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Planets/Moon CCD Astrophotography

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Moon and Planets CCD Astrophotography
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Our Solar System consists of the Sun, around which the Earth and Moon orbit, as do the other eight planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and their moons. Similarly, the Moon orbits the Earth, as do their moons of the other planets. The Moon is probably the most frequently imaged body, because of it's  size and the short unguided exposure times of 1/4 to 1/2 sec. on standard film. It's fascination is partly due to the multitude of scenes it offers, which show subtle changes with each phase of the Moon. Images of the Moon can be very challenging, however, because of the brightness and poor contrast, except near the terminator.
 
 

Mosaic of Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars images with 6 mm orthoscopic eyepiece projection, LP filter and 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian, Nov. / Dec. 1998. Mars (April 1999).
Mosaic of Moon, Jupiter with (left to right) Io and Ganymede, and Saturn images with 10 mm Plossl eyepiece projection and 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian, Nov. 1998.
Mosaic of Moon and Saturn images with 6mm orthoscopic eyepiece projection, LP filter and 200mm Schmidt-Newtonian, 29 Nov. 1998. Upper-middle crater is Clavius and lower left is Tycho.
 
In a good telescope, Jupiter with it's entourage of 4 major moons, and Saturn are guaranteed to impress. Jupiter, a gaseous body, is physically the largest planet, but needs magnification by eyepiece projection for realistic image sizes. The clouds of mostly hydrogen, helium, ammonia and hydrocarbons give rise to numerous dark and light belts parallel to the equator. A notorious feature, the Great Red Spot, visible for over 300 years, is a cyclonic storm. The clouds rotate around Jupiter with a period of approx. 10 hrs., which means that RGB colour images need to be taken over a 2 minute period to ensure exact stacking for a good colour image...close to impossible. Hence the use of stacked webcam images (see below). The planet has +18 moons  of which Ganymede, Io, Callisto and Europa are most readily identified. Galileo and Cassini spacecraft have given us spectacular images, as has the Hubble Space Telescope. The Cassini / Huygens probe arrived at Saturn in July 2004 after a 6.7 year journey and immediately returned brilliant images of the rings. Huygens successfully landed on Titan on Jan. 14 2005. Information and images can be also be found at the British Astronomical Association.
 
LEFT:Jupiter with Ganymede (upper) and Io (lower) moons, 29 Nov. 1999. R:G:B:L images at effective optimum resolution of f/35 with f/16 75mm refractor plus Barlow lens projection. There are at least 16 more moons. North is up.
RIGHT: Saturn, 17 Jan. 2004. 200 mm Schmidt - Newtonian with 6mm ortho eyepiece projection to f/29. 1 sec exposure. Mag: -0.4 Size: 20 arcsec. Rings are composed of tiny particles. The dark Cassini division, with no particles, is visible. South is up.

 

 
 
    
         200mm Schmidt-Newtonian images
         with 6mm ortho. eyepiece projection and LPF.

       LEFT: Jupiter and Io on 6 Nov. 1998. South is up.

 
         RIGHT: Jupiter with Io and Ganymede, left to
         right, on 3 Nov. 1998. South is up.
 
 
 
 
 
Jupiter with Io, Callisto and Europa, left to right, on 9 Nov. 1999.
North is up.
 
Saturn, also a gaseous body, is the second largest planet, but nominally half of Jupiter's size, and also requires magnification. Saturn's spectacular image relates to the ring system which encircles it's equator. The rings are not a solid mass but composed of myriads of tiny particles. Where the population is thin as in the Cassini division there is a thin dark ring. The cloud compositions are similar to Jupiter and also have a belt or zone structure. There are at least 10 major Moons of which Titan is the largest. See NASA archives.
 
 

      200mm Schmidt-Newtonian
      images with 6mm ortho.
      eyepiece projection and LPF.
 
     LEFT: Saturn with Titan, Tethys     
     and Dione, left to right,  on 6
     Nov. 1998. South is up.
 
     RIGHT: Saturn with Tethys,
     Titan, Dione and Rhea, left to
     right, on 15 Nov. 1998. South is
     up.
 
 
 
Mars is difficult to image because of it's small size but the August 2003 opposition placed it closest to Earth since 1924. It's colour is due to red iron oxide dust. Markings are evident but can be obscured by dust storms. The atmosphere is rare and of mostly carbon dioxide. Water is possibly present at the North cap and in permafrost. Mars has been well photographed, and landed upon by the Viking 1, Viking 2 and Pathfinder missions, with Beagle 2 and Mars Exploration Rovers having arrived near Christmas 2003.
 
Webcams are useful for solar planet imaging. View my images at my Webcam Image Page.
LEFT: Mars at 00:12 hrs. on 5 Sept 2003 using 200mm Schmidt-Newtonian with 6 mm ortho. eyepiece projection to f/29. Exposure: 0.2 sec. South is up with Syrtis Major right of the central meridian.
RIGHT: Comet C/1999 S4 LINEAR (Comet Jamie) in Camelopardalis at  00:50 U.T. on 18 July 2000, after nucleus break up. 1 min. exposure with 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian at prime focus with LP filter. Mag: 9.5
Comets and Asteroids can be one time or periodic visitors to our Solar System, and may carry the molecules of life, but can also be harbingers of doom, it is thought. Their behaviour is often unpredictable. Comet C/1999 S4 LINEAR shown above was predicted to attain visible magnitudes but the nucleus suddenly broke apart.
Uranus, with Oberon (upper) and Titania (lower) moons and possible others near planet edge, in Capricornus on 22 Aug 2000. 2OOmm Schmidt-Newtonian at prime focus plus LP filter.  2 min exposure. Mag: 5.7. Size: 3.7 arcsec.
Neptune in Capricornus on 22 Aug 2000. 2OOmm Schmidt-Newtonian at prime focus plus LP filter. Merged 2 x  2 min exposures. Mag: 7.9. Size: 2.3 arcsec. The object at right hand edge of Neptune is Triton.
 
Uranus is just visible to the naked eye at magnitude +5.8 but presents a small disk of about 3.5 arcsec. diameter. Seven moons are visible from Earth but require large telescopes or photography to reveal them, as seen above. Neptune at +7.9 magnitude is visible in small telescopes with a small disk of 2.3 arcsec. Two satellites are visible from Earth. Like the other outer planets it is a gaseous body.
 
The page includes images courtesy of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. All rights reserved.