Category: Solar system

Sun 2023-03-18

The sun is not shining on my terrace the whole winter. There is a small hill in the south direction, which blocks the sunshine. The situation gets better during the spring. The first rays show up in April when the sun gets higher in the sky. This weekend I managed to capture a few of them.

Quick description of the processing: Image acquisition in FireCapture. In total 4000 frames were recorded. Selection of 12% best pictures and stacking was done in AutoStalkert. The histogram of the picture was modified into an A-curve in ImPPG. The color was added in Pixinsight and the final adjustment in Adobe Lightroom.

TelescopeLunt 60mm
Aperture60 mm
Focal length420 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
CameraZWO ASI 178MM
FiltersDouble stack
Exposure4000x25ms, Gain 0, bin 1×1, 12% selected
Date2023-03-18

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

This comet is all over the internet right now. Even mainstream media are reporting about the “Neandertal” comet with the poetic name C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which visited us last time 50’000 years ago. I was somehow losing hope to see or take a picture of this comet because the weather was constantly cloudy since October. However, on Sunday 30.1.2023 the sky cleared and I had a time window till 2 o’clock when the clouds rolled in. Unfortunately, the whole event was partially ruined by the Moon in the first quarter, so the best conditions occurred after midnight when the Moon was setting. Anyway, if you want to know why it has such a name, which resembles the password of the wifi at a hotel lobby? In fact, the comet’s naming follows the conventions. The letter C stands for a non-periodic comet, 2022 is the year of discovery, E refers to the month of discovery (first half of March), number 3 means a third comet discovered in this part of the month and ZTF stands for who or what discovered the comet. This specific comet was discovered by Zwicky Transient Facility. And why the nucleus of the comet glows green? Because most of the comets contain dicarbone (C2) molecules, which break apart by solar radiation, and during this process, the energy in form of light is released at carbon specific wavelength of 518 nm, which is a green visible light.

TelescopeSharpstar 94EDPH
Aperture94 mm
Focal length414 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 178MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 6200MC @-10°C
CorrectorF4.4 Quad Reducer
Filtersno
Exposure51x120s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2023-01-30

And here is an animation, which goes back and forth. For half of the animation (forward movement) I used 38 frames, each 2 minutes long, which means 76 minutes in total. This gives you an idea of how quickly the comet moves with respect to the background.


Solar eclipse

October 2022 offered several spectacular astronomical events in the Solar system. Recently I captured the transit of the moon Io across Jupiter and on the 25th a partial solar eclipse occurred. I was ready, the forecast was optimistic, but the clouds were still blocking the sun. Fortunately, a small gap between the clouds occurred and the sun for visible for a short moment. I didn’t hesitate a bit and focused my solar telescope, adjusted the tilter, and the pressure tuner. As soon as the picture acquisition started, the clouds rolled in again. In total, I managed to store only 876 pictures, so I selected 35% best ones and stacked them together.

Later on, the clouds cleared completely, so I got the opportunity to capture the sun properly.

TelescopeLunt 60mm
Aperture60 mm
Focal length420 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
CameraZWO ASI 178MM
FiltersDouble stack
Exposure4000x17ms, Gain 36, bin 1x1, 33% selected
Date2022-10-25

Jupiter

This year was a special occasion to observe or photograph Jupiter. The biggest planet in our Solar system got very close to Earth. In fact, it was the closest in several decades. Such events force me to take an action. I had to wait for a cloudless night and took my biggest telescope out. Well, I must admit that the opportunity of Jupiter’s opposition is great but more important than the distance between the Earth and the observed planet is the quality of seeing. The light started the journey on Sun, then traveled 778 million km to Jupiter, got reflected and traveled 367 million km back to Earth, and got spoiled in the last 100 km when passing through the thick Erth’s atmosphere.

On 19.10.2022 I was extremely lucky because Jupiter’s moon Io was transiting and creating the eclipse. Moreover, the giant red spot was visible simultaneously. I captured a few shots and got the idea to capture more of them and compose a video. In total, I was photographing the event for nearly one hour and made 15 frames out of it. You can see how quickly Jupiter spins. One day on Jupiter takes only 9 hours and 55 minutes.

