It’s been a month since I updated. Hard to believe there’s been no astronomical activity in that time. I tried to find Saturn with a view to filming/stacking a couple of weeks ago, but things didn’t go to plan. I did get some imaging done last night though, and with Jupiter higher than the last time I imaged it, I got quite a pleasing shot.
Yea, I’m pleased with this shot, although it isn’t too sharp, but it does nicely capture what you’ll see through an 8 inch mirror on a still night. You can just make out the (out of focus) moons – Io on the left, Ganymede on the right, (and a reminder that http://www.shallowsky.com/jupiter/ is Johnny on-the-spot for Jovian transit predictions and moon placings).
The above image was converted to AVI with Pipp, stacked with Autostakkert and tweaked with Registrax, though I don’t think I’ve got the best out of the programs yet. Especially Registrax, because I’m just changing the wavelet settings willy-nilly. But it’s better than the last effort, so I’m heading in the right direction.
Venus disappeared in the sunset earlier this year, so I took a trip out of the city an hour ago and caught the lovely planet around 4.30am, just before sunrise, (which is Wednesday, thus making the title of this blog-post a falsehood).
You can just see it above centre, about to succumb to the daylight.
Next week I’m hoping to get some decent astronomy done, though I suspect the moon might scupper any decent dark-sky observations. But at least out in the wilds of Shropshire, I’ll get a chance to image the splendour of Saturn – weather permitting!
I Need my Space 