Neptune & Triton

 Neptune, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Aug 132022
 

I finally got around to processing some non-asteroid data (the weather has not cooperated for several days). I took this image on the evening of the 29th of July.

Even at roughly 3 billion miles Neptune is bright enough that I had to take a short image (5 sec) to prevent over exposure. As indicated, one of the bright objects immediately to the right of the planet is Neptune’s largest moon Triton.

Star-like Neptune with two small objects adjacent to the planet. The top one is the moon Triton; the bottom one is a background star.

Neptune & Triton [CV:1x5s]

Triton is the 7th largest moon in the solar system (our moon is fifth on the list). Triton is somewhat unique in that it is in a retrograde orbit which supports the current theory that it is likely a captured Kuiper belt object. Imagery taken during Voyager 2’s flyby in 1989 shows a very thin atmosphere and active cryovolcanism in the form of nitrogen geysers.

 Posted by at 15:44

Mars (24 Jul 2022)

 Mars, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Jul 262022
 

Mars is just rising early enough to clear the trees and still be in relatively dark skies. As usual, this image matches the view in the telescope with south at the top. Mars just passed its winter solstice on the 21st of July.

Mars [(V)TR:2061×0.2ms; TG:2062×0.34ms; TB:2060×0.28ms]

Click here for a full explanation of the exposure data.

 Posted by at 13:29

Testing new telescope/camera combination

 Moon, Solar System  No Responses »
Jun 202022
 

I am starting to experiment with a full color camera for streaming use. This image of the Moon was taken through my ED80T (80mm f/6.0) with an Orion StarShoot Mini camera. It is capable of still imagery as well as video at a moderate full frame rate of 59 fps. I was hoping to have it ready for the recent total lunar eclipse, but clouds conspired to prevent that. The camera actually arrived the day of the eclipse and I would have been winging it but would have given it a shot. So, I’m taking the opportunity now when the Moon is dominating the skies to fine tune some operating parameters.

Moon [F:1x10s]

This scope/camera combination will give me a full disk image of the Moon and Sun, so it is destined to make the trip to Texas for the total solar eclipse on the 8th of April 2024.

 Posted by at 13:12

JWST heading for L2.

 Solar System, Spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 262021
 

Launched on Christmas day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now heading for its duty location over a million miles from the Earth at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point. This location puts the scope in a heliocentric orbit with the Earth continually between the telescope and the Sun. At the L2 location, the Earth’s gravity pulls a much smaller object into an orbit faster than it normally would have, allowing it to match the Earth’s orbital period.

The JWST is optimized for infra-red imaging. Light from very early in the age of the expanding universe has been so stretched out over the aeons that it is too long to be seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). JWST is designed specifically for that frequency of light allowing the scope to see further into the past than the HST.

I used a JPL generated ephemeris to guide my scope last night and was able to catch the JWST on its way. The animation is seventy-five 60 second images. There were some quick moving clouds passing overhead but they weren’t dense enough to obscure the scopes progress.

 Posted by at 13:48

C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)

 Comet, Solar System  1 Response »
Dec 242021
 

Unfortunately, Comet Leonard is not visible from the PTO due to the surrounding tree line. Luckily, there is always more than one comet in the sky. FYI, as of today (24 Dec 2021) there are more than 900 objects in the MPC list of observable comets.

This is comet C/2019 L3. It was discovered on the 9th of June 2019 by the ATLAS program.

C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)
[C:60x60s]

The comet is currently visible in the constellation Gemini heading towards perihelion on the 9th of January 2022. Right now, it is above the ecliptic but due to cross into the southern sky on the 18th of February next year.

C/2019 L3’s orbit viewed from above the solar system.
Graphic courtesy of the JPL Small-Body Database Browser.

As can be seen in the orbit diagram, the comet’s perihelion of 3.5 AU puts the closest it comes to the Sun well outside the orbit of Mars.

 Posted by at 18:03
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