And here is a static picture:

Telescope:Celestron EdgeHD C14
Aperture:354 mm
Focal length:3910 mm
MountGemini G53f
Autoguidingno
Camera:ZWO ASI485MC
Corrector:no
Filters:no
Exposure:4000xRGB (25% used) 18 ms gain 93
Date:2022-10-19

Sun transit of ISS 2022-08-21

On 21st of August 2022 was a special day. Around noon the international space station made the transit across the Sun. I was ready and managed to capture it. The transit itself took only 0.4 seconds and the frame rate of my camera was only 20 FPS, so I captured only 8 frames. In total, I captured 2000 frames, out of which I selected the best 75% and stacked them together. The ISS was added from the transit frames as separated layers.

And here is just the stack without ISS:

TelescopeLunt 60mm
Aperture60 mm
Focal length420 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
CameraZWO ASI 178MM
FiltersDouble stack
Exposure2000x3.5ms, Gain 149, bin 1x1, 75% selected
Date2022-08-21

Saturn

I have been chasing this planet for a very long time. Saturn is the most beautiful planet in the Solar System and yet I haven’t been able to photograph it properly. This is mainly caused by the fact that in the last years this planet had very low southern declination (it has been quite close to the horizon). Therefore, I was not able to capture it from home, and during my travels, to southern places, I never had a suitable telescope with me. Finally, I got an opportunity. I was in the southern hemisphere, specifically in Namibia, and I rented Meade 10″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The first night I photographed Centarus A Galaxy. Early in the morning around 4 a.m. I came to park to scope, but before that, I removed the ASI071 camera. Focal length 3130 mm I prolonged by TeleVue 2.5 Barlow lens to nearly 8 m, attached ZWO ASI485, and captured 2000 frames. Then I selected 25% best frames and here we go:

TelescopeMeade 10"
Aperture254 mm
Focal length7825 mm
MountMK 100K
Autoguidingnon
CameraZWO ASI485MC
CorrectorTeleVue Barlow 2.5x
Filtersnon
Exposure2000x180ms, Gain 222, 25% selected,
Date2022-05-28

Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas

The comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas was possible to spot in the constellation Lynx nearly two years ago (April 2020). This comet was discovered on 28th December 2019 by Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. The trajectory of the comet is suspiciously similar to another comet C/1844 Y1, which visited us nearly two centuries ago. Most probably it’s a fragment of the old visitor and the next opportunity to see this comet will occur in the year 2194.

It looks like a droplet drifting through the space. The picture was taken as the first light of the new telescope TS-Optics 150 mm f/2.8 hyperbolic Astrograph. This telescope disappointed me in its optical quality. So, don’t look at the stars in the corners. Postprocessing was quite tricky, but I somehow learned how to do it. In total, I stacked 44 exposures, each 3 minutes long, which means slightly more than 2 hours of integration time.

TelescopeTS-Optics 150 mm f/2.8 hyperbolic Astrograph
Aperture150 mm
Focal length420 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
Corrector2.5" coma corrector
Filtersno
Exposure44x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-04-15

Comet C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS

I missed the most prominent comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) in 2021 due to permanent, constant, ever-lasting bad weather. In the last 3 months, I was able to see the star only through the holes in the clouds (except one night during our winter vacation in Laax). At least I have time to process the old data I took a long time ago. In 2020 I took pictures of two comets and here is one of them. It’s called C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) and on the 25th of May 2020 was possible to spot it, roaming in the constellation Ursa Major.

I was postponing the processing very long time because the comets are the most difficult object to process. There is a fixed background of the stars and deep space objects and the comet is slightly moving across the field. This means that the pictures must be registered twice and merged together afterward. Since I have plenty of time now, I was able to experiment, and here is the final image:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1060 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-10°C
CorrectorExplore Scientific HR coma corrector
Filtersno
Exposure34x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2020-05-25

Sun

I always wanted to capture the brightest object in the sky. However, it’s not as easy as you think. If you purchase any “normal” telescope, many unmissable warnings are covering the whole telescope not to point it to the sun, unless you want to get blind. This means if you’re going to observe or photograph the Sun, you need a dedicated telescope. There are basically two companies manufacturing dedicated solar telescopes: Coronado and Lunt. The third option is purchasing any refractor and using the DayStar filter QUARK. The third option is probably the cheapest way (depending on the selection of the refractor), but it has a feature, which I don’t like. The filter is equipped with the Barlow lens. This makes it nearly impossible to observe or photograph the whole disk. This was for me no-go and I started to decide between Coronado and Lunt. Based on pictures on astrobin.com I decided on Lunt. The next dilemma is the aperture – the bigger the better, but in the case of solar telescopes, the price grows exponentially with the aperture. In the end, I decided on 60 mm. Next decision: single or double stack. Here again the more stack the better, at least in terms of what you can see on the surface. Here is a very nice feature of the small Lunt telescope – the double stack is basically achieved by screwing the front filter in front of the telescope. This is a very fast way to turn the single stack, which is great for observation of the prominences, into the double stack, which is excellent for observing the surface. So I decided on the double stack.

