Venus & Jupiter December, 28th

Already for a few days a high pressure area settled around Belgium, unfortunately with a temperature inversion. In practice that means fog & mist in the lower parts of the country, and only the higher area’s such as the Ardennes hilltops and the “Hautes Fagnes” plateau stick out of the clouds and have sunshine and blue skies.

On Saturday we finally got some blue sky, with the C14 just in time back in business (see previous post).

On Venus, as usual – very little to no detail visible. Probably best to use an UV filter for getting some cloud structure visible.

Jupiter was captured simultaneously by the C14 (Baader IR RGB & ASI290 mono) and the Maksutov ( Player One Neptune).

C14 image of the big giant, with the Red Spot clearly visible.

  • Camera=ZWO ASI290MM
  • Filter=IR
  • Diameter=47.25″
  • CMI=286.1° CMII=93.6° CMIII=243.4° (during mid of G capture)
  • FocalLength=4150mm
  • Resolution=0.14″
  • Date=281224
  • Mid(UT)=191159.955
  • Duration=120.013s
  • Frames captured=7227
  • FPS (avg.)=60
  • File type=SER
  • Binning=1×1
  • Bit depth=8bit
  • Data=Mono
  • ROI=608×538
  • Shutter=16.59ms
  • Gain=199 (33%)
  • Histogramm(min)=0
  • Histogramm(max)=255
  • Histogramm=100%
  • Noise(avg.deviation)=1.16
  • eADU=0.416
Click to view the larger image

With the Maksutov, the images were visibly less detailed:

Just as I was pointing the C14 towards Mars, the dew point was reached. In a few moments the whole sky completely closed like a curtain.

Setting up dual scopes on the GM2000

Parts were putchased and have been lying around since months. With Christmas break finally the time arrived to put everything together.

The setup consists of a 4″ 10micron clamp that sits on the mount’s head. Next a 10micron 4″ dovetail length 400mm. This should provide (based on sketcheds) sufficient space between the two telescopes.

At both ends of the dovetail two clamps were bolted-on: the original Baader Pan EQ 3″ clamp of 33cm (holding the C14) ; and second the 200mm 3″ 10micron clamp holding the Esprit refractor.

Things worked out well, balancing is ok and the GM2000 does not suffer in any way. I did need to add a 10kg counterweight. This Geoptik counterweight as a built-in adapter that can be removed, bringing the axis diameter from 30 to 40mm, so I removed that adapter to fit the shaft of the GM2000 (the GM1000 has a 30mm counterweight shaft)

With the help from Warre and Anse: finally both scopes on the mount!
Added a off-axis counterweight (500g) to balance the Esprit to the C14. It’s visible under the red-dot finder mounted on the Esprit.
Fully loaded with all electronics: powered USB3-hub, 12V 10A power converter, 12V 4-channel Dew Controller Hitecastro, NUC mini processor, GPS box, power distribution 12V ; cable management? never heard of 🙂 there is one 220V AC cable leading to the mount. All other equipment is piggy-back.
In action on Jupiter

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