight that I would say the majority wouldn’t have even considered to view, let alone contemplate to image. As Paul said –that is an afternoon delight for Astrofest to impart your wisdom and enlighten us of how truly gifted you are Mr Simmons…….
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for sharing your lovely work with us.
