Observation by Martin Lewis: Neptune 31st Oct 2024
Uploaded by
Martin Lewis
Observer
Martin Lewis
Observed
2024 Oct 31 - 21:20
Uploaded
2024 Nov 03 - 22:54
Objects
Neptune
Equipment
- 444mm Dobsonian
- Player One Mars Mii camera
- 610nm LP filter
Location
St Albans, UK
Target name
Neptune
Title
Neptune 31st Oct 2024
About this image
Neptune taken in very good seeing on 31st Oct. Its brightest moon Triton is clear off to the right and the planet's disc is nicely defined. No disc features seen unfortunately. Colourised IR image with Mars Mii camera binned 2x2 to make 5.8um pixels. Winjupos derotated image using best 30% of 24mins of data
Files associated with this observation
Like this image
Manolo_Rodriguez,
Mike Foulkes,
Jeremy Shears,
Dr Paul Leyland,
Philip Masding,
Gerard Cauchi,
Steve Knight,
Martina McGovern,
Alan Thomas,
Dale Holt,
Graham Winstanley,
Ron Johnson,
Brendan Tynan
Comments
I thought there was a hint of a diagonal darker band across the disk so tried a bit of image enhancement. Histogram equalization make it look bizarre but shows some (possibly spurious) detail including a brighter region towards Triton.
Reducing the gamma to 0.5 but making no other change results in an image which shows the features mentioned. Unfortunately the comments section will not let me include the result but it's easy enough for you to reproduce from the information given.
BTW, first time I have ever seen Neptune in Grus! Perhaps you should remove the plate solving information.
Thanks Paul,
There is a possible hint of a darker band running parallel with the equator but it is very subtle and wouldn't want to make any claims. I have some more data I can crunch and see if its appearance strengthens. I can also split the data in half and see if it is in both halves.
The darker arc on the RHS is a diffraction effect I believe. There was a bright external arc on the LHS about the same distance from the limb and this could be due to some slight miscollimation.
Have switched off plate solving for this image. Really need to be able to keep it off for my planetary images generally.
Cheers
Martin
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