Jupiter	Saturn
Uranus and Neptune	Pluto

An unusual view - a montage of images of 6 Solar System bodies imaged within the space of just a few hours on March 22nd 2004. Left side - part of the crescent Moon, Top, Mercury, Venus almost at Half phase and a very small Mars. Bottom, Jupiter and Saturn.

The Moon was imaged first followed by Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and finally Jupiter all between 19:18 and 20:24 GMT

Jupiter
My most successful 'film' image of the planet Jupiter taken with COAA's 20" Reflector - the two Equatorial Belts can be seen as well as the darker Polar hoods and a recent surprise - on reprocessing the image I discovered I had also captured the Great Red Spot near the left limb of the planet!. Unknown film speed or exposure but I suspect it could have been 100 ISO and about a second exposure.	The following couple of  images of Jupiter were taken on the night of January 13th/14th 2001 using the 10" Newtonian Reflector combined with different eyepieces (eyepiece projection) on 100 ISO slide film. The images were then scanned by myself & processed to bring out more details. The telescope was being controlled by the CTC (COAA Telescope Controller) using a basic laptop which helped keep the planets steady in the field of view - I can see this substancially helping my efforts at AstroPhotography.
This view of Jupiter shows 3 stages of processing. Image 1 had the gamma increased which brought out Europa just seen on the limb of the planet but loses most of the detail on the planet itself. Image 2 has the gamma slightly decreased from the original image & shows the main belts & a hint of the GRS (Great Red Spot) whilst image 3 has the gamma substancially lowered which helps to bring out the GRS more clearly.	The Galilean Moons of Jupiter are captured here using the 10" F5 Newtonian and Prime Focus and an exposure of a couple of seconds on 100 ISO slide film. In this view the image has South at the top with East to the right unlike the earlier two images of Jupiter which were orientated with North at the top.
Now with the Webcam planetary imaging really comes into it's own! The next image was taken in December 2003, image captured using the 14" Dobsonian and the webcam and stacking the sharpest frames to produce better images. Note that I had to use the Dobsonian rather than the Equatorial Newtonian as the 10" Equatorial seems to be giving distorted images which I am investigating. Even so - pretty pleased with the results so far considering Jupiter was just above the horizon and not well placed to view!
Here's a colour view of Jupiter taken using the 10" Newtonian and the webcam on March 1st 2004 at 23:21UT. Note the Great Red Spot at lower left and several irregularities that could be plume activty in the North Equatorila Belt.	Jupiter on April 19th 2004 at 21:32UT. GRS is now at lower right of lower South Equatorial Belt  and a lot of activity with Plume features visible in the North Equatorial Belt.
Jupiter taken with the 10" and the webcam on April 4th 2005 - processed to bring out detail - viewing conditions were not ideal but the GRS is well placed near the center of the South Equatorial Belt and note the plume features extending southwards from the North Equatorial Belt into the main Equatorial zone.
Saturn
Saturn was not to be missed out when I was imaging the planets from COAA, although I only had 1600 ISO slide film at the time so the image is quite grainy - again I forget exactly the details but I believe this was again with the 20" at COAA and probably was also 1 second in exposure. Both COAA Jupiter and Satuirn images have been greatly enlarged from the originals. The Rings can clearly be seen as well as a fainter belt in the top half of the planet. I believe the image was taken sometime late September 1995 so the belt would be in the Northern Hemisphere and thus this would be just before the Ring plane crossing if I remember correctly.	The best film based image I have taken of Saturn using the 10" Newtonian Reflector. Eyepiece projection using a 10mm eyepiece and about 2 seconds exposure on 100 ISO slide film. Subtle details include the A & B rings, the rings in front of the planet and the planets shadow falling on the rings at the back. Is there a belt there on the planet or is it my imagination? !
