Jupiter at (near) Opposition and Saturn

On Monday, September 26, at 5 PM (CDT) Jupiter reached its annual opposition (orbit opposite of the Sun as seen from Earth).  This also coincided with Jupiter's closest approach to Earth since 1951 and won't be that close again until 2129 (107 years from now).  The photo above was taken one night before which will just have to be good enough for now ;-).  Not to be outdone, Saturn was also putting on a great show with the rings at a good angle of inclination for viewing from Earth.

Photo Details

September 25, 2022

Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount

ZWO ASI178MM 

SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters

Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax

Combine RGB in Photoshop
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar - End of May Part II

Finally getting around to finishing out processing images from back in May, 2022.  Lots of good activity, hoping for some more clear skies but not looking good.

Photo Details

May 29, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar - End of May, 2022

 

Skip ahead about a month and the sun is just as, if not more, active than back in April.  Lots of prominences, sunspots, filaments, and plages.  Incredible stuff.

Photo Details

May 28, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar in April 2022

 

These images are from the end of April 2022.  The sun continues to put on a tremendous show!

Photo Details

April 23, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Messier 51

 

This is perhaps the most popularly-known example of interacting galaxies with the smaller one orbiting the larger.  Though difficult to discern at this distance (27 million light years), the smaller one is approximately 500,000 light years beyond the closest spiral arm.  The large galaxy is just a little smaller than our own Milky Way, but only contains about 10% of our mass so it is much less populated.

Photo Details

May 29, 2022

Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector

Skyglow filter

9 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 27 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop

Solar from End of March 2022

 

I finally feel like I'm catching up on backlogged Solar images.  This set was from the end of March, 2022.  I had some good luck shooting the sunspots in white light, in addition to tons of activity in hydrogen alpha with the Lunt double stacked.

Photo Details

March 27, 2022
Double Stacked:  Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope

White Light:  Orion 8" Astrograph with White Light Filter

ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

February 2022 Solar

 

Cloudy skies means catching up on processing images taken months ago.  These were from early February with pretty good activity on the solar disk but less prominent prominences.

Photo Details

February 5, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

First Solar of 2022

 

This is the first set of solar images I captured in 2022.  Nice to see the continued high degree of activity.  More coming soon!

Photo Details

January 30, 2022
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Last Solar from 2021

 

This is the last set of solar images I captured in 2021.  Like the previous set, taken just the day before, the Sun was super active.

Photo Details

December 23, 2021
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop

Solar Images from End of 2021

 

The end of 2021 saw lots of increased solar activity and this was as active as I'd seen after adding the double-stack.

Photo Details

December 22, 2021
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM 
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Wavelet Filtering in Registax
Final Adjustments in Photoshop