Returning with Jupiter...

It's been quite a while since my previous post - almost two years. During this time I have only occasionally done some observing. The reasons are many; work, other interests (I have been very interested in calisthenics the last couple of years), being tired of mosquitoes getting into my flat every time I open the door to take out or take in the telescope, being plain old lazy, and simply not finding the same joy as before in astronomy. Nevertheless, I do not intend to let this blog share the fate with so many blogs that die after a few posts. So, for starters, here is an image of Jupiter from some time ago. Captured from Ederi hilltop on 19th March 2014,  1741 UT.

An unexpectedly good Jupiter

I made these images from a couple of videos that seemed rather average; I even told people the conditions had not been good this night, and the whole trip was not worth the effort. That was before I started processing the videos. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail that popped out during sharpening. The DIMM seeing at the time was also unimpressive, only 1.3 arcsec, but I guess there were enough good frames interspersed among the blurry ones to get a good result. Captured from Ederi, Dec 03 2011. 

A short video is avilable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8HY_1zHq_w

Two Jupiters and a double star

A couple of Jupiters captured some time ago. First, a big Jupiter from back in September on a night of good seeing. I spent the night at Agios Pnevmatos above Rethymnon, and the views were magnificent. My mirrors were however rather dirty, and although one always hears that it is not possible to see any difference between a very dirty and a clean mirror, the camera certainly noticed a difference. For this picture I tried the de-rotate function in WinJupos. It improved the details on the disk  but caused a ring to be visible not far from the edge of the planet.

My second picture is from Oct 22, just after I cleaned the mirrors. I could use less gain in the camera after cleaning, and the contrast was better. The transiting moon is Io. Captured from my terrace.

Lastly, in a departure from the usual planet images, I present an image of one of the pairs in the "double-double". Is the collimation a bit off perhaps? That's all :-)

Jupiter from Chania

Lately I have been exploring new locations in order to find better seeing. In the hills just south of Rethymnon I found reasonably good seeing (~ 0.8 arcsec) on two out of four nights, and the one night I spent on Sklopa near Chania the seeing was also good. The below image is from Sklopa, a slightly risky location perhaps, since photography is prohibited near the airport and military base. Captured on Sep 3, 2011, at 01:52 UT.

First Jupiter of the season

I got up early this morning to capture this view of Jupiter and the moons Ganymede (close to the planet) and Io. Conditions were quite good, with a NW breeze coming in from the sea and a DIMM seeing of around 0.8 arcsec. Captured at 30 fps, 1600 of 3600 frames stacked in Registax 6. I kept the processing very light to keep a natural appearance.