Hi Group.

Tonight (November 28) Uranus was occulted by the moon but it was at 15:00 local time so it was not visible here. But I made use of the occasion to look for Uranus after dark and maybe, just maybe, get an afocal image of the elusive planet.
Well, my cup runneth over. I took several afocal images through the 25 mm Plossl eyepiece on my 9"Dob and success at last.
I used a focusing method suggested by one of our members, AutoClub, and it worked. I focused on the bright first quarter moon first by pressing the shutter button only half way down. Then I moved the scope to where the planet was seen and took an image. The moon was very bright and my hopes were not very high
One image showed both the planet and Lambda Aquarii.
I had to adjust the contrast and brightness of the image with Microsof Picture-It and here is the result. The colors are not perfect but the brighter Lambda Aquarii has a nice reddish hue.

Attached Images

Afocal Uranus.jpg (19.9 KB, 75 views)

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Good work, and good patience too.

This one has a better color balance and is one of a whole series I took. Enhanced with Microsof Picture-It and cleaned with Noiseware.

Attached Images

Uranus 2_filtered.jpg (20.1 KB, 33 views)

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Nice work, Bokmakierie!

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Hi Phil here is your photo of uranus the smaller blue orb and Lambda Aquarii the larger red orb I cleaned your photo up in, photoshop 9.0 and photofilter.

Attached Images

Uranus by Phil.jpg (3.0 KB, 30 views)

Thanks Paul! That looks much better.

Phil

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This composite image represents what I was looking at the night I imaged Uranus. I took separate pics of the moon and the planet and combined them into one. The scale is not acurate but still. Can you imagine the brightness of the first quarter moon so close to the star and planet?

Phil

Attached Images

Uranus_Moon_collage_resize.jpg (9.3 KB, 20 views)

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I am afraid that I have to admit that the images of "Uranus " and "Lambda Aquarii" are artifactual.
I ran a test this morning with my camera by shutting off the lens with my hand and the same images appeared!.
What we have here are hot pixels and not images of the star and Uranus. I sincerely apologize to the forum and the group.
On different images it appeared that the two spots were on different positions of the CCD chip but there is no doubt now that these are NOT images of a star and planet.
I ask the moderator to withdraw the thread.
Phil

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Here is the evidence.

This is an image of my hand in front of the lens of the camera. Enhancing the picture shows the self same "Heavenly Bodies!!"
Ironically the colors and the positions matched the supposedly appearance of Lambda Aquarii and Uranus. Even the apparent magnitudes!!
Bummer!!!
Sorry Guys. Maybe I should just stick to the moon!!

Phil

Attached Images

Evidence.jpg (10.9 KB, 14 views)

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Don't be too hard on yourself. The colour and magnitude match what you should have seen - an extraordinary coincidence!

I notice (looking at Starry Night) that the orientation of the two bodies would have been somewhat different than in the image. Uranus certainly would not have been lower than Lambda Aqr from your location in South Africa.

You certainly score plenty of Brownie points with me for owning up, Phil. It would have been easy to keep quiet and let the thread die without anyone ever knowing.

Don't think about abandoning stellar photography just because of one little mishap, though. Now is the time to get back up on the horse and have another go. Perhaps Comet Swan would make a good target. It's pretty low in the west after nightfall, but its proximity to Altair makes it quite easy to locate.

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You are most kind, Eroica.
I will certainly not give up but will just be a little more careful next time around.
Thanks for the hint about comet Swan. Will look out for it.

Phil

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Hi Phil. I got your message early this morning. Eroica is right good job. There is a freeware program that takes away hot/cold pixles I have it. If you dont have it I can hook you up.

Keep on keeping on. The work that you do is top shelf. Later Paul.

Hey Phil, it was an honest mistake, so don't worry about it too much.

Thank you Guys, you make me feel much better,
Paul, I would love to get that program as I have had this hot pixel problem before.

Phil

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