Observation Log - November 21, 2001

Observation Log - November 24, 2001 - Tinton Falls, NJ

Here's an image I made of Saturn that I made the morning of November 24, 2001. I used my 12" LX200 and a 2X Meade barlow for an effective focal ratio of f/20. The image was made by combining two .7-second exposures in MaxIm, and resampling to double the image scale. That image was moved into AstroArt and processed with an unsharp mask. Then I moved back to MaxIm for a final contrast stretch. The two images were taken at 12:02 a.m. the morning of the 24th.

Here is an image of Uranus that I took earlier in the evening (6:11 p.m.). This is an overexposed image of the planet, designed to bring out the moons of Uranus. This image was made from 10 10-second images, for a total integration time of 100 seconds. Four of Uranus' five major moons are visible. The twin pair at the top are Oberon (left) and Titania (right). Below those two, closer to the planet, is Ariel. Below Uranus is Umbriel. Miranda is actually between Umbriel and Uranus, but it is fainter, and lost in the planet's glare. Here is a little table showing the moons' information (moon, PA in degrees, sep in seconds, and magnitude): Ariel, 348, 13.0, 14.5
Umbriel, 168, 18.1, 15.1
Titania, 355, 29.4, 14.0
Oberon, 15, 30.4, 14.3
Miranda, 165, 8.6, 16.6

I also took some lunar images tonight. In these images, north is up. All of these images were taken between 6:33 and 8:11 pm. Exposures ranged from .1 to .6 seconds, depending on the brightness of the area under study. All images were processed in AstroArt with a Crispen filter, then moved into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild) and an unsharp mask (FFT, low-pass, hard.)

The Mare Vaporum area. Top right is Manilius (39km), left of center in the maria is Triesnecker (26km), and at the center (in the center of the rille) is Hyginus (9km).

Plato (101km) is at the top left. Valis Alpinus (Alpine Valley, 180km) is at the center. At the bottom, just left of center, is Cassini (57km). On the right are Aristoteles (87km, above) and Eudoxus (67km, below).

Same area as above, framed differently. The new crater on the right is Burg (50km).

The largest crater near the top is Ptolemaeus (153km). Just below and to the left is Alphonsus (119km). Below and left, with the central peak and terraced walls, is Arzachel (97km). To the right and below Ptolemaeus is Albategnius (136km), with its central peak, and Klein (44km) is embedded on its left. Back at the very top, the small, contrasty crater just above Ptolemaeus is Herschel (41km) and the large, barely discernable crater in the northeast section is Hipparchus (151km).

This frame continues south from the one above, starting with Arzachel at the top. Below and left is Thebit (57km), with the embedded crater on its rim. The three large craters going north and south just to the left of center are Purbach (118km), Regiomontanus (124km), and Walter (140km). The very large crater at the left bottom is Deslandres (234km). If you click on the image above, you will find a contrast-adjusted version that shows detail in the dark area in the northwestern corner. This is, of course, the Straight Wall, also known as Rupes Recta (110km long). The area at the southern tip of the straight wall is the Stags Horn Mountains. The crater to the left of the wall is Birt (17km).

This image shows the area around the large crater Plato (101km). The smoother area above and toward the right is Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold). At the very bottom, toward the right, is the Alpine Valley again. The very bright mountain jutting up from the plain south and west of Plato is called Mons Pico, and it is 25km tall.

If you click on the Plato image above, you will see another version, resampled to have twice the image scale. For both of these images, I combined 6 separate frames to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Particularly in the larger version, note the detail of the shadows in the crater Plato, and the shadow of Pico.