Battle for the Planets..
Imaging by 7-Zark-7..
After weeks of crappy to poor seeing, clouds and just plain bad luck, I *finally* got some superior images on par with the best imagers. The new camera - Flea II is very small, yet packs a considerable imaging punch. It took several attempts to master the not-all-that-intuitive software, but the results are impressive.
First, Here's an image of Mars, my first of the new imaging season:
Right now its a mere 4.8 arc seconds across - not much bigger than a decent view of the far more distant Uranus. Even at this diminutive scale, lots of detail is already visible including the (northern) polar cap.
Fun with Jove!
First an image of mighty Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot (GRS), and a transit of Io (shadow + disk).
Now check this out..
(enlarged to 110%)
Jupiter, the GRS and Io - 50 minutes later..
Can you spot Io? Its a yellowish disk about 1/4th of the way from the right limb. Check out the dark brown polar caps on Io. The moon is only 1.2 arc-seconds across - yet I'm clearly resolving detail with my 12-inch scope.
This image totally blows away *anything* done by the largest telescopes on Earth (using film) a mere 30 years ago (including the 200-inch at Palomar).
Got to love the incredible progress of the new imaging technology.
Awesome..
:-)
After weeks of crappy to poor seeing, clouds and just plain bad luck, I *finally* got some superior images on par with the best imagers. The new camera - Flea II is very small, yet packs a considerable imaging punch. It took several attempts to master the not-all-that-intuitive software, but the results are impressive.
First, Here's an image of Mars, my first of the new imaging season:
Right now its a mere 4.8 arc seconds across - not much bigger than a decent view of the far more distant Uranus. Even at this diminutive scale, lots of detail is already visible including the (northern) polar cap.
Fun with Jove!
First an image of mighty Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot (GRS), and a transit of Io (shadow + disk).
Now check this out..
(enlarged to 110%)
Jupiter, the GRS and Io - 50 minutes later..
Can you spot Io? Its a yellowish disk about 1/4th of the way from the right limb. Check out the dark brown polar caps on Io. The moon is only 1.2 arc-seconds across - yet I'm clearly resolving detail with my 12-inch scope.
This image totally blows away *anything* done by the largest telescopes on Earth (using film) a mere 30 years ago (including the 200-inch at Palomar).
Got to love the incredible progress of the new imaging technology.
Awesome..
:-)