| Image search |
Mercury 19 September 2019
About this observation
Observer
Philip Masding
Time of observation
19/09/2019 - 14:00
Object
Mercury
Observing location
Manchester
Equipment
10" LX200 classic
Skyris 618M mono camera
Baader 685nm IR pass filter
Skyris 618M mono camera
Baader 685nm IR pass filter
Exposure
1/377 seconds
Tags
Like This Image
| 12 |
Share
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!
Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of the work by third-parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. For more information, please contact the webmaster.
Comments
Very good first attempt
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
Mercury imaging
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
Fourier transforms
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