Planet and other Solar System Images 2009 to 2013
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While hoping to image comet Lulin (see below) and watching for clear skies, a promising evening on 27th February 2009 gave a lovely clear view of a new Crescent Moon and bright Venus in the Western sky. Single frames with my little Panasonic TZ5, full zoom 10x optical. Set on 'Night scenery'. Works well for this sort of shot. Even the autofocus works beautifully! But see the lurking clouds - they moved in rapidly so no comet that night. |
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Early in 2009 an unusual comet, C/2007 N3 (Lulin) passed by. It's path took it outside the orbit of Earth, almost exactly on the ecliptic, and in February it developed an 'anti-tail'. Information on the discovery and an image here. Alas almost the whole of February was clouded out here in NE England, so I saw nothing of that. But at the end of the month a couple of clear spells afforded an imaging opportunity. The night of 28th February was reasonably clear, although with a slight haze. And I was able to capture the comet using my Canon 350D and William Optics ZS66 refractor with 0.8 reducer/flattener. 14 sub frames at 2 1/2 minutes. I stacked on the comet then on the stars, and overlaid the comet head on the star image to produce a sensible composite. There was substantial background glow from the haze, but I managed to reduce it in Photoshop, although some contrast was lost. Larger size. Note the small galaxies seen through the tail just behind the comet head. The bright star at the left of the image is nu Leonis. |
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The following evening (1st March) was again clear although clouds rolled in later, and so another shot at Lulin under better skies produced this composite, this time from 15 frames at 2 1/2 minutes. The comet was visibly fainter as it receded from the Sun. With the uncooled Canon chip, even though I had subtracted a dark frame, I wasn't sure whether the multiple tiny 'stars' were real, or just hot pixel noise. So I overlaid a Skymap picture on part of the image. And sure enough the stars were real! See here for a 'mouseover' showing the overlay. Larger size. The bright star at the left of the image is psi Leonis. |
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The Freeware program Deep Sky Stacker is very useful for processing RAW images from my Canon DSLR, and has a particularly clever comet stacking feature. Using it on the data gives a slightly different 'take' on the image. Smoother, but with some loss of the faintest stars and some faint background streaking. I'm not 100% sure which I prefer, so here it is for you, gentle reader, to decide for yourself! |
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After one or two comments and further deep thought (!) I combined what I considered to be the best of the two processings - the comet from the second and the background from the first, with adjustments to both, with this result. That's all folks! |
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I seldom do planetary imaging now - although I have decently dark skies at my Hexham home, it's position in the lee of the Pennines means I rarely get good enough seeing conditions. But 20th April 2009 was an exception with high pressure, slight mist and no wind, so rather than have no record of Saturn with the rings nearly closed, I fired up my Toucam on my 12" LX200 ACF with 3x Barlow. Stacked approx 700 frames out of 1800. Reasonably happy - banding and ring shadow visible and just a hint of the Cassini division. |
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The light Summer nights don't give many opportunities for stargazing, but we do occasionally have a show of beautiful noctilucent clouds, not seen from more southerly latitudes. And the night of 17/18th June 2009 saw a good display looking North over Hexham. Taken around 0030 BST (British Summer Time). Panasonic TZ5, 15 seconds at ISO 100 (Starry Sky setting). 'Mouse over' the medium size image (click on the thumbnail) for star names. |
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Another noctilucent cloud, this time on 19th July 2009. Taken looking North over Hexham around 11:20 pm. The cloud was isolated and soon dispersed, but reminded me of a whale cruising through the sky! The bright star in the middle is Capella. Panasonic TZ5 camera, 15 seconds using the 'Starry Sky' setting. Larger image. This image was published in the October 2009 issue of Astronomy Now. |
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During a trip to Les Granges in 2009, on 24th September I was able to capture Jupiter in decent seeing with Olly Penrice's 10" LX200 OTA and my Toucam. Stack of 1100 frames. The moon shadow is from Ganymede. |
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Early April 2010 saw a nice evening conjunction of Venus and Mercury, and I was able to capture this photo on 7th. Panasonic TZ5 in Night Scenery mode - the camera set itself at 8 secs, f4.8, ISO 100. |
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On 15th April, Venus and Mercury (now considerably fainter) were due to be joined by a very thin New Moon . I was expecting to be clouded out and indeed that was the case later. But earlier in the evening the weather gods were smiling and I was able to get this photo. Similar framing to the last one, (taken from the middle of the road just outside my front gate - just as well there's not much traffic!) but I pushed down the decrepit footpath sign which intruded in the last pic looking rather like a house end in silhouette! Very murky horizon - a cloud of volcanic dust from an
