For something different - URANUS! 02/06/2006

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all.

I've wanted to get an image of Uranus for ages now, but never had the opportunity. Decided to get up early this morning and try my luck.

Was hoping that the early morning seeing would help me out, but thanks to a fast jetstream right overhead it meant wobblecity! The seeing was shocking and a firm breeze didn't help things close to the ground either.

Finally found Uranus thanks to star charts and star hopping (didn't bother aligning the DSC's), and tried the 5x powermate.. but it was just mush. Put the 3x barlow in which was a bit better.

I had to have a high gain (60%) which caused a lot of grain. Processing was also very difficult, as any attempt to split the colour planes caused the histostretch to make it too bright, so I lost all the colour detail.

So you'll see 3 images below:
1. The original from registax
2. After processing in AI
3. The 5x after processing in AI

Not a great image, but gives me some hope that some potential is there to get a nice image of Uranus in the next few weeks. Will also try for Neptune when the seeing is better.

[h0ughy (David)]

well Mike at least you found Uranus!

[ving (David)]

you had clear skies????
where was mine? nothing but clouds 'ere

the left image is by far the best. try again in good seeing mike, i'd be interested to see if any detail can be gained

[asimov (John)]

Good stuff Mike! I've been going to image this beastie with the toucam but haven't got around to it yet.

[Lester]

You have started the snow ball rolling Mike.

I think there will now be a flood of images of Uranus and Neptune.

Great start.

[davidpretorius]

well done mike, can't wait for some good seeing

[iceman (Mike)]

David I bet you weren't up at 4am looking at the sky

Thanks guys. Uranus and Neptune are both very well positioned for imaging right now, early in the pre-dawn sky.

[Robert_T]

Well done Mike! Now here's a real challenge. Reckon that amateurs have yet to plunge to the extremities of what's possible on imaging Uranus. Given the pickups of detail on Ganymede I reckon it's only a matter of time before someone pegs something other than uniform blue-green on Uranus.

I wonder if there's any filters that might help?

cheers,

[ving (David)]

yeah i cant wait to see if you guys can get detail

[iceman (Mike)]

Well done Mike! Now here's a real challenge. Reckon that amateurs have yet to plunge to the extremities of what's possible on imaging Uranus. Given the pickups of detail on Ganymede I reckon it's only a matter of time before someone pegs something other than uniform blue-green on Uranus.

Thanks Rob, and yeh I'm looking forward to trying in good seeing.

Uranus is 3.5" in diameter and Ganymede is only 1.6", so there should definitely be the possibility of picking up something. The problem is, to my knowledge there's no high contrast features on Uranus that could be picked up so perhaps the best we can do is a blue/green disc.
The good thing about Ganymede is the high contrast in the crater rays that allow the detail to be seen.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by iceman

David I bet you weren't up at 4am looking at the sky

I was looking up into the loving eyes of my wife!!

Seriously, i had told he that the 4am wake ups for jupiter were over for a while, but she will have to put up with uranus and neptune!

[Striker (Tony)]

Mike...thats the best Uranus I have seen on this forum....well done.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

well done Mike..nice to see the envelope being pushed

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Nice to see something new from the planetary imagers