Solar & Planetary LtE Now for CMO/ISMO #63 (CMO #437)

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 ¤····Subject: SOLAR IMAGES 19-21-25-2015

Received: 28 July 2015 at 23:51 JST

 

Hi Guys , rather a lot of images but the file sizes are not too big. Sit back and have a full screen slide show.

 

You might like to read this web page http://astrogeo.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/4/4.14.full related to “sun2015Jul21_dbvt-Progress-ar2387”, which shows convection cells in the umbra and light bridge as described in the text.

 

The shocked looking prom is a composite of two prom images an one for the surface. The extensions were very faint, but a lot of the best ones are.

 

Both AR 2389 and 2390 appear to be made up totally of solar pores, i.e. spots with no penumbra. I see 2390 went on to grow penumbra, whereas 2389 currently seems to be fading away.

 


 


 


 


 


Best wishes

 

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Saturn, July 25

Received: 26 July 2015 at 10:37 JST

 

Hi all, some reasonable seeing last night for a while on Saturn, I think all the interesting stuff is on the other hemisphere...

cheers, Anthony

 


 

Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20150725-115606/s20150725-115606utc.png

 

Anthony WESLEY (NSW, AUSTRALIA)

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Uranus & satellites 2015.07.2015

Received: 25 July 2015 at 07:11 JST

 

Dears,


I finish this rather rich astronomy week for me (3 observations sessions from the middle of the night to dawn ,with each time good seeing), with my first Uranus this year, made with the new cam. Got lucky on that one, I spent more than half an hour trying to aim the scope to Uranus - not easy when the sky does not let you see stars fainter than mag 4/4.5 and when you have a Dobson and Telrad without any coordinate circles. I could do a single 15min run, with the same focal length as the one I use for Saturn (!), and only 120ms exposures ....

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/uranus_20150724_MDe_full.jpg

 

With the details: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/u20150724i-03h54.7UT-MDe.jpg

 

Despite the clear sky before sunrise, I think the result is really good, we can see clearly a white band near the North pole. This sensor allows me really to make significant progress in planetary faint light infrared imaging (CH4, Uranus, Neptune).

 

Clear skies,

 

 Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Neptune & Triton 2015.07.24

Received: 25 July 2015 at 04:23 JST

 

Dears,
From July 24th, 3rd
Neptune in a row showing details thanks to the ASI224MC sensitivity in IR ... it's a bit hard to believe for me !
These are "potential" spots - I believe that to be sure we need other observations.

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/n20150724i-01h45.4UT-MDe.jpg

 

With three observations from the middle of the night to dawn in 5 days, I guess deserve some sleep now ...
I will post shortly a Uranus from the same night before.

Steady skies,


Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: solar images 11 and 18-July-2015

Received: 23 July 2015 at 23:28 JST

 

Hi Guys The centre third of July has not been as sunny as the first, but in what blue sky there was, I saw some decent activity. Watching the amazing Pluto images on the sky at night, one showed large irregular polygons. A guy suggested they may be convection cells and likened them, to convection cells seen in boiling porridge. They also remind me of those seen on the sun. I find it fascinating that such vastly different circumstances can produce such similar effects.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

best wishes

 

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Neptune & Triton 2015.07.21

Received: 22 July 2015 at 03:51 JST

 

Dears,


Another night with good seeing,
Neptune with the ASI224MC looks detailed, but I'm not sure of the reality of these details:

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/n20150721i-02h52.3UT-MDe.jpg

 

Steady skies,

 

 Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Neptune & Triton 2015.07.20 with bright spot

Received: 21 July 2015 at 06:04 JST

 

Dears,

First try to catch the bright spot on
Neptune which was detected on Calar Alto, with my new ASI224MC, and that was a success, first time I could image details on Neptune with my backyard telescope (probably 2 spots):

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/n20150720i-02h32.5UT-MDe.jpg



That camera works quite well in infrared, I even imaged the faint Neptune with the same magnification as I use on Jupiter or Saturn!

