Thursday, December 29, 2011

Today's Solar Activity:1384

It's been a while since my last imaging session, many of you know that we moved to a new house (house that we own!). I had a chance to to setup my scope and shoot the sun just this afternoon (finally). Though I was not able to get good close up images because I got clouded out. Antipolo skies is darker than where we came from. Hope to get a good widefield scope in the coming months (now read that as "years").

Enjoy our active sun!

AR11384

AR11388 & AR11386 (L to R)

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Rough Total Lunar Eclipse: December 10, 2011


After a day of rain, we almost lost hope of witnessing this spectacular event..the skies cleared up a bit at around totality..I set up my scope with an umbrella on my side and my wife..ready to help me set down in case it rains. Rough time to image but I was still able to get even a glimpse of it.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Jupiter Imaging Session:

It has been 9 days since my last image. Seeing tonight was not that promising but because the Great Red Spot transit was in progress, I decided to shoot anyway.


Also tonight, my wife and I went to the Mandaluyong City Hall Christmas bazaar thing. We ate shawarma, hotdogs and grilled corn. It was also our first time to ride a pinoy ferris wheel - the one that can just fall apart anytime and kill everyone. Totally enjoyed it! G-force!

Will come back next week to take pictures. Happy first week of Advent!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Ganymede Transit:

Ganymede transit & Io

Europa, Ganymede & Io
After the successful Middle School Concert, We saw Jupiter high and bright. I could not wait to image it. I have not done imaging for a while because of bad weather. In the Philippines, you have to image whenever you can. Got home real fast to catch Ganymede's transit, thanks to Sergio for sending me home just in time. Tonight's Jupiter is dedicated to the middle school guitar 1 & guitar 2 students who performed really well tonight!

Songs we performed are:
Guitar 1: Batman Theme, Blessed Be Your Name, First Noel, Jingle Bell Rock & I'm Alright
Guitar 2: Your Grace is Enough, Johnny Be Goode & Do You Hear What I Hear

All rearranged and transcribed by yours truly & Hubert except for Batman Theme & I'm Alright.

This is the musical side of me.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Jupiter & Moon:

jupiter.face

lovely.manila.moon
Seeing wasn't that good last night and the Moon actually had halo on it. My first target was Jupiter because the Great Red Spot transit was in progress and it was almost at zenith. Jupiter still looked like a face, same as what Doc Jett took in the previous evenings. Very cartoon looking!

My next target was the Moon. Pretty low and it had a halo still so I waited a little later for it to gain altitude. Again, this is a mosaic of 4 images.  I am trying to study if I can image the December Lunar Eclipse with my current setup.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Friday, November 11, 2011

Solar Imaging Session:







Early morning meeting with Mars & Moon:

Full Moon

 I set my alarm to 3AM to meet with this two wonderful celestial objects and all was worth it! My first target was the Full Moon, shining bright to the west. It was so bright that hurts the eye when viewed thru the eyepiece. Majestic!

You can not miss Mars this morning. Sitting north of Regulus at 40 degrees altitude waiting to be imaged. Although he is still too far, about 6" apparent diameter, the rusty color is just so beautiful. My 4inch was able to recover the polar icecap.

Mars

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Tonight's Jupiter:

Nov 10, 2011
Seeing wasn't as good as last night. After the rain, I still set up for the Great Red Spot transit. It was very cloudy and I waited for clear spots and I was able to get a two minute avi. That's all. Then I was clouded out. I will try to wake up real early tomorrow to catch the Full Moon. For now Enjoy Jupiter with the Great Red Spot & Io.

Today's Solar Activity:



AR11339 the guy wearing a hood waiving.



Conditions are better so I was able to image this morning before going to work. My imaging window is from 7.30 to 8.30AM when the sun has cleared roof obstruction and I won't be late for work. I hope that it will continue for the rest of the day so everyone can image it. 


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

6 Hour Imaging Marathon: November 9, 2011



sunset closeup
I started the 6 hr Marathon with the Sun. Any solar nut will be so eager to image this week's solar activity. AR11339 is still the rockstar of the Suns face. It has stretched to its maximum length, I am excited to see James Kevin Ty's images for today (he's a self proclaimed solar nut!)

I was imaging both directions to the east and to the west to capture two simultaneous celestial events happening today. The sunset image is taken while I was waiting for the sun to come down and dim the sky.
sun.set
The camera can only capture a glimpse and does not give justice to the beauty of this two events.
Jupiter & Moon Conjunction

Antares, Mercury & Venus


After the conjunction imaging, I saw a bright object passing by real fast. I knew right away that it was a satellite. I setup the camera for widefield and adjusted aperture to be able to capture and set to bulb mode so I can hold the shutter for as long as I can.You can see from the faint line made by its movement across the sky through long exposure. I got it while it was passing by Lyra field. After imaging, I run for Stellarium to simulate the event and found out by timing that it was the COSMOS 1536 satellite.





Jupiter and Moon:

I allowed the scope to cool down to ambient so I can get better images. My first target was Jupiter shining high early in the evening. Io is visible here about to transit. After about one hour, I checked my Ipod Jupiter app and I saw that Io will transit in front of Jupiter's face and its shadow will be visible. Amazing sight! Jupiter always has something to offer each night of good seeing!

Jupiter and Io


Io transit

This is my first attempt to image hi-res moon via video. Same technique I use for my Jupiter images. I must say, this is one of the best and sharpest. Better weather contributed largely to the quality of this Lunar image. This is a mosaic of 4 frames.



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Solar and Jovian Imaging:

Nov 8, 2011

labeled

Tonight's Jupiter is very special!The Great Red Spot is almost in the central meridian. Europa is casting it's shadow at Jupiter's face and I was able to put Europa, Callisto and Io in one frame. It's amazing cause seeing was not that good but I was still able to get a decent enough image for my setup. So glad to have imaged it again after about a week of bad weather.








I can't normally image on a Tuesday but I got out of work pretty early today so I was able to document the solar activity today. AR11339 is still the main attraction. So beautiful in the eyepiece of the telescope and my images are just a glimpse of it.

Lunar & Solar Imaging:

Oct 28, 2011

Oct 29, 2011

Oct 30, 2011






Lunar Images:

The first two images were taken from Morong, Bataan - by the beach. The Oct 30 image was from my cainta house. My lunar phases project is almost complete!

Solar Images:

AR11339 is one of the largest sunspot group in years. After more than a week of rain and cloudiness, I was able to image it on a Saturday morning..with only a 5min window of opportunity! Thanks to my wife Kristine for helping me setup before being cloud out.