Sky this Week

Here is Mars from shortly after 9 pm this evening. Good conditions — most clear, turbulence somewhere between 6 and 7, very good transparency, 26 deg.F., 2-3 mph wind

Usual set up, Celestron Nexstar11, Televue 2.5X Powermate, DMK21AU04.AS camera, LRGB filters, 30fps, 1/30 sec.
Aligned and stacked with Registax5, Channels combined with Photoshop CS4.

NOAA region 11024 about to rotate out of view on the western limb. Below image from 2:18 pm mdt, taken with Celestron Nexstar 11 and DMK21AU04.AS video camera, 30 fps, 1/5000 sec. Aligned and stacked with Registax5. Skies were clear, 78 deg.F, turbulence 5/10.

I’ve been curious whether or not Jupiter’s Great Red Spot could be imaged in the daytime. The circumstances for this morning was favorable as the GRS central meridian crossing was shortly after sunrise. (Sunrise this morning was scheduled for 5:43 am, GRS for 6:20 am). Also since Jupiter opposition is Aug 10 it is getting near maximum angle with the sun while both are above horizon.

So to find out, I got up early and set up the scope. Here is an image at 5:56 am MDT about 13 minutes after sunrise. (North approx. up, east left in the picture). Turbulence about 5/10. Background pixel brightness was aprox. 50/256.

Image taken at 6:06 am MDT about 23 minutes after sunrise. Turbulence about 5/10. Background pixel brightness was 125/256.

And finally 6:31 am 48 minutes after sunrise.  Unfortunately I didn’t notice at the time but the focus was not good for the final shots.  Turbulence deteriorated to maybe 4/10 as well. Background pixel brightness was 130/256.

Image of Jupiter at 5:09 am (11:09 UT) this morning. Good conditions for a change, clear sky, no wind, transparency very good, and turbulence around 6/10. Used the Phillips Toucam 840k at cassegrain focus of Celestron Nexstar 11. Image oriented north up, east left (more or less). Aligned and stacked 80% of 1400 frames, wavelet sharpened (26-16-1-1-1-1) using Registax5, color adjusted, resized, cropped with Photoshop.