Saturn has several Moons that can be observed and here I have photographed at least 3 of them. Titan & Rhea are the brightest with Tethys in the right place far enough to be out of the glare of the over exposed planet. Hipparcos 16268 is a magnitude seven star in Taurus. There are two possible 'blips' just in the glare of the planet on the upper left side which oddly enough coincide with the positions for Dione & Enceladus - but there is a limit in stretching the imagination...!
2003/2004 Now with the Webcam planetary imaging really comes into it's own! The next two images below were taken during December 2003 and were images captured using the 14" Dobsonian and the webcam and stacking the sharpest frames to produce better images. Note that I had to use the Dobsonian rather than the Equatorial Newtonian as the 10" Equatorial seems to be giving distorted images which I am investigating. Even so - pretty pleased with the results so far!
Not bad for my first proper try under good conditions :-)	The best (in my opinion!) so far, Saturn on Dec 18th 2003 at 00:39 GMT with the 14" F5 Dobsonian and the ToUcam.
By overexposing the planet I have now managed to image 6 identifiable Moons plus a 12th mag star that happened to be close to the planet during the early hours of Dec 18th 2003 at 00:55 GMT. Click on this image to see the larger annotated image. The numbers with a decimal point indicate the magnitude of the moon or star and my best image of Saturn taken slightly earlier that morning (shown at left) has been pasted onto the over exposed image of the planet to show the correct scale.	Saturn on March 1st 2004 at 23:08UT. 10" Newtonian and a sum of about 100 stacked images from a 1 minute avi using the webcam.
2005
Saturn on January 4th  2005 at 23:49UT using the improved 10" Newtonian Reflector and the webcam with a 4 X barlow lens to give greater magnification. It is a sum of 200 frames from a 2 minute avi.	Having managed to 'repair' the long exposure aspect of the webcam I have now managed to image 8 of Saturn's brightest Moons which leaves just Phoebe to capture if that is possible with the current technology. This is a mosaic of several images combined and processed to bring out the planet, inner moons and the outer brighter ones as well as Hyperion. The images were taken on the night of February 15th 2005.
2006
Saturn imaged with the 10" Newtonian Reflector, 2, 2X barlows and a webcam on Saturday January 21st 2006.	Saturn occulted the star BY Cancer on the evening of Wednesday January 25th 2006 and I was lucky enough to get some clear patches to watch it reappear. Here is an image taken at 21:30UT and shows the star well clear of the southern hemisphere. Same combination of equipment as the Jan 21st image.
I also managed to make several longer exposures to show some of the Moons at the same time as the BY Cnc event so here is a composite view showing 7 moons, BY Cnc and the star HD 73994 to the right. The bottom half of the image is the wide field view taken with the 10" Newtonian and the Canon 300D DSLR whilst the top view is a close-up view using the Phillips ToUcam II to produce two images - one a reasonable view of Saturn and the other an over exposed view to show the inner moons. They were composited together to give the top view. Click on the image again for an annotated view.
My best Saturn yet? Taken with the 10" Newtonian with 2 X2 Barlows and the Phillips ToUcam II webcam - sum of 1200 frames on March 5th 2006 at 22:15GMT

Uranus	Neptune
Uranus imaged with the webcam and 2 X2 barlows and the 10" Newtonian reflector on August 22nd 2005 at 02:01 BST	Neptune imaged on August 29th with the webcam and a X2 barlow and the 10" Newtonian.
Uranus taken at COAA using a webcam, 2, 2X barlows and the 12" F6 Reflector on August 18th 2006	Neptune's largest Moon, Triton imaged with a 4" Refractor and the canon 300d. Crop from the original image with Triton just off the overexposed disk of Neptune and a Star at the bottom of the image
Uranus and three Moons (see annotated image at right) imaged with a modified webcam that can take long exposures. 12" F6 COAA Reflector and a stack of about 80, 2 second exposures processed using Registax. Image taken on August 26th 2006	Neptune and Triton imaged with the same set up as for the Uranian Moons image at left. Image taken on August 26th 2006

Pluto was imaged by Bev Ewen-Smith and myself back in April/May 2000 and this animated gif file shows the motion of this tiny world from 28th April to May 6th approx every 4 days.

Top of page