eruption on Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull volcano) was
drifting over Europe and caused almost all air traffic to be
grounded for several days with consequent massive and costly
disruption. Maybe the murk is down to that. |
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An image made available by NEODAAS/University of Dundee which shows the volcanic ash plume from Iceland, top left, to the north of Britain as received by NASA's Terra Satellite at 11.39 GMT Thursday April 15, 2010. All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries were suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moved south. The UK's air traffic control service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in UK airspace until at least 0700 BST on Friday amid fears of engine damage. The airspace restriction was the worst in living memory, a spokesman said. Photo: NEODAAS/University of Dundee/AP |
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When Jupiter reappeared from behind the Sun in 2010, it was immediately noticed that the Southern Equatorial Belt had dramatically faded! On August 31st I had reasonably steady skies and was able to obtain this image - a composite of 1000 frames with the Philips Toucam on the 12" LX200ACF at f 30. Sure enough, no SEB. |
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A stable high pressure system established during the second week of October 2010, but unfortunately most of the period for me was plagued by cloud from the North Sea. But the sky cleared beautifully on the night of 16th. There was a bright gibbous Moon, so I first tackled Jupiter. Some software problems meant I just missed the Great Red Spot - disappearing bottom right. But the bonus then was Io just kissing the planet. Ganymede shadow and the moon to the right. Toucam on 12" LX200ACF with 3x Barlow. One of my better planetary images! |
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During a prolonged period of wet and cloudy weather a clear window of a few hours on October 1st gave me an opportunity to image comet 103P Hartley as it passed near NGC281 - the 'Pacman' nebula. This comet was discovered by Malcom Hartley in Australia on March 15, 1986 and has an orbital period of about 6.5 years, so this was its third known pass. Very high in the sky with the tail pointing away, so only the coma visible. Estimated at around 7th magnitude, and was just visible in my 15x50 binoculars. SBIG ST-4000XCM and Canon 400L telephoto lens (400 mm focal length) stopped down to approx. 7.1 using an external mask. 21 sub frames x 3 minutes, stacked using the special comet feature of Deep Sky Stacker. Full size (913KB) There are also animations of the comet head as it moved across the sky during the hour or so of the exposures, cropped from the full size. AVI (748KB) DivX Codec. Or for those who don't have the codec, GIF (3.57 MB) This animation was used in the November 2010 'Sky at Night' TV programme. |
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While Earth based telescopes only succeeded in capturing a dot surrounded by a greenish glowing coma, this image was captured by NASA's EPOXI mission between Nov. 3 and 4, 2010, during the spacecraft's flyby of comet Hartley 2. It was captured using the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD |
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On 2nd September 2011 comet P1 Garradd was due to pass close to the 'hook' of Collinder 33 - the Coathanger asterism. But the forecast for that night (and those either side) was dismal, and unfortunately proved to be correct for my part of the country. However the weather did relent briefly on the evening of 30th August, and I was able to get a wide field image of the comet and Coathanger prior to the close encounter. 10 x 5 minute exposures with my Canon 350D camera and a 200 mm camera lens. Larger image. This image appeared in the Gallery section of the November 2011 Astronomy Now magazine, and again (cropped) in the April 2012 'Sky Diary' section |
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I don't often do planetary imaging - my location in the lee of the Northern Pennines rarely has good enough seeing. And the night of 27th October 2011 was no exception. So the lack of fine detail is reflected in the image. But Jupiter was so big and high at that time I just had to give it a try! 1200 frames (2 minutes worth) captured in K3CCDTools, stack of 600 frames in Registax, finished in Photoshop. Toucam on 12" Meade ACF with 3x Barlow. |
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Jupiter was big and bright during Autumn 2011, but as usual my sky conditions have been dismal - poor seeing when there weren't clouds! But on the evening of 7th December 2011 the shadow of Io was due to pass across the GRS during its transit. Too good to miss, and a clear evening was forecast. Alas as usual the forecasters got it wrong - a weather front approached earlier than expected, and several swathes of cloud limited the sequence to only a few frames. The seeing was absolutely atrocious, worsening as the weather deteriorated. I'd hoped someone would have had better conditions than me, but I haven't seen anything on the 'net. But at least I got something, so here is the animated GIF. Each (half size when clicked on the thumbnail) frame made up of around 500 to 600 subs, Toucam on 12" Meade LX200ACF OTA. Unfortunately very poor quality due to the bad conditions. |
