Fun With Jupiter – Learning To Fly!

Let me know if you want my camera settings and I can send them to you.

Ha! So here’s a new rule I just learned. I was looking at one of my images, and there was a close moon that showed up. Wow I thought this was cool (see attached image). I wonder what moon that is… Go to the S&T Jupiter Moons calculator… Hey that’s Europa. Neat…wow I just missed a transit … hmm look at my second attached image.

Monday, April 24, 2017
04:18 UT, Europa begins transit of Jupiter.
05:04 UT, Europa’s shadow begins to cross Jupiter.

NOTE: I haven’t corrected my Image orientation yet. So “emerging” things are to the right of Jupiter instead of to the left – they should be to the left.

If you look real close – at about 1:04 AM local time I started my LAST capture for the night. Yep you can see the start of the Europa Eclipse there…lol! So beyond my improving imaging capabilities – know your planetary schedule…dang…I could have had all sorts of Europa Eclipse Action going on there…gees….

So looking at my images, It was almost a VERY nice image of Jupiter. Not sure what I missed there whether it is seeing induced, focus induced, below average transparency or just being new at this. George Normandin has often said I’m getting as good as I likely will with our typical rough seeing, Jupiter rotation, calibration induced (not doing calibration frames on the color camera yet) but still not sure if that is the clarity issues I’m experiencing here. The seeing was rough enough that I couldn’t get a star to pinpoint focus, but I was able to get it good enough to capture Europa in the one image…

Lots to learn here – very fun!