Uranus and 3 moons in color

alphajuno (Dave) · #1 26-09-2009, 01:14 PM

Taken on 9/20, this image was done similarly to my recent Neptune/Triton image. It's an f29 image of Uranus with the three moons taken at f10 and overlaid. Titania was lost in the glare (and I have a lot on my scope, lol). Enjoy!

Dennis · #2 26-09-2009, 02:13 PM

Hi Dave

What an excellent image, and in full colour too – well done! That’s a very impressive piece of light gathering for the DMK.

I just plugged the date/time details into SkyTools 3 Pro Edn and noticed that Titania was just 4 arc secs away from Uranus, more or less to the right of the disc in your image.

Can you do any processing to reveal Titania? It is listed as mag 13.9 and it would be great if you could pull it out of the glare of Uranus’ disc.

Cheers

Dennis

orestis · #3 26-09-2009, 03:07 PM

hi dave,

wow love the colour and three moons is awesome.

sweet capture

orestis

ps-what magnification?equipment?

alphajuno (Dave) · #4 28-09-2009, 01:47 AM

Thanks Dennis. It's probably my collimation but maybe something can be done to find Titania. Take a look at my Lum frame and see what you think. I'm going out of town but will see if I can do more with it when I get back.

Thanks Orestis. I have the Imaging Source DMK camera and a Celestron CPC-1100 coupled with a Televue 2.5x Powermate.

alphajuno (Dave) · #5 28-09-2009, 01:55 AM

Here's the image. I can probably callibrate the images - I don't usually bother when exposure times are short. And, throw out the ones with the worst glare. Think that might help?

Dennis · #6 29-09-2009, 03:49 PM

Hi Dave

I had a play around with your image but couldn’t find Titania in the glare from the disc of Uranus. What was immediately apparent though, is that the SBIG ST7, being a 16 bit camera, can display far more shades of gray than the 8 bit DMK.

When I process my ST7 images, they withstand so much more stretching than the DMK images. Not surprising really; 65,536 levels versus 256!

Cheers

Dennis

PS – Hope your out of town trip went well.

alphajuno (Dave) · #7 01-10-2009, 07:19 AM

Thanks Dennis. I took a look at the final run I did that night and I think Titania is peeking out of the glare. Maybe? I'm sure it's pushing the camera's limits.

Trip went well. It was vacation this time - always better than work trips... Congrats on the pic of the week!

Dennis · #8 01-10-2009, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alphajuno

Thanks Dennis. I took a look at the final run I did that night and I think Titania is peeking out of the glare. Maybe? I'm sure it's pushing the camera's limits.

Trip went well. It was vacation this time - always better than work trips... Congrats on the pic of the week!

Hi Dave

Yes, I would say that you have a strong candidate there for that object being Titania – well done! I am constantly amazed at what can be revealed with the careful inspection of CCD images. The data is often there, but just needs some delicate teasing out to reveal it – congratulations!

With the smaller aperture of my C9.25, the SBIG ST7 really helps with its increased sensitivity and 16 bit architecture when attempting to record these dim moons with a Barlow or PowerMate fitted in the optical train.

Cheers

Dennis