POSTED 8-30-09

Consider this a 2009 "base" image to compare with upcoming Fall and Winter images of the same planet.  GRS is coming around the corner.

Jupiter & Io 

4:11 UT 8-26-09

16"  Royce F18 Dall-Kirkham 

800 frame grab

best 191 frames Registax5

DBK 21AF04.AS color camera (image saved in greyscale) no filters

scaling:  .75x

jupiter altitude: 35 degrees

Seeing:  3/10

transparency at target: 2/5

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POSTED 9-3-09

The Moon was too low for hi-res photography at the 16", so a quick two-image pano was made from images at the MAK.

Northern Oceanus Procellarum (mosaic of 2 images)

2:30 to 2:32 UT 9-3-09

127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cas

800 frame streams at prime focus

best 150 frames each image. Registax5, Photoshop , Panoramamaker

DMK 31AF03.AS mono camera - no filters

scaling: none

Target altitude:   32 degrees

Seeing:  5/10

transparency at target: 2/5

Jupiter a few days later than the last post.  Now it's 2 degrees higher and the image is in color.  Thin clouds dogged the planet the entire session, so not much in the way of visual improvement over the 8-26 image.  The Great Red Spot is easily seen

Jupiter, Ganymede & Europa 

3:38 UT 9-3-09

16"  Royce F18 Dall-Kirkham 

1000 frame grab

best 200 frames Registax5

DBK 21AF04.AS color camera, no filters

scaling:  .75x

jupiter altitude: 37 degrees

Seeing:  4/10

transparency at target: 2/5

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POSTED 10-09-2009

No Earth-based observers saw the plume from the LCROSS Impact at Cabeus crater today.   I'm posting the following image comparison so I have a record that at least I tried.  The left image was taken 70 minutes before impact.  The right image was taken from a 2 minute video stream that started 30 seconds before impact.  Both images were taken with the Royce f18 Dall-Kirkham telescope and the TIS DMK31AF03.AS mono camera at prime focus and employing a Baader IR longpass filter.  The later image suffered from dawn turbulence and high clouds.  Impact time was 11:31 UTC 10-09-2009.

The tabletop mountain on the horizon is called M5.  The deep shadow just below it is the western half of Cabeus crater which sits just beyond another similarly shaped mountain called M1.   The expected plume was supposed to appear right between the mountains and extend up just above the horizon.  As evidenced here as well as NASA itself - nada, zilch, nothing.  There still remains the possibility that extreme image manipulation on the LCROSS shepherding vehicle image stream could reveal the plume hidden within Cabeus's shadow.