On the 20th and 22nd March, I had two very busy mornings – capturing Jupiter (20th and 22nd), the ISS and the Moon all in the space of 2 hours on each of the days. I have finally finished processing the lunar images and am happy to be able to post these.

I used the 2x barlow to capture the ISS and used the Moon to test focus, so I captured a range of targets while waiting for the ISS to appear.  Included here are Copernicus, Sinus Iridum, Bullialdus, Aristarchus, Gassendi and Schickard.

The first image is of Copernicus using the 5x powermate. Captured at 60fps for 1 minute. The best 300 frames were stacked for this result.

Copernicus with the 5x powermate

The rest of the images are captured with the 2x barlow, again at 60fps. Next is Sinus Iridum.

Sinus Iridum

To see the remaining images and some processing notes, please read on.

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On Sunday morning, we had beautiful clear skies and I was able to capture an image of Jupiter with Io’s shadow in transit, followed by Io itself shortly after.

Unfortunately the conditions weren’t great and the image is really affected by the poor seeing, even though Jupiter is now climbing to a respectable 40-45° in altitude before dawn.

I captured 9 RGB runs but chose the two sharpest images for display here. They were taken approximately 30 minutes apart. Io can be seen just inside the limb in the second image.

Jupiter with Io shadow transit

Jupiter with Io and shadow transit

If you’re interested in the more technical details of capture and processing, please read on.

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On the 10th January 2009, my son Jacob’s cub scout group went on a bushwalk through  Bouddi National Park , starting from the top carpark at Maitland Bay, heading down through the bay, up and across the coastline and coming out at Little Beach.

Coastline at Bouddi National Park

It was a nice walk on a  popular bushwalking track. About 5.1km 1-way, we passed a lot of interesting sights, including the shipwreck of the S.S Maitland at Maitland Bay (although the tide wasn’t low enough for us to see much of it) and some lovely trees, flowers and rock formations.

I took my Canon 20D along with me, and this post is just a few photos from the walk which have been sitting on my external hard-drive for too long. So, please read on to see the rest of them.

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On the mornings of Friday 20th and Sunday 22nd March I had a busy couple of mornings, with a bright pass of the International Space Station (ISS) over my location, as well as capturing Jupiter (20th and 22nd) and the Moon. The great thing about the ISS pass was that the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-119) was docked at the time so I was hoping for good seeing and hoping I’d be able to track it accurately.

I was able to capture reasonably detailed images during both passes, but of course you always want more. For the image on the 20th, my shutter speed was a little too slow so the frames were a bit soft. The lighting and angle meant the backside of the shuttle was facing us and was not illuminated and could not be resolved.

ISS on the 20th March

The image from the 22nd shows a lot of detail and structure in the radiators and also includes the new S6 solar panel that was installed by the STS-119 crew on the 21st March. Space Shuttle Discovery is barely visible – only it’s tail is illuminated and was just about the noise level.

ISS with Discovery Docked on the 22nd March

Please continue reading for more information about the capture and processing and the challenges of recording the ISS!

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On Sunday morning, I was able to capture my first Jupiter moon transit for the season, with the volcanic moon Io transiting the gas giant. I also took the opportunity to create my first Jupiter animation for the season, hopefully the first of many to come.

It was another busy morning (like Friday morning) with an ISS pass, a lovely crescent Moon and then of course Jupiter. Seeing was quite reasonable, and improved as Jupiter climbed out of the muck, reaching an altitude of about 39° literally 5 minutes before sunrise when I captured my last image. The sky was already blue and by this time I could only just see Jupiter naked eye.

The image below is the best from the session, taken 10 minutes before sunrise and shows Io just about to leave the disc of Jupiter. Oval BA is rising on the right.

Jupiter with Io Transit

Please read on to see the animation and to read more about the capture and processing.

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This morning there was a beautiful conjunction featuring the waning Crescent Moon and Jupiter, less than 2° away. 

Looking through the eyepiece at Jupiter, she appeared to have an extra moon in an odd position – in fact it was a field star, HIP105256. The Galilean Moons were close by – Io was right next to Jupiter, with Europa and Callisto a little further away. Ganymede was in transit but was not observed.

I was able to fit the pairing in the field of view of my Canon 350D when attached at prime focus to my Saxon ED80, so I snapped off a few images before heading to work. Unfortunately I didn’t nail the focus and didn’t notice until I’d finished.

Please click the image to see the full-size.

Moon, Jupiter and Stars Conjunction. Click image for full-size.

While viewing the images on the train, I noticed that the star 29Cap was egressing from being occulted by the Moon. So I combined 8 frames into an animation showing the motion of the Moon through the stars.

Please read on to see the animation and to read more about the image.

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I had a fairly busy morning this morning – knowing that the skies were going to be clear (well, hoping), the waning crescent Moon was well positioned, a bright ISS and STS-119 Discovery pass was going overhead, and then of course Jupiter which is climbing to a manageable 35° altitude before dawn.

I managed to capture all three objects, and here’s the first one that has been processed. It’s Jupiter in seeing that was very similar to my first attempt for 2009, captured on Wednesday morning.

The resolution isn’t great due to the seeing, but Oval BA is visible just past the CM. I missed the best of the seeing as it deteriorated further as dawn approached. I was busy capturing the Moon and the ISS, and Jupiter was still too low. 

Jupiter and Oval BA

Continue reading for more capture and processing information.

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Almost exactly 1 month ago, I posted a preview of the upcoming Jupiter season for the 2009 apparition, and in the post I guessed that about month from then would be a good time to start imaging.

Well my prediction came true and this morning I was able to capture my first images of Jupiter for Season 2009! The seeing was about average for the altitude, but there was a waves of instability crossing the image from left to right, changing the shape of Jupiter quite significantly through the capture window.

I captured 6 runs, and I’ve got the 2 best from the session to post today. This one below is the last from my session when Jupiter was about 34° altitude.

First Jupiter for Season 2009

I’ve also collected some more early-apparition images of Jupiter from Australia and the Phillipines – the image by Anthony Wesley, also from this morning, is just fantastic for this early in the season and I can’t wait to see what he produces later in the year (especially when his new scope is complete!).

Please read on to see the rest of the images and for more details about the capture and processing of my images.

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On February 24 2009, a rare quadruple transit was taking place at Saturn. Titan, Mimas, Dione and Enceladus were all transiting Saturn, along with shadows of 3 out of the 4 Moons!

Fortunately for us, the Hubble Space Telescope was on-hand to image this extraordinary event and these beautiful and fascinating images have just been released.

Hold your breath! These images are just amazing.

Quadruple Transit imaged by Hubble

Please read on to see more stunning Titan Transit images from Hubble!

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The last transit of Titan across Saturn for 2009 occurred last week, on the 12th March. Unfortunately, yet again, I was clouded out for the event so I have had to live and love it through the images of others.

Some friends of mine from IceInSpace and other forums were able to capture some great images of the transit. It was quite a difficult one to capture because it started when Saturn was still quite low.

Tom Polakis - Red Channel Animation

The image above is by Tom Polakis, Arizona US, using a 10″ f/5.5 newtonian with a 2.5x barlow.

Please read on to see more images of the transit.

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