New Scope

I have been setting up my new (used) scope this week. Here is a test pic from Thursday. The optics weren't aligned correctly yet, and the mirror hadn't cooled off, but I wanted to test out the tracking motors (they work!)

And here's an image from last night. Still getting some minor kinks worked out. Can't wait for Jupiter Season in the Fall!

Jupiter and its missing belt

Jupiter is now in the morning sky, I woke up early on June 8th and took this pic as it started getting light out. Jupiter has gradually lost one of its two, reddish-brown belts this year. If you compare this pic to one of mine from last year, this missing belt is real obvious.

Saturn in IR

Here is the infrared image of Saturn I took on Thursday night. I combined this with the color data to produce the image in the previous post.

Saturn, June 17th

Here is Saturn from Thursday night. I'm experimenting with a different technique, using an infrared image in a luminance layer in Photoshop to improve sharpness and lower noise.