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A couple of nights later (December 9th) conditions were a little better though far from ideal. This shot shows the Great Red Spot, without a moon shadow this time, but with Ganymede in the frame. Again several hundred sub frames, Toucam on 12" LX200 ACF |
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Mars becomes a bright object every 2 years or so, and March 2012 sees its closest approach of the apparition. Not particularly close this time around, reaching approximately 14 arc-seconds maximum size. Seeing is rarely good enough for me to obtain good planetary images, and the night of 5th March was no exception! But after capturing the colour data for Melotte 15 I gave it a go with this result. At least some surface features are visible as indicated. Toucam on 12" ACF with 3x Barlow, approximately 450 out of 900 sub frames combined. |
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This was from Kielder on the night of 25th March 2012. Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd with its interesting tails. I wanted to capture as much of the tails as possible, so ended up with 40 x 5 minute subs! All monochrome, QSI 683 binned 2x2 on ZS66 with MkII reducer flattener. With the big 8300 chip, still not fully flattened, but just acceptable. I stacked all 40 aligned on the comet head, giving the first image. Unfortunately even median combination didn't lose the stars altogether, but the tails show up well. The second image is aligned on the stars. In that case the comet was just a pale fuzz, so I overlaid the comet from the first pic (using Lighten in Photoshop). Gives some idea of the relation to the star field. I'm going to do an animation, but need more time. Scaled from my image, the (ion?) tail into the corner is at least 8 million kilometres long! |
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There was a fine conjunction of Venus with the Pleiades on the night of 5th April 2012. But so bright in comparison! Stack of 5 x 5 minute subs with darks, Canon 350D with Canon 400L prime lens and f7 round mask. The mask is to reduce diffraction spikes, but it would appear that I've either got diffraction circles (!) or multiple internal reflections. A strange effect! |
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After snatching a few hours sleep following the final capture of M63, I was off for a two week touring (motor caravan) holiday in Northern Scotland. Wonderful weather for almost the whole time, and despite the twilit nights I hoped for an Aurora. Not to be, but on the very last night I was rewarded with my first noctilucent cloud for two years. Taken from the Onich (about 10 miles South of Fort William) Caravan Club site looking North over Loch Linnhe. The brightest star is Capella, the green light the lighthouse! 1st June 2012, single frame, Panasonic TZ5 'consumer' camera, 'Starry Sky' setting, 15 seconds at f3.3 and ISO 100 with built in noise reduction. |
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The beautiful weather at the beginning of June soon deteriorated, but we had a short stay booked in Venice. Even there although we had some long clear periods there were a couple of days which had thunderstorms for a few hours. On 12th June we had walked to the northern edge of the city to catch a boat to the Island of Murano, had to shelter on the way as a thunderstorm and torrential rain passed over, and arrived at the quayside just as a tornado from the same storm cloud hit the island of St. Erasmus about 3 miles away. The Island is predominantly agricultural and sustained severe damage to crops as well as buildings, boats and vehicles, but fortunately no one was seriously injured. This was the first tornado in the Venice area since 1970, when a vaporetto (water bus) sank with the loss of 21 lives. Panasonic TZ5, zoomed approx x5. I took a video with my camera after the stills. The funnel was starting to break up by then, but you get some idea of the scale as I zoom out. Lots of people stopped to take pics! This version of the video is much reduced in screen size but is still 4.4 MB, mp4 format. (The original high quality .mov file is 185 MB!) Here. |
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Comet 168P Hergenrother brightened suddenly in early October 2012, and although it had faded somewhat was still an easy target on 12th October. This monochrome offering consists of 20 x 2 minute sub exposures combined by first stacking on the stars (which blurred the comet) then stacking on the comet and pasting the aligned comet from that result onto the star field, overlaying the blurred version. Doesn't always work, but this time looks ok. The little galaxy to the right of the comet is PGC 72751. QSI 683 binned 2x2 on Meade 12" at 2600 mm fl. |
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These are animated GIFs of the comet's progress across the star field for approximately 40 minutes, one with the image aligned on the stars, one on the comet. Click on the appropriate image for larger (around 800KB) versions |
