Observation by Martin Lewis: Mercury 22nd Sept 2017

Uploaded by

Martin Lewis

Observer

Martin Lewis

Observed

2017 Sep 22 - 09:15

Uploaded

2017 Sep 30 - 18:50

Objects

Mercury

Equipment

222mm Dobsonian
742nm IR filter
ASi174MM

Location

St Albans

Target name

Mercury

Title

Mercury 22nd Sept 2017

About this image

Finally, after 4 attempts, an image of Mercury in IR showing some surface detail. Problem in the past has always been finding the actual planet during the daytime with a Dobsonian scope. In this attempt I used my Argo Navis digital setting circles and set up vertically and S and then went to the alt and az as predicted by Sky Safari. There it was in a low power eyepiece shining at mag -1.1. Its brightness, even at f36, and in the IR allowed 2msec exposure and a massive number of frames to be recorded. The final image is made up of the best 0.5% of 165k frames stacked in Autostakkert.

Files associated with this observation

Mer2017-09-22_10-15_742nm_MLe v2.jpg (151.3 kB)

Like this image

David Basey, Jeremy Shears, Peter Mulligan, Chris Dole, Mr Michael Alan Frost, Steve Knight, Dawson, Andy Wilson, Robert James Stuart, Chris Hooker, Peter Carson, Graham Winstanley, Dr Andrew Smith, Colin Henshaw, Mark Phillips

Comments

Martin Lewis, 2017 Oct 12 - 21:00 UTC

At Mercury imaging expert Chris Hooker's suggestion, I have added a second reference image which is the Winjupos rendition of the Messenger data which has been contrast/brightness altered and then blurred. This second image should better represent how Mercury would look in my telescope.

Best regards

Martin

Chris Hooker, 2017 Oct 14 - 07:18 UTC

That's an excellent result, Martin. Getting these images is not easy, so well done for persevering and congratulations on your success.

Chris

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