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Planets
The bright planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - are favourite targets for amateur astronomers. Constantly changing as they orbit the sun - or even hour to hour in some cases - they're always something to look at.So far I haven't had much chance to do planetary observing. He's the first I've done that I'm really pleased with - Saturn.
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This was the result of stacking approximately 500 x 0.2 second frames with the EvoStar 100ED Pro. I used a 2x barlow to make the image as big as possible. The planet was low in the sky, so conditions were poor. It's a nice enough image, but doesn't show much detail. | |
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This
is the same image after processing. I used the wavelets
function in Registax, adjusted colour levels, brughtness and contrast
in Photoshop, then applied a light unsharp mask. It's amazing the amount of detail which is hidden in the image if you spend a little time bringing it out. You can clearly make out one or two cloud belts, the Cassini division in the rings, andthe shadow of the planet on the ring plane. |
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A better image of Saturn using the same setup - this time about 800 frames. |
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Saturn (19 March 2007) - 2 stacks of 3000 and 750 frames with the finals composited. Unfortunately, the image is a little out of focus; worse, there is obvious 'screening' across the video which I suspect is due to the webcam heating up. Must try again with the modified webcam and the amp switched off. | |
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Here
is a not-very-impressive image of Venus obtained using the same method
and equipment as above. It was taken in daylight (and
photoshopped). Mar 3 2007. There is no detail visible, but you can just see that it's not 100% circular. As Venus orbits the sun, it shows phases like the moon. Here it is approx 87% full. |
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Another daylight image of
Venus, this time 26 Mar. You can clearly see the phase and there is a suggestion
of detai. It is to scale with the previous image -
it's a little larger, and the phase is now 81% Green+IR block filters, ~200 frames, 4x barlow. |
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 | Mars, 2007 Dec 10. | |
 | A montage of some shots of Venus during the 2007 apparition. All images were taken in daylight. You can clearly see the growth of the planet and the percentage phase decreasing. |
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Note the difference in the sun's shadow cast by the planetary disk before and after opposition. (Thanks to Sam Hawkins for the image at opposition). |
LINKS
Sky at NightThe forum associated with the popular BBC series. Friendly and good for beginners.
QCUAIG
Group dedicated to use and abuse of webcams and other kit for astro work.