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On 18th February 2013 there was an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon. Not visible in the UK, but during my visit to Tasmania I managed to observe and capture it from our location despite tree branches and clouds. I had to keep moving the mount to avoid branches, and unfortunately the focus shifted slightly so the field stars and moons of Jupiter are not the pinpoints of earlier but partially obscured attempts. But worth keeping! Canon 350D with Canon 400L Lens, single 2 second exposure at f5.6 and ISO 100. Just enough Earthshine to see the unlit part of the Moon. The star which has emerged from Occultation (top left) is 5th magnitude Omega Tauri. This image appeared in the April 2013 issue of Astronomy Now magazine. |
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Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS was set to grace our Northern skies after it rounded the Sun in March 2013. Forecast to be potentially a naked eye bright comet. But certainly its initial appearance was disappointing. I was hoping for a substantial tail stretching up towards the beautiful thin crescent Moon. But low in the western sky shortly after sunset on 13th March it was lost in the sky glow. Visible in binoculars, but small and faint. This photo was a 2 second exposure with my Canon 350D camera at 50 mm focal length. The comet is just visible below the clouds in the centre. |
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The evening of 16th March 2013 was blessed with very clear air. Although there were clouds around it was clear right down to the western horizon with very little glow. I found Comet Panstarrs easily in binoculars, and lined up my red dot finder fixed to my Canon camera with the help of a passing cloud for location. Then because the camera was mounted on my driven EQ3-2 mount, it kept the comet nicely in the field of view of the 400 L lens. Several shots, but this was the best of the bunch - as the comet lowered so the sky darkened, and at last it was indeed a naked eye object. Only 4 degrees above the horizon for this shot, and going from the star positions I reckon the tail is at least 1 degree long. The medium size image (click on the thumbnail) has 'mouseover' identification and exposure details. This image appeared in the May 2013 issue of Astronomy Now magazine. |
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Very mixed weather lately here in NE England but 3rd April 2013 was obviously going to be the best from this part of the UK for this shot, so I travelled a few miles to a dark location with a clear low northern horizon near Redesmouth, Northumberland. With this result. The comet was circumpolar, but by full dark was never above 11 degrees altitude and rapidly fell to 6. So even with clear air was in the murk. Those in the North of Scotland or Norway would have had the best views. The tail was large and diffuse - interesting but disappointing in a way. Modded Canon 350D with 200 mm (old style M42 thread) lens at f8. 8 x 5 minute subs on my EQ3-2 mount, guided with the Lodestar and 300 mm mirror lens. Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, final processing in Photoshop. Cropped from the original to cut out amp glow in the corner. Amusingly one of my subs was ruined by what I assume was a passing Police car. Must have spotted my red head torch, stopped on the road outside the gate and pointed a spotlight straight up the lens! A frantic cry of 'Put that light out' was too late. They just drove on, but I have a nice white sub! |
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The tail of Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS eventually thinned out, with a noticeable 'anti-tail'. Bernhard Hubl from Austria posted these links of his superb images on the SBIG user group: Details are on his web site.. I decided to have a go myself on 2nd June 2013 under clear skies, but at my Northern latitude with astronomical twilight and light pollution I was pretty well doomed to failure. Got something tho', so here it is. 5 x 5 minute subs (I ran out of time - had difficulty locating it so near the Pole), Canon 350D ISO800 200 mm old style (M42) lens at f7. The tail points almost due North, the brightest two stars are (bottom to top) epsilon UMi and delta UMi (the two fourth magnitude stars in Ursa Minor nearest to Polaris). It was the asterism around delta that finally helped me position the comet. |
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Comet C2012 S1 ISON on it's first (and last!) visit to the inner solar system was widely forecast to be a 'great' comet. But prior to it's close encounter with the Sun it didn't live up to expectations. this image was taken around 5 a.m. on the 4th November 2013. 4 x 5 minute frames with the Canon 350D and 70-200mm L zoom lens at 200 mm and f5.6 |
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After the disappointingly small image of Comet C2012 S1 ISON on 4th November, another opportunity around 5 a.m. on 10th November 2013 prompted me to use my Meade 127 refractor (950mm fl). With this result. It was a clear (and VERY frosty!) morning, but my Eastern sky alas is in the direction of Newcastle, so there is always light pollution sky glow despite my generally quite dark location, and the background masks some of the tail, although it's just visible up to the centre of the frame. Still disappointingly faint - the brightest star in this image is magnitude 7.6 6 x 5 minute subs again using my modded Canon 350D. Guided using a little 300mm mirror lens and Starlight Xpress Lodestar. Stacked using the excellent 'Comet and Stars' feature of Deep Sky Stacker. Core slightly elongated in each sub due to the movement over the 5 minutes - it's getting faster as it nears the Sun! |
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