New Images - 26th April

[JohnP]

Hi All,

Managed to get out last night for what seemed like the first clear night in ages...

I started with M13 (as wanted to compare with M3 I took earlier in the month) - This was still quite low down.. Also looks like I had some kind of dirt or something on CCD as there seems to be some kind of vertical defect at 6'oclock position (funny though because doesn't show on any of the other images).....?

I then wanted to try fragment B of the 73-P SW comet that I captured earlier in the month - I had heard via QCUIAG that this fragment had split into two & I wanted to see if I could capture it... I think I have as core looks like it shows 2 centres.. The inverted image shows it better though..

Next up was a galaxy so I decided to try for 104 - The Sombrero (I know Tony G likes this one)... It was very low in a crappy part of the sky so I wasn't expecting much but I got it...

Final target was Jupiter again which by now was about as high as it gets this year... Unfortunately still the boring side (no spots) but lots of banding & quite good detail. After I finished I checked scope & front correct plate & scope were dripping water so I was suprised to image anything....

Anyway - Comments welcome - Cheers,  John.

[Tony G]

Well John,
You don't waste much time, we have a break in the weather for a few hours and you get more photo's  than the Hubble has managed all week,
but may I say they are good, not as good as the hubble but you getting nearer.
Keep up the good work (weather permitting)

Tony G

[JohnP]

Cheers Tony - I must admit working for yourself has some advantages - if I stay up late I can always 'take it easy' the next day... Thks for the comments hopefully CU Saturday round Chris's..

John

[Mike]

Have you moved out to bloody Hawaii or something? Amazing images John - love the M13

[JohnP]

Hi Mike - Lots of Laughs.... Not quite Hawaii just light polluted Bromley - still I was pleased with the images - I'm looking forward to DSC in May & some darker skies....

Cheers - John.

[Rocket Pooch]

Excellent images John, amazing actually.

Chris

[Tony G]

Just a quick question (which i suppose could have waited until the weekend at the mottingham DSC) but i noticed that with the images you are producing John all the DSO are with the SC3 and the planetry images are with the Toucam, is this because the SC3 draws in much more light than the Toucam, that images of the planets would be to bright to process?

Tony G

PS still learning about all this , so be ready for some questions the weekend lads, by the way nice images Chris M66 etc.

[JohnP]

Hi Tony,

A good question actually... There are two main reasons as follows:

1. You are correct the B&W chip is a whole lot more sensitive - You could use it for planetary imaging but to get colour you would have to do tri-colour (RGB filter) imaging - this is just hassle & I don't think it would gain me much more (if anything on the planets) - Basically, 1-shot colour with the Toucam is very convenient.

2. The B&W chip I put in the Toucam is actually slightly larger at a 1/3 inch then the original 1/4 inch colour chip although they are both the same 640 X 480 pixel format. This means the pixels on the B&W chip are actually bigger than those on the colour chip which in theory means the resolution of the B&W is worse - i.e. it wouldn't be as good at discerning all the fine details of the bands etc.... on Jupiter. Larger pixels does of course mean it is a lot more sensitive though which is great for the deep sky stuff.

Hope that explains it?

Cheers,  John

[Rocket Pooch]

John,

I'll use that in my discussion on Saturday

Infact, maybe I can drink the beer and you can do the talk?

Chris

[Mike]

I have no idea what they are saying but it is a nice image of the comet and the various fragments :-

http://groups.msn.com/Astronomicalfamily/fenmenoscelestes.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1171