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.

Mars and Jupiter

A nice clearing between weeks of clouds allowed to image the two majestic planets currently dominating our Northern skies.

Seeing was at best average but did certainly not allow the use of a barlow.

These images have been processed harshly to get any detail out of them. Probably not very aesthetic but for now they need to serve their best. I might try a less harshly processed version if that reveals any details at all.

South is up on all images. Europa is transiting Jupiter together with it’s shadow. on Mars, the North pole is clearly visible, but also three cloud-tops of Tharsis volcanoes. A nasty diffraction edge on the right (west) , but also some bluish clouds on the eastern rim of the planet.

Better luck next time, it was nice being at it again.

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