I could update the ephemeris for the brightest spot transit:

WinJUPOS 10.2.0 (Neptune), C.M. transit times, 2015/07/20  18:31
Object longitude: L = 222,4° + 23,3313°/d * (T - 2015 Jul 16,5)
Time interval: 2015 Jul 12,0 ... 2015 Sep 01,0
Output format: Date UT (C.M. of System 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 Jul 12   09:49 ( 127°)
2015 Jul 13   02:39 ( 143°)   19:29 ( 160°)   19:30 ( 160°)
2015 Jul 14   12:20 ( 176°)
2015 Jul 15   05:10 ( 192°)   22:01 ( 209°)
2015 Jul 16   14:51 ( 225°)
2015 Jul 17   07:42 ( 242°)
2015 Jul 18   00:32 ( 258°)   17:23 ( 274°)
2015 Jul 19   10:13 ( 291°)
2015 Jul 20   03:04 ( 307°)   19:54 ( 323°)
2015 Jul 21   12:44 ( 340°)   12:45 ( 340°)
2015 Jul 22   05:35 ( 356°)   22:25 (  12°)
2015 Jul 23   15:16 (  29°)
2015 Jul 24   08:06 (  45°)
2015 Jul 25   00:57 (  62°)   17:47 (  78°)
2015 Jul 26   10:38 (  94°)
2015 Jul 27   03:28 ( 111°)   20:19 ( 127°)
2015 Jul 28   13:09 ( 143°)
2015 Jul 29   05:59 ( 160°)   06:00 ( 160°)   22:50 ( 176°)
2015 Jul 30   15:40 ( 192°)
2015 Jul 31   08:31 ( 209°)
2015 Aug 01   01:21 ( 225°)   18:12 ( 242°)
2015 Aug 02   11:02 ( 258°)
2015 Aug 03   03:53 ( 275°)   20:43 ( 291°)
2015 Aug 04   13:34 ( 307°)
2015 Aug 05   06:24 ( 324°)   23:15 ( 340°)
2015 Aug 06   16:05 ( 356°)
2015 Aug 07   08:56 (  13°)
2015 Aug 08   01:46 (  29°)   18:36 (  45°)   18:37 (  46°)
2015 Aug 09   11:27 (  62°)
2015 Aug 10   04:17 (  78°)   21:08 (  95°)
2015 Aug 11   13:58 ( 111°)
2015 Aug 12   06:49 ( 127°)   23:39 ( 144°)
2015 Aug 13   16:30 ( 160°)
2015 Aug 14   09:20 ( 176°)
2015 Aug 15   02:11 ( 193°)   19:01 ( 209°)
2015 Aug 16   11:52 ( 226°)
2015 Aug 17   04:42 ( 242°)   21:33 ( 258°)
2015 Aug 18   14:23 ( 275°)
2015 Aug 19   07:14 ( 291°)
2015 Aug 20   00:04 ( 307°)   16:55 ( 324°)
2015 Aug 21   09:45 ( 340°)
2015 Aug 22   02:36 ( 357°)   19:26 (  13°)
2015 Aug 23   12:17 (  29°)
2015 Aug 24   05:07 (  46°)   21:58 (  62°)
2015 Aug 25   14:48 (  78°)
2015 Aug 26   07:38 (  95°)   07:39 (  95°)
2015 Aug 27   00:29 ( 111°)   17:19 ( 127°)   17:20 ( 128°)
2015 Aug 28   10:10 ( 144°)
2015 Aug 29   03:00 ( 160°)   03:01 ( 160°)   19:51 ( 177°)
2015 Aug 30   12:41 ( 193°)   12:42 ( 193°)
2015 Aug 31   05:32 ( 209°)   22:22 ( 226°)   22:23 ( 226°)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck!

 

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Saturn 2015.07.15

Received: 17 July 2015 at 15:43 JST

 

Dears,

 

Under correct conditions, no visible details (observable formations being on the other side of the globe).

 

In infrared: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150715i-21h40.7UT-MDe.jpg

 


 

In color: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150715-21h13.7UT-MDe.jpg

 


 

Steady skies,

 

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

¤····Subject: solar images 7-9-10-July-2015

Received: 15 July 2015 at 21:30 JST

 

Hi Guys More progress of the magnificent AR2381 making its way to the off limb. Also a couple of shots of the newer spot ar2384 from the 9th and 10th, when it was sporting a small flare at 07:54ut.

