Jupiter and Uranus in
Conjunction AND Opposition AND .8 degrees apart
Planetary Grouping at Sundown  9/17/10

 
 This
            stunning pairing all in one night! And while our seeing here
            in Payson is never good, the wide field of the pair marks the
            first time I had ever recorded both objects in one frame. Visually,
            Jupiter had a single belt and the great red spot was just coming
            onto the disk. Also, a jet black moon shadow is on this planet.
            Uranus is very dim photographically. So dim, I had to use long
            1/10 second exposures just to see it at all on the CCD. It is
            very tiny, about twice the size in angular extent of Jupiters
            moon Ganymede. A tough target indeed!

            

Here we can see brilliant Jupiter on the lower right and
the bright "star" on the upper left is Uranus.  Look
carefully at the diffraction spikes and they are green.

            
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a larger view:

800 x 600

1024 x 768

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Prime focus shot with the 8" f/4.  To the left is Io,
right is Europa, and Ganymede is transiting the disk.
You can see on the upper disk, the belt is still
missing.

            
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a larger view:

1024 x 768
            



            

With the 5x barlow things are a bit unsteady, but here you
can see Ganymede just to the left of its shadow on the upper
disk.  I also shot Uranus at the same magnification and placed
it next to Jupiter here for Illustration purposes to show
the size and color difference.  Note that Uranus is about
twice the size of Ganymede.   I recorded with the DMK CCD
and a set of SBIG interference color filters for the RGB data.

            
Select an image size for 
a larger view:

1024 x 768


Optics:  8" f/4 Newtonian Astrograph w/Baader MPCC Coma Corrector
OR with Televue 5x Powermate Barlow
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200  
Camera:  DMK CCD at 1024 x 768
Exposure:  1/10 - 1/64
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  5/10, Transparency 9/10
Outside Temperature:  60F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2, Images Plus 3.82
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