Observation by Ron Palgrave : MERCURY JUNE 2018
Uploaded by
Mr Ron Palgrave
Observer
Ron Palgrave
Observed
2018 Jun 26 - 17:58
Uploaded
2018 Jul 29 - 21:02
Objects
Mercury
Equipment
- MEADE LX200GPS 14INCH
- ASI224MC-S
- NEAR IR FILTER 685NM
- 2 BARLOW
Exposure
0.43ms
Location
STANLEY,NORTH EAST ENGLAND
Target name
Mercury
Title
MERCURY JUNE 2018
About this image
For a couple of years my Mercury images have been little more than fuzzy blobs. But after many failures I seem to have finally found a route to sucessful feature capture. 1)For my location,imaging conditions seem most suitable in late afternoon with the Sun still up.The effect,of increasing air mass seems to be offset by better contrast. 2) Filtering to near-infrared seems to stabilise the image somewhat. 3) Capturing 300,000 -frames or more, but only stacking 1% seems to work.
In this image, the white spot near the limb is the crater Kuiper. It will move out of view as the planet comes round to inferior conjunction.I show the appropriate WINJUPOS representation for comparison.
In establishing my process flow, I was helped a great deal by studying the prior observation notes of C. Hooker and S Kidd, I thank them both.
Files associated with this observation
Like this image
David Swan,
Jeremy Shears,
Chris Dole,
Graham Winstanley,
David Basey,
Mr Leonard Entwisle,
Ray Emery,
Martin Lewis,
Andy Wilson,
Mr Ron Palgrave,
Chris Hooker,
Eric Watkins
Comments
Hi Ron,
That's a nice result, and I'm pleased that you found my notes on technique useful. It's good to see that other observers are benefiting from my experience and capturing detail on Mercury.
However, I think that you have stated the orientation incorrectly. On June 24th, Mercury was about 19 degrees east of the Sun, so the terminator would be on the left-hand side in the north-up view. This doesn't detract from the quality of your image, of course.
Best regards,
Chris
Yes you are correct. The brain fade of age! Your observations were my inspiration to pick up the mercury challenge again, so thanks. I need to better understsnd your constraint regarding proximity to the sun
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