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Mars - 20250102

In addition to the Jupiter images taken this evening, I eventually managed this image of Mars with some detail present.

Colour aberration probably induced by the x2 Barlow which is a shame.

Correlation of image details was against this excellent Albedo map on the BAA Mars section website by Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis Albedo Map of Mars

My own effort is a very poor rendition of this:

Seeing was Antoniadi III (at best) as Mars is still quite low in elevation.

Equipment

  • Celestron C11 Edge HD
  • Orion EQ-G Pro mount
  • Baader modular Barlow lens.
  • ZWO ASI 224MC Camera with IR and UV Block filter

Mars

Apparent visual magnitude:  Angular diameter (arcsec):   
Distance from Earth (a.u.):  Elongation from the Sun (°):   
Illumination (%):  Central-meridian longitude (°):   
Position angle of north pole (°):  Opposition 2020 countdown (days): 

 

Data from the Sky & Telescope Mars Profiler available from here

 

Jupiter - 20250102

Possibly my best Jupiter image yet, much better than a second image that I took about 20 minutes later using a 2x Barlow. I really struggle to focus accurately using Barlow lenses. Seeing was Antoniadi II. Fairly stable. The weather had been cold and cloudy most of the day with temperature dropping slightly to about 22:00 UT at which point some clouds rolled over and there was a distinct fall in air temperature. The air felt very still. Time to pack up as I was struggling with the cold.

The moons are:

Ganymede on the right and Io on the left.

  • Celestron Edge 11 HD
  • EQ-G Pro mount
  • ASIC 224MC Camera

Processed using:

  • SharpCap 4.1
  • Austakkart! 4
  • Registax 6

 

 

Jupiter - 20241224

We have had a pretty awful late autumn here in the UK. I have only managed 3 Sunspot counts this month at the time of writing (20241229) due to almost incessant cloud which has also run into and disrupted evening observing as well.

However, the cloud cleared on Christmas Eve and although seeing was at best average to poor (Antoniadi 3), I did manage a brief period with my Edge 11 HD, observing Jupiter and totally failing to see anything meaningful of Mars (except for a dancing reddish blob).

Despite only very average seeing, I am quite pleased with this image of Jupiter and Io.

A second image (out of 3) with the addition of a Baader modular Barlow lens (approx. 2.2x magnification) produces (for me) quite an acceptable image.

This image show three white clouds on the southern edge of the NEB flanked and separated by what appears to be Green clouds to the East and West. I'll update this further when I establish just what they are.

----------------

Update, following a request on the ALPO Jupiter discussion board, Jim Tomney kindly provided an explanation and annotated image.

<snip>

I suspect that your are talking about "hot spots" along the NEB ( North Equatorial Dark Formations {NEDFs}). They usually are a dark blue and really stand out. They represent a portion of the atmosphere that is clear - we are seeing "deeper" into the planet at those points. These often trail off into the equatorial zone as "blue festoons". See S&T November 2024 "Observing Jupiter's 'Blue Holes'" for more information.

</snip>

These festoons have a 'tail' that transgresses into the Equatorial Zone (EZ).and can be seen slanting downwards from West to East.

(Annotation courtesy Jim Tomney)

 

Jupiter Central Meridian.

  • 2024-12-24 20:25UTC
  • JD = 2460669.3506944445
  • CMIII = 50.86 deg

---------------

Optics

  • Celestron Edge 11 HD
  • Orion EQ-G Pro mount
  • Baader Modular Barlow
  • ZWO ASI 224MC Camera

Processing

  • SharpCap 4
  • Autostakkart! 4, 1000 frames, best 70%
  • Registax 6

 

20240719 - Solex

One of the joys of Caravanning is that you have the opportunity (in moderation) to take on your holiday the things that you enjoy doing at home. After a pretty awful summer in the UK, I ventured off to France with my faithful SVBony 80 F7 refractor, EQ5 mount and my Sol'Ex. Although I managed to do a white light spot count most days (main exceptions were due to travel), I only managed to get the Sol'Ex out once. I have realised that it takes a little time to get the best out of the Sol'Ex and I am still very much a novice.

So, 4 images at Ha and this was the best of the bunch.

 

I have to admit that I really like this image, one of the best that I have ever produced, sharp and well detailed with a great deal of information on display.. Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) Images highlight activity in the Solar Corona, the local atmosphere above the visible disk of the Sun.

I have annotated the image with Arrows pointing to the most significant Active Regions. As you can see, there is a great deal going on. The darker lines and shapes on the 'surface' of the sun are filaments - loops or curtains of plasma rising above the true surface.. They appear darker because they are cooler than the surface underneath.  When these structure rise above the periphery of the sun, they are known as prominences. As an indication of size, the large object to the South West is probably about 1.5x Earth diameter and is certainly not a large prominence.

AR3751, has a bright white area. This is probably a solar flare building. A M2 class Solar flare erupted at 17:53 UTC from this particular AR. M series flares are considered to be of moderate strength. AR3759 also has a hot spot although there was no report of Solar flares on this day or the next from this AR.

The Active Regions are local areas on the surface of the sun and are normally, but not always, associated with Sunspots. The numbers are assigned by the WORLD DATA CENTER FOR SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS, Boulder, Colorado.

For more information on Solar Activity on this day, follow this link to Spaceweatherlive: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/archive/2024/07/20/xray.html

When an image is processed by the JSolex app, a number of additional images are also created, interim images during the processing phase plus other en-product images.

This is  a Stonyhurst disk, underlaid with the mono (non-colourised) solar disk.

Note that the program takes into account the date, time and location to calculate the Solar parameters to ensure that the overlay is accurate.

Updated:2024-10-09

 

 

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