Spring of 2007 was a good year for occulations and appulses of Saturn. Two occured in quick succession with Richard Pearce capturing March 2nd (on the left) while Kev Wildgoose imaged that of May 22nd (the right). Kevs image is the average of 50 images from a Philips ToUCam webcam running at 5 frames per second. He used a 12" Newtonian. Richards is taken with a 6" Celstron SCT on a CG5 mount using a Philips ToUCam.
On the left, one of the large sunspot groups that appeared on the Sun in early 2004. This was taken on the 6th of January 2004 by Dave Woodward using a 14" Dobsonian stopped down to 5" with a Baader filter. He used a handheld digital camera 1/15s, F3 and 25mm afocal projection. The conditions were hazy with gusty wind.
The pictures on the right were taken by Stan Courtney, the first shows one of the large sunspot groups that appeared on the Sun in early 2005. The second was taken in August 2005. Stan uses an 8" Skywatcher reflector and Astromax filter for eyepiece projection using an 18mm Fullerscopes eyepiece and a FinePix A405 digital camera.
The transit of the planet Mercury across the face of the Sun. David Woodward and Douglas Renton-Cooper took these photos of Mercury on 7th May 2003. The scope used by Dave Woodward was a 14" Dobsonian stopped down to 5" aperture. The filter applied was manufactured by Baader. The camera was a Minolta XD7 and the film was Kodak Tech Pan developed in Kodak Technidol for 9 mins at 22 degs C. The exposures were roughly 1/30th-1/60th second. Most of the county was under cloud and/or haze and the conditions far from ideal.
The colour photograph taken by Douglas was taken using a 1/30th second exposure at F18 on 200ASA film with a Mirander SLR. The scope used was a Questar 90mm with a 1000 Oaks solar filter. Focus was poor due to haze and cloud.
The photos have been processed to remove some cosmetic blemishes.
First, two images by Kev Wildgoose using a 12" Newtonian scope, or a 10" Maksutov and a ToUcam webcam. They were created (respectively) on August 15th 2003, 18th November 2005. Followed by an image from Alan Herbert taken with a 10" Meade LX200 using a x2 Barlow and TouCam Pro2 on 29th Nov 2005. This is in turn followed by an image collage from Kev Wildgoose in December 2007.
A variety of Jupiter images taken by Kev Wildgoose. He uses a 300mm Newtonian and a ToUcam Pro webcam to capture pictures of the giant planet. Alas, in recent years its been rather low down in the sky, but despite this an impressive amount of fine detail is visible on the planet, some of Jupiter's moons and a shadow transit are to be seen. On the Mar 2004 image the satellite is Io.
A splendid animation showing a transit of Io's shadow across the disk. This was taken in late February 2004 by Rob Delaney using an LX200 with a x2 barlow, creating images via a ToUcam and sampling the best images from a series of 20s AVI files. The software used to construct the movie was Shockwave. Rob Delaney.
A picture of Jupiter and three satellites taken in February 2003 by Rob Delaney using a Starlight MX5c camera in conjunction with a Meade LXD55 8".
This drawing is by by Victor Chetta using a Orion 250mm SPX in May 2005. Seeing was good but very humid with condensation appearing on the eyepiece.
The images were taken by Kev Wildgoose using - variously - a Lynxx, a Starlight MX5 (x2), Starlight one shot colour camera, a Starlight MX916 and a Phillips ToUcam Pro (the best of 1000 images were stacked) with a Newtonian scope. The lighter equatorial region is visible, as is Cassini's division and hints of Encke's in the most recent picture. Images taken between Sep 1997 and Mar 2008.
On the left a picture of Jupiter in late 2005 taken with a SkyWatcher 90mm refractor together with a picture of Saturn taken 9th Feb 2006 by Richard Pearce using a Philips TouCam and a Meade ETX 105mm.
On the right a picture of Jupiter from 27th September 2008 taken with a 150mm Celestron NexStar SE6 using a x2 Barlow and processed in Registax. Both were taken by Mike Bourke. The Jupiter image was captured at the Rodington observing meeting and shows what can be done with a modest instrument and some application.
A picture of Saturn taken in September 1999 by Grant Privett TC255 based camera used on a 6" Coude refractor. IR blocker used to cope with unfocussed IR and UV.
Pluto near opposition 7th June 2000. The dim and distant planet was then at mag 13.7 in the southern part of Ophiuchus. The planet was conveniently located near 9th magnitude SAO160083. The picture is 3x 75s exposures taken with a 4". Not a lot of surface detail!
Uranus and Neptune in July 2000. Both pictures taken with a 6" scope and created from stacked 75s exposures. The large Neptunian moon Triton is easily seen and 3 of the brighter Uranian moons. The limiting mag was around 14th. Examination of the original showed a very weak detection of at least one of the other moons. The blob immediately above Uranus is an artifact caused by an internal reflection. Both planets were low in the sky (~8 degs). Grant Privett
This page last modified 8th November 2008. Copyright of all images remains with whoever took it.