Jupiter and Moons

I have another picture of Jupiter and its moons tonight.  I also need to make a slight correction regarding the photo of Jupiter last night. The star I identified as HIP 20417A can just be identified as HIP 20417 based on the photo. It is a binary system which has both HIP 20417A and HIP 20417B but they are so close together in the photo they appear as one star.  Tonight's picture has HIP 20417 again towards the top left and off to the middle-top right is HIP 20349 which lies about 167 light years away from us.  The two easily visible moons are Europa above Jupiter and Callisto below Jupiter. Io and Ganymede are really close to Jupiter's disc tonight so you cant differentiate them from Jupiter.  There was a slight indication of Io in the photo so I darkened the area where Io was in the northwestern part of Jupiter's disc.

Photos from the New Camera

I made an incremental upgrade to my camera last night. I was using the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS and now have the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS.  The detail in some of the images I took is much better than with the older camera.  The greatest improvement I noticed was my photo of the Orion Nebula I took tonight.  I superimposed the old image on the new one for comparison.  The image on the left side was the old, and the right side is the new photo taken tonight.

It is still very grainy but it now shows a lot more color and more of the nebula itself than the previous image.

I also took another picture of the Pleiades tonight and could actually label all of the stars that comprise it using the photo I took and then going into Stellarium for comparison.  The labeled photo is below.

The Pleiades nine brightest stars are named for the Seven Sisters in Greek Mythology and their parents, Atlas and Pleione. Sterope/Asterope are actually one sister however the name is spelled both ways. The names are shared by 22 Tauri (labelled Sterope) and 21 Tauri (labelled Asterope).  The Seven Sisters were Nymphs.

This photo is just a random one I decided to add of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion.

The last photo for tonight will be of Jupiter and its moons.  The reddish colored 'moon' northwest of Jupiter is actually a star (HIP 20417A) the three moons visible moving southeast away from Jupiter are: Io, Ganymede and Callisto.

Also HIP 20417A is about 1753 light years away form Earth.

Jupiter and Pleiades Cluster

Here is a picture I took this evening with both Jupiter and the Pleiades Cluster in the same shot.  If you look at the full size version of the photo you can make out some of Jupiter's moons as well.

While on a break close to 2 am I went outside for a few minutes to get a picture of the Moon.  It turned out okay I think.  It was a nice clear night tonight with many stars visible.

Saturn

Saturn is not going to be very easy to get a good picture of.  This was a quick attempt since I should probably get to sleep.

Here is a screenshot from Stellarium showing Saturn's position in the sky when I took the photo.  The glow from this distance took away all the detail in the image. I am going to see if I can get a better photo in the future.

Halo Around the Moon

I walked outside tonight and noticed the halo around the Moon and tried to get a picture of it. The focus isn't that great but the halo did come out okay I thought.  There was a halo around it a few nights ago as well but I didn't have my camera with me at the time to try to get a picture of it.

Here is tonight's picture of Jupiter and its moons.  The dot off the the right that is a little further away than the rest is actually a star.  When I took the picture I thought it was a moon until I looked it Stellarium and was proven otherwise.  Io is just to the bottom right of Jupiter's disk barely visible.

And the last picture for this post is another attempt to photograph the Orion Nebula.  I eventually want to be able to get the proper equipment to really get into Astrophotography but I don't really have the money for that yet, so for now I make do with that I can accomplish just using my digital camera.

More of the Moon and Jupiter

Tonight I have a picture of the Moon and a picture of Jupiter and its Moons.

It was a little cloudy tonight, but I did get the chance to get a fairly decent picture of the Moon once the wind had died down some.

The focus on this one wasn't as good as I would have like, but here is the picture of Jupiter and its moons taken tonight.  I am going to try and get a picture of Saturn at some point soon although I am not sure how well it will turn out yet.

Moon/Jupiter Conjuction

Here is a photo I took on the 25th of December when Jupiter and the Moon were in conjunction.  It was very windy and cloudy so I had to set the tripod up in the drivers seat of my car to take the picture through the open window. I always take a series of pictures hoping that at least one or two will turn out well.  I got lucky in this picture since the moons of Jupiter are visible as well as the planet itself.  The clouds added a nice effect to the picture as well I think.

I cropped the picture down to just Jupiter and its moons and adjusted the contrast to make them stand out more.

In this final screenshot taken from Stellarium, you can now see which moon is which in the picture above.  If you are interested in Astronomy at all, Stellarium is excellent free planetarium software.