Category: Jupiter

This is Jupiter from an imaging session on May 5, 2017. I hope to capture more images like this over the coming months.  The video clip on the left is a short snippet of the raw video sequence that produced the color image on the right. Equipment used during this session was a 203 mm f/10 Celestron C8 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, and ZWO ASI120MC camera.

Amateur astronomers   began imaging Jupiter  in February shortly after the planet emerged from the solar glare into the predawn sky. For me, however, the  2020-2021 season starts next week.

In early June, Jupiter will climb high enough above nearby houses and trees to be visible from my backyard as it transits the celestial meridian in the wee hours of the morning.

Jupiter will rise earlier each day over the coming months. This will gradually move imaging opportunities into earlier evening hours.

Jupiter reaches opposition with Earth on July 14th and reaches its closest approach to Earth for this cycle on July 15th.

The table below shows the details for June.

Date Rise CDT Transit CDT Set  CDT Angular Size Distance
June 1 23:42 04:44 09:42 44.80″ 4.401 AU
June 15 22:43 03:44 08:42 46.24″ 4.263 AU
June 30 21:38 02:39 07:35 47.28″ 4.170 AU
Angular size is in arcseconds. Distance is in astronomical units (AU)
Source: CalSky

 

Although I am just getting ready to start observing, the 2020 Jupiter apparition is already in full swing for observers elsewhere around the world.  Many have been posting spectacular images on the web since February.

One of the best sites for seeing daily Jupiter images submitted by amateur astronomers is the Jupiter Section of Japanese Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO-Japan.  Be sure to check for images posted there by Christopher Go and Damian Peach.  They are two of the top planetary imagers in the world.

Jupiter through C8 Telescope2 Jupiter_1_26_2014 3_13_51
Raw Video Final Image

I was having another look at some video sequences I took of Jupiter a year ago and thought it might be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of the raw video and a finished image.

The raw video image on the left is pretty close to what was displayed on my netbook as the video was received from the telescope via the ZWO ASI 120 MC camera.

The image on the right consists of a stack of the best 507 video frames from the sequence of approximately 1500 frames. The individual frames were stacked, aligned, and sharpened (with wavelet processing) in Registax. Color saturation and levels were adjusted using GIMP.

I rate the seeing on this night as fair to poor, or 2.5 on the 5 point Peach scale.  The Peach scale, devised by renowned planetary photographer Damian Peach, defines fair and poor seeing as follows:

3. Fair Seeing – Slight or moderate undulation or fuzziness. Reasonable contrast. Minor planetary details occasionally seen.

2. Poor – Very Poor seeing – Severe undulations or fuzziness. Poor contrast. Large scale detail poorly defined. Minor details invisible.

Based on Peach’s written descriptions and example videos, which you can see at his website, I peg the seeing for this imaging session somewhere between 2 (fair) and 3 (poor), or 2.5.

What do you think?

Details:
Date: 26 January 2014 03:13:51 UT
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma USA
Telescope: 203mm f/10 SCT (Celestron C8), 2x Barlow
Camera: ZWO ASI 120MC

I hauled the C8 and Meade LPI out into the backyard two nights ago to get some images of Jupiter.  Here are two:  one from the beginning of the session and the other from the end.

 

00:21 UT

In this view, south is at the top and west is to the right.  The Great Red Spot (GRS) is moving out of view on Jupiter’s western limb (upper right).

Jupiter’s innermost moon Io is just barely visible to the left as a faint reddish dot.  It was actually quite easily visible in the eyepiece as a bright starlike object.

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01:28 UT

In this shot, taken a little over an hour later, the Great Red Spot has rotated out of view.

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Image & Equipment Details:
Celestron C8  203 mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
3X Barlow
Meade LPI
Seeing 5/10  Trans 3/5
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Images captured using K3CCDTools.