Well this has been a long time coming… It’s been over 4 months since my last planetary image! A combination of bad weather, bad seeing and very low motivation for astrophotography (mainly the latter) has meant I just didn’t have my telescope out for literally 4+ months. I’m trying to force myself back into it, [...]
Posts by Tag: DMK21AU04
Ganymede and Callisto Close Approach Animation
Well this animation has been a long time coming. Back on the 5th July 2009, Ganymede and Callisto had a close approach – no occultation unfortunately, but it was still great to see them so close together. Ganymede, at 5,200km diameter (1.7 arcseconds) and Callisto at 4,800 km diameter (1.6 arcseconds) are both over 635 [...]
International Space Station – 31st August 2009
On the 31st August 2009, we had a reasonably high and bright ISS pass, as the space station passed at about 60° altitude and reaching -2.8 apparent magnitude. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) was still on its way to the ISS and had not yet docked. The Space Shuttle actually passed overhead about 8 [...]
Jupiter at Opposition – 14th August 2009
I had some nice clear skies on the night of the 14th August, 2009 – when Jupiter was at opposition for the 2009 season. Being at opposition means the Sun, Earth and Moon form a straight line – and Jupiter is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and it [...]
Jupiter with Io Transit and Animation – 8th August
On Saturday night 8th August, I was able to capture some images of Jupiter with Io and its shadow in transit. The seeing was just above average – good enough to capture albedo features on Io, including the dark polar regions in contrast against the cloud tops of Jupiter. The best image from the session [...]
Jupiter, Ganymede + Shadow, and Wesley Impact Scar
Last night started like every other – typically below average seeing, but instead of going back to bed, I waited it out – hoping it would get better. And it did! The seeing peaked at 7 – 7.5/10, on a night when there was a fair bit going on. The GRS transited earlier, followed by [...]
Jupiter with the Wesley Impact Scar – 3rd August
Hi all On the night of the 3rd August, what started as typically below average seeing, finally improved as the seeing reached a respectable almost 7/10 and gave some of my best views of Jupiter this year. I was able to catch the 6th magnitude star 45 Cap in the same field of view as [...]
45 Cap, Europa and Io – Close Approach
Today (3rd/4th August) in parts of Europa, Africa, South America and the Middle East, Jupiter is due to occult the star 45 Cap – something that happens very, very rarely. For other parts of the world, including mine, the star wasn’t occulted by Jupiter but instead gathered close enough in the field of view for [...]
Jupiter, GRS and Wesley Impact Scar – 24th July
After breaking the news of Anthony Wesley’s discovery of an impact scar on Jupiter on Monday morning (while I was waiting to board a plane to Melbourne), Friday night was my first opportunity to capture an image of the now famous “Wesley Impact Scar”, or “Bird Strike” (Anthony’s forum name is “bird”). The image above [...]
Jupiter and Oval BA from July 5th
It’s been a while between posts – I’m currently up on the Sunshine Coast for a work conference, and have finally had a few spare moments to finish off this image. This image was captured on Monday morning, 6th July local time (5th July UT), in slightly above average seeing. It shows Oval BA still [...]
About Me
My name is Mike Salway and I'm an amateur astronomer and photographer. I'm the co-founder of IceInSpace, and this is my personal blog site and image gallery.
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