 


 


 


 

 

 


                


 

Best wishes

 

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Saturn July 13, 63N and EZ storms

Received: 14 July 2015 at 12:53 JST

 

Hi all, some reasonable seeing last night on Saturn for a while with the two major storm systems both visible. The +63N storm is resolved as a small oval shaped dark spot, and the equatorial bright storm shows some structure - several bright nucleii either side of a band of darker material. I see two bright spots above (just north of the equator), closely spaced, and a bright spot south of the equator, just above the ring shadow.

The north polar hex and its central storm are also visible through this filter (685nm longpass). This image is a combination of 3 images in WinJupos.



Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20150713-121830/s20150713-121830utc.png

regards, Anthony

 

Anthony WESLEY (NSW, AUSTRALIA)

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: solar images 3-4-6-July-2015

Received: 14 July 2015 at 00:40 JST

 

Hi Guys here are some solar scenes from 3-4-6-July-2015. Star of the show for me on the 3rd, was AR2373 captured at 09:18ut during a brief moment of excellent “wow-type” seeing. This was quickly replaced by the magnificent AR2381, that was actually quite humble on the 4th, but an attention seeking beast of a spot by the 6th.

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


Best wishes

 

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: An Historic Encounter with Pluto ... Up Ahead!

Received: 13 July 2015 at 06:20 JST

 

July 12, 2015

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

An historic moment is nearly upon us.

In only two more days, and after a long journey of nine years, the New Horizons spacecraft will make its highly anticipated flight past Pluto and its five moons.   With scientific sensors on alert, the spacecraft will silently and quickly go about athering precious bits of insight into what prevails on and around this body, more than 30 times farther from the Sun than is the Earth. Its arrival at Pluto marks the start of our official exploration of the Kuiper Belt ... that distant realm beyond
Neptune where dwell millions of small, pristine icy bodies, and the source of many of the spectacular comets that from time to time grace the skies of Earth.   With hopefully two more encounters with smaller Kuiper Belt objects forthcoming in the next several years, next Tuesday's flyby also marks the beginning of the end of our initial reconnaissance of our solar system.   We have come far.

Already, strange features are seen on Pluto's surface (see attached 2 recent images of Pluto).   Might they be as strange as the structures Voyager found in 1989 on
Neptune's moon Triton, a body of similar size and composition to Pluto, and believed also to be from the Kuiper Belt?

 

*





I would say so.

Accordingly, in preparation for our grand entrance into the Kuiper Belt in two days' time, and in anticipation of that moment when we come face to face for the first time with its most renowned member, gaze upon the phenomenal discoveries Voyager made at Triton 26 years ago, seen here in this large mosaic of Voyager images ...

http://www.ciclops.org/view_media/18314/Global-Color-Mosaic-of-Triton

  ... and wonder.

And allow next Tuesday to remind you that you have been blessed to live in extraordinary times.

(Mosaic caption here:  http://www.ciclops.org/view.php?id=3580 More
Triton images can be found at
http://t.co/NLj3N1pQzu )

Enjoy!

Carolyn PORCO (Boulder, CO)
Cassini Imaging Team leader
Director, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO
Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley, CA
Fellow, California Academy of Sciences

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Saturn & satellites 2015.07.09, my 1st with new ZWO224MC

Received: 11 July 2015 at 07:28 JST

 

Dears,

 

I test the new color camera from ZWO, ASI224MC ( http://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/products/usb-3-0/asi224mc/ ) :

 

An average result first, I am not good anymore at direct color imaging :

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150709-21h21.3UT-MDe.jpg


But some others get excellent color images with this camera, and this was my first trial ... ;)

 

With specific filters, this sounds very promising for my first test in infrared :

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150709i-22h59.6UT-MDe.jpg

 

With the same gain as with my ASI174MM which gives me excellent results (despite Saturn being less than 28 high) since the beginning of this apparition, I here expose twice faster, and the image is really clean - very low noise in faint lights, the satellites here looks really nice, this is the best I did this year. And there is still room for improvement with the gain setup moderate.

Note on this image the perturbed polar area rising top left of the globe.

 

And the best for me is that somehow magic image of Saturn in methane absorption band, the best one I ever got, with nice bands and relatively low noise (for an image in that wavelength).

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150709c-22h26.2UT-MDe.jpg

 

Again, large room for improvement: that image was made without binning (it's not resized, anyway no binning on that camera but it looks like it's not a problem :) ), with an exposure time about twice shorter than with the monochrome ASI120MM, and gain not setup to the maximum ...

