Jupiter and Saturn 2021

These images of Jupiter and Saturn were acquired during September through Oct.1. Seeing where I image in Maryland rarely gets better than 3 of 5. Imaging could likely benefit from more video frames and more precise collimation. A few months ago it dawned on me to use autoguiding to keep target planets centered. I also need better focusing methods than those in SharpCap. I'll be working on these in the coming months.

Jupiter 9/13/2021

Saturn 9/13/2021

Jupiter 9/18/2021

Saturn 9/18/2021

Jupiter 9/19/2021

Jupiter 9/23/2021

Jupiter 9/24/2021

Jupiter 10/1/2021

Saturn 10/1/2021

More Lunar Images from May 21, 2021

Images were acquired at Celestron 8 prime focus with a ZWO ASI178MC and averaged from the best 150 of 1000 video frames with Autostakkert!3 Wavelet processing with an unsharp masking script in Paintshop Pro 2021.

Longomontanus

Mayer (top) and Euler(bottom)

Montes Recti

Moretus

Plato

Tycho

Montes Riphaeus

Recent Lunar Images (5/21/21)

With a descent moon elevation and average seeing revisited a few lunar favorites. The ASI 178MC was used to acquire 1000 800x600 pixel prime focus video frames at 60 fps. Autostakkert! was used to average the best 15% (150) of frames. Brightness touches and wavelet sharpening were done using simple scripts written by me for Paintshop Pro 2021. For help identifying features  recently acquired Virtual Moon Atlas v.7.0 free software was used. In the program features are either labeled or you can click on them to display labels. The date can be set to show the location of the terminator.

Clockwise from top Bullialdus, Lubiniezky, and Agatharchides area.

Alphonsus (top) and Ptolomaeus(bottom)

Left to right Archimedes, Autolycus, Aristillus

Bullialdus with A and B above it and Konig above left.

Clockwise from top Capuanus, Mercator, Campanus, Dunthorne, Ramsden.

Clavius with Blancanus to its left.

Copernicus

Crater Eratosthenes

Crater Lambert

Left to right Lansberg, Reinhold with B to the right.

Near Full Moon Lunar Limb

As promised in the previous post below are several lunar images taken near the limb a couple days before full moon. As in the previous session images were acquired at 1024x768 in Raw16 color space at a gain of 150 achieving a 48 FPS rate. The best 200 subframes of 2000 were averaged using Autostakkert! For feature identification I use Antonin Rukl's, "Astronomy Atlas of the Moon".

Bailly --walled plain

Cavalerius and Hevelius

Clockwise: Eddington, Briggs, Seleusus craters

Darwin, Lamarck, Byrgius

Lunar Basin Grimaldi

Eroded walled plain Piazzi

Crater Pythagorus

Schickard area

Wargentin, Nasmyth, Phocylides

Krafft and Cardanus sunrise.

Beginning of Spring Lunar Images

Right up front. These are my best lunar images ever based on the details and many small craters. The moon rides high in the evening this time of the year where seeing is decent even for mid-Atlantic Maryland where imaging was done. Using 1024x768 capture area on my ZWO ASI178MC at a 150 gain a 49 FPS rate was achieved. Imaging was done at prime focus using a diagonal. I'll consider trying a straight through optical configuration next opportunity to see if even sharper images can be achieved. There are more images to come on the same night as these and a couple days later when the moon was nearly full.

Arzachel, Alphonsus, Ptolemaeus

Clavius

Copernicus Sunrise

Lunar South Region

Plato

Straight Wall

 

Tycho