Observation by Chris Hooker: Mercury in red light, 9th October 2018

Uploaded by

Chris Hooker

Observer

Chris Hooker

Observed

2018 Oct 09 - 11:40

Uploaded

2018 Oct 14 - 08:50

Objects

Mercury

Equipment

254 mm F/6.3 Newtonian
TeleVue 3x Barlow lens
ZWO ASI120MM-s camera
Baader 610 nm and IR-cut filters

Exposure

1 msec

Location

Didcot, Oxfordshire

Target name

Mercury

Title

Mercury in red light, 9th October 2018

About this image

Conditions for this observation were very difficult, thanks to the low altitude of Mercury (26 degrees at culmination) and a gusty breeze which resulted in poor seeing (Ant IV, occasionally improving to III) and shaking of the telescope. A total of 260,000 video frames was captured over nearly 2 hours, but the proportion of usable frames was very low, so that just over 900 (0.35%) were selected and combined for the final image. The quality of the data was such that I had to include frames that I would normally reject, but even so, a pair of verification images processed from independent stacks showed similar features, so it was worth combining all the selected frames to produce a final image. The agreement with a blurred Messenger image is reasonable, considering the poor quality of the data.

Files associated with this observation

Mercury 9 Oct 2018 web.PNG (284.6 kB)

Like this image

Martin Lewis, Chris Dole, Jeremy Shears, Andy Wilson, Peter Carson, Bill Leatherbarrow

Comments

Martin Lewis, 2018 Oct 14 - 09:49 UTC

Great image Chris and pushing the boundaries as always- hats off to you.

Can you tell me how you manage to sort through so many frames. I know you do some manual sorting but wonder if you take it down to say 1% with something like Autostakkert then hand sort after that. However, even 1% of your total is 2,600 frames which is a huge number to sift through.

Thanks for sharing the details of your inspiring work.

Cheers

Martin

Chris Hooker, 2018 Oct 14 - 14:34 UTC

Hi Martin,

See my new post today for a detailed answer to your question and a comparison of manual and software frame selection.

Cheers,

Chris

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