 

This first test really satisfies me, I still need to optimize the parameters - not tonight, wind is back unfortunately ....

 

Steady skies,

 

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: RE: solar images 29_30-7-2015 and 1-7-2015

Received: 10 July 2015 at 17:49 JST

 

Hello Dave (and other solar observers),

Herewith also some recent observations.  Imaging done in the focal plane of my 25 cm f/30 Cassegrain telescope, using a redfilter and a webcam DMK31AU03.

 


Zonnevlek AR2373 1 Juli 2015 9h56 UT RGB def

 


Zonnevlek AR2373 1 Juli 2015 10h15 UT roodfilter b,   Zonnevlek AR2373 4 Juli 2015 10h37 UT roodfilter

 

Best regards.

 

Leo AERTS (BELGIUM)

 

 

 ¤····Subject: Saturn, July 6

Received: 9 July 2015 at 17:40 JST

 

Hi all, here is a low-res colour image of Saturn from two nights ago. No storms or fine detail are visible but the image does show the changing colouration of the various zones in Saturns north.

 



regards, Anthony

Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20150706-113839/s20150706-113839utc.png

 

 

Anthony WESLEY (NSW, AUSTRALIA)

 

 

 

 ¤····Subject: solar images 29_30-6-2015 and 1-7-2015

Received: 9 July 2015 at 06:53 JST

 

 Hi Guys Cloud gaps allowed me to follow the changes in AR2376 and AR2373 over 3 days in white light and two days in Ha.

 


 

 


 

 


 


 


Best wishes

 

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Gigantic Impact Basin on Pluto?

Received: 8 July 2015 at 00:26 JST

 

Dear Bill,
I believe you are now awfully busy in the Plutonic ore fascination. When I was enjoying the "textbooky" animation showing the mutually tidally locked Pluto/Sharon system's rotation/revolution(just like a hammer throwing performance!)...
 http://www.nasa.gov/nh/pluto-charon-surfaces-in-color
 I noticed a huge quasi-circular lighter area on the "hammer thrower's back of the head", the antipodal region of the sub-Charon point on Pluto
what on Pluto is that!? An upper limit size Gigantic impact basin, one third across
of the main body, like the
Hellas on Mars!?

    Please take good care of yourself in this special period!

 PS: My wife Reiko is well for now, we will be visiting Kyoto next week to
enjoy Gion-Matsuri, one of the most famous festivals in
Japan.

 

Reiichi KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Saturn and satellites 2015.06.28

Received: 7 July 2015 at 15:39 JST

 

Dears,

Under average conditions, the result look good to me nonetheless (bear in mind it's only at 28° elevation), probably thanks to the  ASI174MM camera.
No details visible as both the EZ spot and the polar perturbation were on the other side of the globe. No impact detected with DeTeCt.

 

In infrared:

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628i-21h06.2UT-MDe.jpg

 

 

In LRGB:

 


http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628-21h30.8UT-MDe.jpg

 

I also have individual color layers, but they don't bring much more:

L: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628l-21h30.8UT-MDe.jpg
R: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628r-21h37.2UT-MDe.jpg
G: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628g-21h35.0UT-MDe.jpg
B: http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20150628b-21h36.4UT-MDe.jpg

 

Steady skies,

 

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

 http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Venus/Jupiter conjunction 30 June 2015

Received: 1 July 2015 at 05:03 JST

 

 Hi, all

My attempt at capturing the conjunction this evening.

Wide field image was taken with my Williams Optics 72mm to obtain positions.

Planetary images taken with my 355mm SCT and copied and pasted onto widefield view.

 


 

 

Best regards, Clyde

 

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

 

 

 

¤····Subject: Rolling and Leaping proms sketch June 28th - Bray Co Wicklow Ireland

Received: 29 June 2015 at 19:47 JST

 

Rolling and Leaping proms east solar limb sketch - June 28th 2015 11:10 UT - 11:42 UT PST 40mm -  8 mm eyepiece 50X
Pastels and Conte on black paper - in cloud gap

 


 

Best regards to all

Deirdre


Deirdre KELLEGHAM (Bray, Co Wicklow, IRELAND)

Astronomer
Artist
Educator
Website
http://deirdrekelleghan.net

 

 

 


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