Archive for December, 2009
Sky this Week ending Jan. 2, 2010
by Vern on Dec.31, 2009, under Sky this Week, Video
Mars on December 28, 2009
by Vern on Dec.28, 2009, under Astronomy, Planetary
Image of Mars at 12:43 am this morning. Nice steady air last night for this area. The polar cap and faint darkish smudges toward darkside limb were visible through the eyepiece. Diameter is now 12.3 arc sec. The Mars central meridian was 84 degrees longitude at time of this image so Solis Lacus, “the eye of Mars” is probably the darker round area to the lower right of center and Niliacus Lacus/Mare Acidalium to the upper right of center. Image is oriented north up and east to the left more or less.
Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 scope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and DMK 21AU04.AS video camera at 1/60 sec exposure at 60 fps, gain adjusted to maintain max at about 3/4 of log scale histogram for each LRGB filter, 50 sec video each. Stacked and aligned with Registax5, channels combined with Photshop CS4. Sky clear, temp 16 deg. F, no wind, transparency very good, turbulence varied from about 6 to 8/10, location Lousiville, Co.
A Geminid
by Vern on Dec.14, 2009, under Astronomy, Meteors
Camera has been out in the cold since 11 pm taking a picutre every 25 seconds. Best Geminid so far. Canon Xsi, 20 sec exposure, ISO 1600. FS-18-55 mm lense at 22 mm.
