Observation by Philip Masding: Mercury 19 September 2019
Uploaded by
Philip Masding
Observer
Philip Masding
Observed
2019 Sep 19 - 13:00
Uploaded
2019 Sep 22 - 08:45
Objects
Mercury
Equipment
- 10" LX200 classic
- Skyris 618M mono camera
- Baader 685nm IR pass filter
Exposure
1/377 seconds
Location
Manchester
Target name
Mercury
Title
Mercury 19 September 2019
About this image
My first attempt at daylight imaging of Mercury. I first centred the scope on the Sun (with a Mylar filter) then used GOTO Mercury. I positioned the observatory roof so the scope was completely in shade, removed the solar filter and Mercury was in the f10 field. I then switched to f20 and started imaging. The IR pass filter certainly seems to help with visibility and seeing. Processing shows that a small number (<1%) of individual frames are very good clearly showing the phase but no real detail due to noise. Finally it has to be said observing on a warm sunny afternoon is great!
Files associated with this observation
Like this image
Martin Lewis,
Chris Dole,
Jeremy Shears,
Tom Moran,
Nick Hewitt,
Andy Wilson,
Bill Leatherbarrow,
Chris Hooker,
Andrew Read,
Andrew Dumbleton,
Peter Carson,
Steve Knight
Comments
Hi Philip,
Very good first attempt with excellent correspondence between the blurred Messenger data and your own image. Your planet rotations are a bit mismatched though esp. the blurred Mssenger one versus non blurred.
Did you hand pick the best frames?
Martin
Hi Martin,
Thanks! I realise my Messenger images aren't quite right. I created the blurred image from Stellarium and didn't keep the original. So the sharp image is a second independent grab and I didn't make sure they were the same. Also the exact orientation won't be the same as my image because I didn't align north up very carefully.
I used AutoStakkert to roughly sort the frames on quality. Then I used a method from a professional paper I found recently to create the final image with no manual selection by me. It's a development of lucky imaging using Fourier transforms. It seems promising.
Cheers
Phil
Hi Phil,
That professional paper sounds interesting - do you have any more details? It would be great if that algorithm could be incorporated directly in Autostakkert or PIPP and I might be able to push that. You can contact me via my website front page at www.skyinspector.co.uk
Cheers
Martin
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