Saturn 3 days after opposition

Saturn was opposite the sun in Earth's sky on June 15th, and is seen during the entire night. Typically the best moments to observe planets like Mars, Jupiter, ... are those moments of opposition. However, as Saturn shows up only 17° above the horizon, conditions to observe are rather poor.

This morning I was able to make some pictures of Saturn using TAL200K and ASI224MC. Stacking was done using both RegiStax as AutoStakkert!

The Cassini division can be observed which is about 4500km wide and located between ring A (outer) and ring B (inner) and seen as a dark "line". Also some sort of shape is seen on the planet's surface. 

Below you can find a presentation of Saturn's Rings geometry over a long period.

Jupiter and GRS

Yesterday evening the sky was clear and seeing was good with a relative humitidy of 90%.  Using Sky & Telescope I was able to know when the Gread Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter faces directly to earth. This was around 20h20 UT. I made  observations using my Dobson 12" and 9mm oculair and immediately recognized the big spot. Using my TAL200K and ASI224MC I took some pictures  and movies of Jupiter and the GRS.

Photo Nightscape Awards ESO

The Photo Nightscape Awards are for those amateur astrophotographers who want to compete. The contest is open till august 15th, 2017. See for more information here.

Planes all over...

Partial Halo around sun

High clouds above Averbode resulting in a partial halo and sundog.

Jupiter using SharpCap Capture Soft

In stead of using FireCapture I used SharpCap 2.8 for Capture Software of my ASI224MC camera. The advantage is that colors are shown in Live view during capturing. With moderate seeing I could take some pictures with TAL200K. Stacking completed with RegiStax.

Saturnus with ASI224MC

Meteoblue predicted an open sky... unfortunately clouds all over. Clouds only dissapeared for a short period after midnight. Enough to take some pictures of Saturnus but with a full moon in the back. Pictures taken using ASI224MC using capture software SharpCap 2.8 on TAL200K. Stacking done with both RegiStax and AutStakkert 2.6.8. Results are combined in CS4.