The first experience with the single stack was great. The prominences were nicely visible. Moreover, even the surface had a clearly detectable structure. Then I screwed the double stack in front and the troubles started. Basically, the image was significantly worse compared to the single stack. After the discussion with Lunt, I am returning the front filter and waiting for the replacement.

Here is the stack of 540 images captured by FireCapture, processed by Autostakkert!, Registax, PixInsight, and LightRoom.

Technical details:

TelescopeLunt 60mm
Aperture60 mm
Focal length420 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
Autoguidingno
CameraZWO ASI 178MM
Correctorno
FiltersNo
Exposure1000x7ms, Gain 0, bin 1x1,
Date2021-08-21

Mars

I have been waiting for this planet very long. It doesn’t mean that Mars hasn’t been visible, it was, but not from my backyard. I live in central Europe, specifically on the 47 parallel. This means that all planets should be 43° above the horizon during the conjunction (when Sun, planet, and observed planet are in one line). Well, this would be true, if the Earth would be spinning perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the Solar System. In reality, the Earth has a tilt, which causes that some years are much better than the others. A better year for a certain planet means that the planet raises a lot above the horizon, a bad year means that it stays close to the horizon.

This year was one of the best years for the planet Mars. The next opportunity will occur in 15 years.

The picture is a stack of 750 best frames, each 7.3 ms long. The focal length of the Celestron C14 telescope was extended from 4000 mm to 6400 mm by the Siebert Barlow lens.

Telescope:Celestron EdgeHD C14
Aperture:354 mm
Focal length:6400 mm
MountGemini G53f
Autoguiding-
Camera:ZWO ASI228MC
Corrector:Barlow 1.6
Filters:UV IR cut
Exposure:3000xRGB (25% used), 7.3 ms, Gain 219
Date:2020-10-25

Moon – Waxing Crescent

After long period of bad weather, I had the opportunity to take the telescope out and enjoy the clear skies. In the early evening, waxing crescent was setting down, so I took the opportunity and pointed my newton on the Moon. The illumination was only 34%, which means that as soon it gets dark, the Moon is not far from horizon and you have to capture it through thick layer of turbulent atmosphere. The picture is a stack of 700 frames.

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
Autoguiding-
Camera:ZWO ASI 071
Corrector:GPU coma corrector
Filters:UV IR cut 2"
Exposure:8x1000 frames, best 700 selected
Date:2018-03-21


Neptune

Since Pluto is no longer a planet, the privilege to be the last planet of the Solar System belongs to Neptune. Neptune is after Jupiter and Saturn the third most-massive planet. It has approximately 17 times more mass than Earth. One year on Neptune takes 164.8 years, because the distance between Sun and Neptune is 30 times longer than between Earth and Sun. The planet got its name from Roman mythology, specifically after the god of the sea – the mighty Neptune.

Neptune cannot be spotted by a naked eye, therefore one needs telescope. Even if you have one and you manage to find it, you will not see any details on Neptune’s surface. You will see just boring small spot.

The picture was taken by my biggest telescope Celestron C14. The focal length 4000 mm was increased by 1.6 Barlow lens to 6400 mm. The seeing was, as usual, very bad, therefore there are no details visible and the picture looks not perfectly focused and unsharp. I just wanted to try to capture it and here is the outcome:

Technical details

Telescope:Celestron EdgeHD C14
Aperture:354 mm
Focal length:6256 mm
MountGemini G53f
Autoguiding-
Camera:ZWO ASI228MC
Corrector:Barlow 1.6
Filters:-
Exposure:1000xL (35% used), 610 ms, Gain 353
Date:2017-10-12


C/2015 V2 Johnson – My first comet

I was lucky and in the skies visible from my terrace appeared comet with poetic name C/2015 V2 (Johnson). Right now (2015-05) is slowly moving through the constellation Bootes not far from bright star Arcturus and it is “only” 120 million kilometer from Earth.

