Jupiter 10 days after opposition

I didn't got the chance to capture Jupiter during opposition. So, this picture is made 10 days after opposition. Some wind made it difficult to capture the images.

Setting

TAL200K @f/22 with ASI224MC

ADC and IR/UV blocker

14,5ms - 3000frames 

SharpCap4, AstroSurface U4 (Best 300), CS4

JSol'Ex 1.8.1. reworked HeI(D3) solar picture

JSol'Ex 1.8.1. was released and I took the opportunity to rework my solar HeI(D3) image. Using the Mathscript I made following script :

Helium_foto=img(-171)-max(range(-145;-135))

Helium_band=fix_banding(Helium_foto,25;8)

Helium_zonderbackground=autocrop(remove_bg(Helium_band))

[outputs]

Helium_Clahe=adjust_contrast(CLAHE(Helium_zonderbackground, 1);0;200)

Helium_Decon=linear_stretch(rl_decon(Helium_Clahe;10.5;4.5;10))

Helium_gekleurd=colorize(Helium_Decon; "Helium (D3)")

I got feedback from Cedric Champeau to remove the background script remove_bg

Below is my result, which is much better then my previous (see link) processing. 

Link to JSol'Ex 1.8.1. download

Link to further Java instructions

Link to Youtube instructions

Hydrogen Epsilon and Helium D3 line

I'm very proud about finding the Hydrogen Epsilon line (397,0 nm) near CaII H line and HeI D3 line (587.572nm) near Sodium D1 and D2. The lines were found using JSolex and boosting contrast which made the prominences of the lines visible.

Spectrum are captured using TLAPO60/360 with ASI290MM and Sol'Ex. 

JSolex Software

 

My earlier recordings of October 14, 2023 are reworked using JSolex software. See this link.

After downloading the exe file will start immediately. Opening the ser files and "full" run the program. the resuls are comparable with Inti and SHG_Main. The colorcoding is a nice option. The protus of Inti and SHG-Main perform better. Overal this software can compete with Inti.

Image : TSAPO60/360 ASI290MM with Sol'Ex, CaH line.

Comparison between First Solar Picture by Fizeau and Foucault and mine 179 years later

F. Arago, Popular Astronomy, Volume 2, Book XIV, Chapter XXVII, p176 (1855)

The first successful photograph of the Sun was taken by the French physicists Louis Fizeau and Léon Foucault on April 2, 1845.For this, the solar light was reflected horizontally by a heliostat to a lens, at the focus of which a daguerreotype was placed. But the Sun is so bright that the exposure time was to be between 1/60 and 1/100 of a second: it was not possible to use the usual method of a cover removed and replaced manually on the lens. Fizeau and Foucault imagined an “original enough” shutter consisting of a plate with a horizontal slit of appropriate width, which they dropped in front of the camera: this was the ancestor of the curtain shutter. The picture showed sunspots aswell as limb darkening. The limb darkening was subject of debate those days. 

Compare with my recent picture of the Sun, 179 years later :)

References: 

- F. Arago, Popular Astronomy, Volume 2, Book XIV, Chapter XXVII, p176 (1855)

- NASA : Technology through time Issue sheet #40, First Sun Photo

Imaging Sun in Helium (D3) line

My Helios collegue, Walter, informed me about a new imaging software SHG_Main for spectroheliographic images of the Sun. My files from October 14, 2023, which included Sodium D1, D2 and Helium (D3) could not be processed using INTI software. So after installing SHG_Main I succesfully processed the data and after editing I got a solardisk in Helium D3. My first one even!

The software has a "spectrum" tab which searches for different lines. In my case I anchored Na (D1) and Na (D2) and after calculation of the dispersion factor the software found the He D3 line (see graph).

An Helium D3 image was made using the data from the spectrum tab and another image was made with -10 pixels further away from He D3 line. Both pictures were substracted from each other using CS4 and false colours were added. 

I do remember that the data set was made under windy conditions which prevented a smooth recording that day. 

Comparison between solar pictures in H-Alpha, CaK and He D3. All pictures taken on October 14,2023. All three pictures show prominences. 

Moon halo, Moondogs and paraselene circle

This evening the moon was surrounded by a 22° Halo, Moondogs east and west of the moon and paraselene circle (not parahelic circle as this is for the Sun).

Setting : Nikon D7500 15mm f/4 ISO1600 2,5s

Setting : Nikon D7500 10mm f/3.8 ISO1250 4s

Editing : CS4