Meh..

Sunday night sky cleared off for a little bit but the planets were very low by then and the thickness of the atmosphere plus the bright waxing Moon was making itself known. Got this but it was the best I could do:



The Moon is still nice:



And that Little Red Planet is up there too:



Forecast is for some precip over the next few days so it looks like it'll be the weekend before there's even a chance of getting a few more shots.

Oh, well, guess I'll have to wait for 800 more years...

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In memoriam...

Disclaimer: This post is checked for correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Any attempts at humor are solely the responsibility of the author and bear no claim that any and all readers will approve or appreciate said attempt at humor.
My name is DP, and I approve this message.

You did good. All I got was a rock.

....conjunction......junction....what's your function......????

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

That's pretty darn nice and way better than my view with 7x30 binoculars. What were you viewing through?

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Love that moon shot

I was wondering if any of the Canon SX users were going to post! Thanks!

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." - Billy Graham 1981

"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise" - Barry Goldwater

Even got three of the Galilean moons in there.

Actually fantastic, DP.

Quote
Rolando
I was wondering if any of the Canon SX users were going to post! Thanks!

Thx, all. I did post the first attempt on the 18th, R!

[forums.macresource.com]

And I'm still going to make more attempts if the weather cooperates. I know it's not Hubble quality but I'm still impressed the SX60 will resolve the separation of the rings from the planetary body of Saturn, especially when I cropped as much as I did...

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In memoriam...

Disclaimer: This post is checked for correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Any attempts at humor are solely the responsibility of the author and bear no claim that any and all readers will approve or appreciate said attempt at humor.
My name is DP, and I approve this message.

DP, those are great!

You can see the Galilean moons in 7x binoculars and they're so bright that you could see them at a dark sky site with the naked eye, if Jupiter wasn't so blasted bright washing them away.

You can start to discern that Saturn has "ears" in 15x binoculars (or if you have a low power scope, I have one that does 15x).

Seeing as the SX60 goes to 65x, which is low to mid power for a telescope, the biggest compromise would be image stabilization and then optical quality. Clearly it does those well enough to get decent pics!

While those used to microscope magnifications may be surprised, telescopes usually only top out at ~200x useful magnification because the atmosphere where most people live starts getting in the way, and the telescope becomes rather large for affordability (making a sensibly perfect large lens/mirror and mounting it stably enough to avoid the shakes).

Quote
Lew Zealand
DP, those are great!

You can see the Galilean moons in 7x binoculars and they're so bright that you could see them at a dark sky site with the naked eye, if Jupiter wasn't so blasted bright washing them away.

You can start to discern that Saturn has "ears" in 15x binoculars (or if you have a low power scope, I have one that does 15x).

Seeing as the SX60 goes to 65x, which is low to mid power for a telescope, the biggest compromise would be image stabilization and then optical quality. Clearly it does those well enough to get decent pics!

While those used to microscope magnifications may be surprised, telescopes usually only top out at ~200x useful magnification because the atmosphere where most people live starts getting in the way, and the telescope becomes rather large for affordability (making a sensibly perfect large lens/mirror and mounting it stably enough to avoid the shakes).

Yeah, high magnification is kinda meh for most observers. People pay the big bucks for 2" telescope eyepieces with long focal lengths and super wide apparent fields of view to get those glorious true wide fields of view. Some of those eyepieces cost more than most people spend on a complete telescope system. It's crazy really.

[www.highpointscientific.com]