Because the comet moves differently compared to the background stars, one has two options how to photograph it. Either the telescope is pointed on stars and the comet is slowly drifting from the field of view or the telescope is pointed on the nucleus of the comet and due to the longer exposures the stars are trailing. I picked the second variant, in order to have the comet sharp. 3 minute exposures the stars are trailed into the oval shapes, but the comet is focused:


Jupiter

Jupiter is the biggest planet in Solar System, therefore it’s called giant – gas giant. It has 2.5 times mass of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. It has more than 60 moons and one of them (Io) I managed to capture. The picture also shows Great Red Spot, which is a storm larger than the Earth.

Few days later I tried to compose an animation, this time without Great Red Spot and the moon is Ganymede:


Venus

Venus our neighboring planed in the Solar System. It has smaller orbit compared to Earth, therefore it is visible only in the evening or in the morning, but never during the night. This makes it quite difficult to photograph, because the telescope must look through the thick atmosphere. In my case it’s even more difficult, because the seeing is in my place all the time horrible. The picture looks like it’s not sharp, but this is what I was able to get from my backyard.

Technical details:

Telescope:Celestron EdgeHD C14
Aperture:354 mm
Focal length:5850 mm
MountGemini G53f
Autoguiding-
Camera:ZWO ASI228MC
Corrector:SiebertOptics Barlow 1.4
Filters:-
Exposure:3000xL (40% used), 1.542 ms, Gain 0
Date:2017-01-29

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in solar system; however the weight of this gas giant is only 1/1000 of the Sun. It has more than 60 moons, which were very important for formulation of modern way how we understand the universe. Four biggest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are visible even by small telescope. Galileo was the first who saw them and noticed that next night they are on different position, thus they must be orbiting the Jupiter. This led to the confirmation of Copernicus heliocentric theory. Obviously this was not accepted very well at that time and Galileo had to face the problems with the inquisition.

Planetary photography is completely different to deep space imagining. Since the planets are bright, the exposure time doesn’t have to be long, however the planets are small, therefore the seeing (turbulences in the atmosphere) is the biggest enemy. One needs: long focal length, short exposure times (aperture, aperture, and aperture) and as many pictures as possible.

This picture is a stack of 2000 pictures together. It’s one year old, because this year the seeing hasn’t allow me to do better pictures with my latest equipment. The red spot is visible as well as the eclipse cause by the moon Io.

jup5m_1_80s_g956_0019 23-39-31-2AP-74per_res


Moon – closer encounter

Well, as I wrote before, I hate Moon. It is a big bright monster, polluting the skies by the light. However it has its beauties. For instance the terminator – the transition between bright and dark side of the Moon can show some interesting shadows of the craters. The Moon is relatively easy to photograph, one just have to have a long focal length and any camera. The pictures were taken by my new scope Celestron EdgeHD C14 with “guiding” camera ZWO 174 MM. Each picture is a stack of approximately 1000 frames, done in AutoStakkert and sharpened further in RegiStax.conv_Moon_180316_Gain=180_Exposure=1_regi02_FS conv_Moon_180316_Gain=180_Exposure=2_1ms_regi_FS conv_Moon_180316_Gain196_Exposure2_7ms_regi_fs conv_Moon_Gain196_Ex2_FS conv_MoonGain188_Exposure2_2ms_regi_FS


Moon

Moon, der Mond, la Lune, la Luna, Měsíc, Луна, Φεγγάρι. All these names belong to our closest natural satellite. The distance between the Earth and the Moon changes approximately from 350 to 407 thousand km. If there would be a highway to moon and you would travel by car 130 km/h, it would take approximately 112 days to get there.

The Moon is the easiest object on the skies to photograph, not including the Sun and the clouds. It’s very bright object, therefore doesn’t require long exposure times. Honestly I hate the Moon, because it’s egoistic object, because if it shines, you can take a picture of the Moon only. All DSOs are blended, due to very bright background. Only one thing is possible to photograph when the Moon is shining – narrow band imaging of higher wavelengths just like H alpha or SII, because these wavelengths are in red region and therefore are not affected by blueish color of the background.

Moon_Tv1-320s_100iso_+27c_04906stdev_20140907-00h03m14s359ms