Uranus and moons; Titania, Umbriel, Oberon & Ariel

[Dennis]

Hello,

After having a look at Jupiter last night (30/31 Aug 2008) I slewed to Uranus just after midnight and grabbed 30 x 15 sec exposures using a TeleVue x4 PowerMate in the Mewlon 180 F12, delivering an effective focal ratio of F48 (8640mm fl).

I also managed to grab an RGB set and have tried to blend the RGB with the Luminance to reveal a hint of colour. The moons were not visible on the RGB frames so they remain B&W in the composite.

The session was marred a little by thin clouds and occasional strong gusts but overall, I had a good time and was quite pleased with the outcome. I have included a screen print from SkyTools, a very rich observation planning and charting application. Oberon and Ariel were 2 arc sec apart at the time of capture. Oh the things we do for fun!

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Very cool, Dennis!

Al.

[AlexN]

great resolution! Really shows the quality of the setup.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Awesome result Dennis, amazing detail and clarity.

You have inspired me to give it another go after my last attempt.

Well done.

[Striker (Tony)]

Wow very impresive Dennis.

Love the presentation as well.

[war bird]

great stuff

[Dennis]

Thanks guys, I had heaps of fun planning for this, finally finding a night when conditions were reasonable, with 5 to 6/10 seeing. I thought at one stage that an F-111 from Amberley (on its way to RiverFire) might fly through the field to add some drama! LOL!

I’ve also just updated the image to include the following details:

FOV is approx 1.7x2.3 arcmin
Image scale is approx 0.2 arcsec/pixel

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

0.2 arcsec/pixel!! Crrraaazzzzyy!!!!

I'll be picking your noggin for tips on this kind of imaging soon enough Dennis... You've been warned

[Dennis]

LOL! As a validation test, I counted 10 pixels between the moons Oberon and Ariel, which when multiplied by 0.2 arcsec/pixel, nicely gives the expected results of their 2 arcsec separation as indicated by SkyTools.

Cheers

Dennis

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great image Dennis! Very impressive.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Ric]

Lovely capture Dennis and to bag three of it's moons as well, well done.

[Dennis]

Here is a single, 15 second raw frame showing more or less how the image appeared on screen at the time of capture.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman (Mike)]

Beautiful, inspiring result. I love it when you do these type of images.

More than just a pretty picture!

[h0ughy (David)]

You’re a very talented and clever man Mr Simmons!! Brilliant result!!

[RB (Andrew)]

Excellent capture Dennis, fantastic work and I love the presentation too.

[drmorbius (Randall)]

Very nice Dennis, well done!

[Dennis]

Thank you for all your nice comments.

Sadly, I have been relegated to the far reaches of our solar system, as the local seeing for this Jupiter season just has not come up to the amazing quality we Brisbanites experienced a couple of seasons ago.

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

oh come on Dennis.. Its not great, but its not THAAAAT bad...

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by AlexN

oh come on Dennis.. Its not great, but its not THAAAAT bad...

Hey Alex

A couple of seasons ago, the seeing was soooo good that I almost didn’t need to process the AVI’s in Registax, the detail was popping out on individual frames!

It’s such a pity that then, I was using the ToUcam and still at the beginning of my planetary imaging apprenticeship. Nowadays, I don’t even bother getting out of bed unless it’s at least 7 or 8/10!

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

Yeah.. I've heard that from a few people now... Im still in the fairly infantile stages of my planetary imaging, so any chance I get im out... even if the seeing is average, its still good practice..