I am inspired

A photo of Jupiter and Uranus. Hand-held Canon Rebel XS 2 seconds with ISO 800 F5.6 through an 8-inch dobsonian with a 50mm OPT wide view eyepiece. Gives an approximation of what people can see through a telescope.
Jupiter and Uranus are less than a degree apart now, so they can fit together in a wide-field eyepiece.

The enclosed photo is cropped from the larger photo at my Heads UP! blog at bkellysky.wordpress.com, which has a bit more commentary.
bob

Neat. You can really see Uranus's blue-green color is contrasted to the yellowish Galileans, while all are similarly bright.

Yes, I was surprised how blue Uranus looked in the photo when I moved it to my computer. The color was not obvious to me when looking through the scope, even at high power. Although, Uranus did look different - more substantial - than the stars in the same area.

PS> Love those solar photos, Stu. There are so many different kinds of solar scopes, and they are pricey, but the views are amazing. I'd like to figure out which is the most versatile of them as a future birthday present!

bob

I'm facing SUCH a dilemma re this solar scope.. I can see now why people get addicted to solar observing - there's literally something new to see EVERY time you look at the Sun, some new prominence, or detail on the surface, and that thrill of looking at our own friendly neighbourhood star and seeing it in all its fiery glory and beauty is just incredible... but yep, they are pricey, and with the current economic climate here in the UK (chilly with 1000% chance of frostbite next month) I can't really justify going out and buying one. But I want one soooooooo bad!!

Re Uranus - I spotted it myself the other night, with my trusty 4.5" Tasco, and I was quite taken back by how beautiful its subtle green-blue colour was as I looked at it, so very different to the stars beyond it. It looked, literally, other-worldly. Very impressed, and even a little moved, I have to be honest.

Uranus is quite easily seen to be something other than a star even in 20x80 binoculars. I had the Galilean satellites in nice crisp focus, but that pesky bluish star north of Jupiter just wouldn't come into as sharp a point. (Funny, you don't look bluish!)

Has anyone else been observing Jupiter? Had a look last night through my 4.5" reflector, not great seeing and had to observe over the roof of the house, but the red spot was quite obvious, more so than other times due to disappearance of the south equatorial belt, the colours are VERY subtle though - also the shadow of Io clearly visible.

Indeed, the giant planet Jupiter is at opposition and is closest to Earth since 1963 ( next closest opposition will be 2022 ).
We observe the disc at 50 arcseconds apparent diameter with magnitude -2.9 ( very bright indeed ).
A 15 cm refractor clearly shows the North & South Equatorial Belts: http://www.mvas-ny.org/HowObsPlanets.htm#Jupiter
Moreover our favorite gas giant is in conjunction with the planet Uranus ( 5 times further away at magnitude +5.7 )

Check for shadow & transit of Jupiter's moons in this weekend: . O ...
http://www.jgiesen.de/JovianMoons/index.htm
http://sky.maplevalleywa.com/jupiter.html

Also visible = comet Hartley 2 near double cluster NGC 869 & NGC 884 in constellation Perseus

The comet is leaving the "Double Cluster" behind now...

Click to view attachment

Hand held Canon A540 through a 12.5mm lens on a Monolux 700mm telescope. Processed with Jasc PSP9.





Hand held Casio FC100 through a 6mm lens on a Monolux 700mm telescope. Processed with Jasc PSP9.

See my photo of a thin crescent Venus in the 'brightness of Venus' section and at
http://bkellysky.wordpress.com/

bob

A co-worker lent me an adapter for connecting my Canon Rebel XS camera to my eight-inch dobsonian reflecting telescope. I used it to take the photos of crescent Venus and tonight I used it to shoot Jupiter and Uranus. In the past, I've mostly held the camera up to the eyepiece to get enlarged photos of the planets.
The photos are cropped, no other processing.
Details, and a larger photo of Jupiter and its four moons at http://bkellysky.wordpress.com/

all the best,
bob

The Jupiter image clearly shows that the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) has disappeared. The SEB disappears every 15 to 20 years for unknown reasons.
However the last SEB fading & revival only dates 3 years back.
The largest planet in the solar system is the most satisfying object for small telescope users

....as I found this morning, when I couldn't get Saturn into focus in the camera.

bob

Uranus is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus. Though it is visible to the naked eye like the five classical planets, it was never recognized as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit.

Ah yes, the 'planet that dare not speak its name'.

Phil