Jupiter, Saturn, and Comet Pojmanski
As mentioned previously, conditions Saturday evening were quite good. Here is an image I took of Saturn around 11:49 pm MST. Image taken with Nexstar11, 2.5X Powermate, and Toucam 740K webcam, turbulence ~7/10, clear, excellent transparency, temperature about 4-5 °F.
Around 2:42 am, I took an image of Jupiter using the same equipment and about the same conditions. Turbulence was maybe 5 to 6/10 as it was not high up.
Just before sunrise, I searched for comet C/2006A1 (Pojmanski) see http://www.spaceweather.com (or check archive for Feb 26, 2006 if it has rolled off). I wasn’t able to locate it with binoculars but I was able to find it by using scope goto and the RA/Dec from the comet’s ephemeris. By then, 5:45am, the southeastern sky was pretty bright. It would probably be impressive in a darker sky as it is fairly good size (5′ or so across) and a very pretty blue-green color. Neither Dan or I saw a tail, just a fuzzy blob, though photographs indicate that it has one. By the time I got setup for taking an image, the sky was too bright. In about a week, the comet will be higher up and should be easier to observe and photograph.
February 26th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
That Saturn is amazing once again. I took the liberty of doing a little light level adjustment and sharpening on it. You can grab it here: http://www.dirtyskies.com/images/saturn-2006-02-26-0649P.jpg I hope you don’t mind, just messing around.
I NEED A BIGGER SCOPE!! lol… 90mm aperture just isn’t cutting it for me anymore.
February 27th, 2006 at 11:52 am
Rob,
You definitely brought out more detail in the rings and bands. Brightening a bit helped a lot. Mess with the images all you want! You are welcome to use any of the images posted here on your website/blog if you wish.