[ATMoB-discuss] Mercury and Venus images

[mmotta at massmed.org]

You have developed an expertise that I
am envious of. Possibly we can convince
you to give a talk to the ATMOB next
year sometime and share your knowledge??
If not, I would love to sit with you
some night and pick your brain a bit.

Mario

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:20:22 -0400, "John
Boudreau" wrote:

> 
> Thanks Mario!
> 
> Sean Walker of S&T has actually been
> taking some consistently better Venus
> images from Chester, NH with his
> Lunenera camera and a newly acquired
> 12.5" Newtonian. And while I haven't
> seen a better Mercury than mine during
> it's recent apparition, I have seen a
> number of well detailed Mercury images
> taken with amateur equipment
> before---including a true-color image
> that I think was taken from Germany a
> few years ago in what were probably
> perfect conditions. Mine was taken
> through a haze layer, which apparently
> helped steady the seeing. The use of a
> near-IR pass filter also helped as that
> light tends to be less affected by
> turbulence than visible light.
> 
> ---John
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <mmotta at massmed.org>
> To: <jeboud at comcast.net>
> Cc: <atmob-discuss at atmob.org>;
> <nsaac at nsaac.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 11:03 AM
> Subject: Re: [ATMoB-discuss] Mercury
and
> Venus images
> 
> 
> > WOW,
> > I am blown away, you captured detail
on
> > Mercury, I have never seen that
before!
> > And cloud detail on Venus!
> > John, you are King of the planets for
> > sure, very very impressive!
> > 
> > Mario Motta
> > 
> > On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 10:52:46 -0400,
> "John
> > Boudreau" wrote:
> > 
> >> 
> >> Recently I acquired a new DMK21AF04
> >> video camera from The Imaging
Source:
> >>
> >
>
http://www.astronomycameras.com/en/products/
> >> 
> >> This camera is capable of up to 60
> >> frames/second without compression,
vs.
> >> the typical 5 to 10 fps of the
ToUcam
> >> webcams I've been using for years.
> More
> >> fps allow more frames to be recorded
> in
> >> those fleeting moments of good
seeing.
> >> 
> >> On May 23rd I had pretty steady
seeing
> >> in the late afternoon, allowing me
to
> >> record Mercury and Venus in my best
> >> detail of those planets to date. The
> >> images are at the top section of
this
> >> webpage:
> >>
> >
>
http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/mercury_venus.htm
> >> 
> >> Here's a comparison of my Mercury
> image
> >> to a simulation from the NASA/JPL
> Solar
> >> System Simulator which is based on
> >> Mariner 10 images. 
> >>
> >
>
http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/IR780_mercury_052307_2341UT_vs_nasa.jpg
> >> My image is on the left, and the
NASA
> >> image to the right--- the NASA
> >> simulation been gaussian blurred to
> >> attempt to match my image's poorer
> >> resolution, and has also had the
> >> contrast boosted a bit. A small gray
> >> swath at the top of the NASA image
> >> represents a gap in the Mariner 10's
> >> imagery. A couple of Mercury videos
> > that
> >> I've taken on Wednesday afternoon
(May
> >> 30th) appear to also support the
> >> markings, although I haven't
finished
> >> processing them yet.
> >> 
> >> The May 23rd Venus image is a false
> >> color result of two separate videos
> >> recorded with a Schuler UV filter
and
> > an
> >> Edmund 780nm near-IR pass filter. I
> > also
> >> have some more Venus recordings from
> >> Wednesday afternoon/early evening
> which
> >> I hope to work on over the next few
> > days.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> ---John Boudreau
> >> 
> >>
> >
>
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> >>
> >
>
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> >
>