SolarPlanetary LtE Now for
CMO/ISMO #38 (CMO #412)
Not
every email is necessarily cited in the PDFfs CMO LtE
To
see the preceding ones, click
The
latest is at the top
¤·····Subject: A discovery about Saturn
Received;
Hi
everyone,
I was looking at my Saturn images from 2006. Then I saw the
See
Saturn images I've notified Julius Benton ALPO Saturn coordinator. You might
want to check your archives and see how far back the SPR was hexagon shaped.
I'd like to know what you find. Thanks.
Good
seeing,
Jim MELKA (
¤·····Subject:
NEW! The Day The Earth Smiled Website & Two Global Contests
Received;
June
26, 2013
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Just a moment ago, we launched a new website that is intended to be the
portal to all things associated with the upcoming July 19 Earth-imaging
event called The Day The Earth Smiled.
Visit ...
http://TheDayTheEarthSmiled.com
... and you will see how we expect things to unfold, which organization
are providing coordination services for events being planned around the
globe, and what projects are already underway.
Also on this site, you will run across a link to the two global
competitions that my company, Diamond Sky Productions, is running in
association with July 19. These are contests requesting submissions
of
contributions -- images in one case and musical compositions in another
-- from members of the public.
*Of particular note*: The winning entry in the image contest will be
included in a digitally encoded message that will be beamed, at some
future date, to space from a large radio antenna on Earth on either the
first, or second, anniversary of July 19, depending how things go,
In
this message, we will announce our presence to the Milky Way and
describe us and our planet. It's only been done seriously once a long
time ago. We aim to do it again, only better.
I am proud to say I am joined in all this by an impressive set of advisors.
Check out the RECENT page at ...
http://diamondskyproductions.com
... and have a look, especially in
the Advisor section. Can't go wrong
with that lineup!
And that's it for now.
Wish us luck, and I hope our camera at Saturn finds you smiling at the
appropriate time on July 19.
Enjoy!
Carolyn PORCO (
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
Director, CICLOPS
http://carolynporco.com
http://twitter.com/carolynporco
http://www.facebook.com/carolynporco
¤·····Subject:
Received;
Hi
I was imaging AR1775 and managed to grab an area close to it where the seeing
held reasonable for 50 minutes from
Hope
this is of interest.
Regards
Andrew DEVEY (
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
Hi,
Saturn
image during some moderately good seeing on 6th June. Back to DMK mono for this
one.
Cheers,
http://www.skyinspector.co.uk/USERIMAGES/Saturn%202013-06-06_21-45UT%20MLewis.jpg
Martin LEWIS (
¤·····Subject:
RE: Interesting prominence on the sun in Hydrogen Alpha
Received;
Hi
All
Here
are some HA shots from June 19, including an unusual prominence. There
were some of my first shots with the Lunt 100 combined with the new Pt Grey
Grasshopper 3 USB 3 camera.
Best
regards,
Jim LAFFERTY (
http://scopetrader.com/jimlafferty/
¤·····Subject:
Re: Got home
Received;
Dear Reiichi,
I'm happy to learn that you safely reached home !
It has been a pleasant day with you and Reiko. I have enjoyed as well the visit
to the Sorbonne observatory ; the site is really splendid.
I have attached a few photos. I had not good weather to test the eyepieces you
offered to me, but this week-end I'm going to visit my parents to give them
their present :)
Best wishes,
Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
19 June 2013 at 07:30 JST
Hi,
Here
is another Saturn image from the reasonable seeing of 2nd June this time with
my DMK mono camera and with the coloured images combined in Winjupos. Certainly
the image is more colourful with the mono imaging than with the colour ASI120MC
camera but not sure there is any more detail. Colour camera was about 5x
quicker to process to a finished image!
Both
images attached for comparison;
21.45UT
mono camera L(RGB) with ADC
22.45UT
colour camera with ADC
Cheers,
Martin LEWIS (St. Albans, the UK)
¤·····Subject:
JULY 19, 2013: A DAY TO CELEBRATE
THE PALE BLUE DOT
Received;
19 June 2013 at 04:35 JST
June 18, 2013
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Something great, something big, something very special that's never happened
before is about to happen!
On July 19, 2013, NASAfs Cassini spacecraft will be turned to image Saturn and
its entire ring system during a total eclipse of the sun, as it has done twice
before during its previous 9 years in orbit.
But this time will be very different. This time, the images to be collected
will capture, in natural color, a glimpse of our own planet
next to Saturn and its rings on a day that will be the first time Earthlings
know in advance their picture will be taken from a billion
miles away.
It will be a day for people all over the globe to celebrate together the
extraordinary achievements that have made such an interplanetary photo session
possible. And it will be a day to celebrate life on the Pale Blue Dot.
A new Captain's Log that expresses the significance of this event and how you
can participate in it can be found in the usual place on ...
http://ciclops.org
You can also find graphics showing where Earth will be relative to Saturn and
what portion of the Earth will be illuminated during the picture-taking event
at ...
http://ciclops.org/view_event/193/
Our planet, of course, will only be a blue point of light as seen from Saturn.
But it, and we, are unique in all the solar system, and that is worth
celebrating!
[A news release that was distributed a moment ago can be found below.]
Enjoy!
Carolyn Porco (
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
Director, CICLOPS
http://ciclops.org
http://twitter.com/carolynporco
http://www.facebook.com/carolynporco
PS. To unsubscribe from this list, go to the right hand column of the CICLOPS
home page ( http://ciclops.org ) and find and click the [Unsubscribe] link
----------------------------------
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
CASSINI IMAGING CENTRAL LABORATORY FOR OPERATIONS (CICLOPS)
SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE, BOULDER, COLORADO
http://ciclops.org
media@ciclops.org <mailto:media@ciclops.org>
Steve Mullins (720)974-5823
CICLOPS/Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Jia-Rui C. Cook (818)354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
For Immediate Release: June 18, 2013
CASSINI IMAGING LEAD HOPES FOR PLANET-WIDE CELEBRATION OF THE PALE BLUE DOT
On July 19, 2013, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be turned to image Saturn and
its entire ring system during a total eclipse of the sun, as it has done twice
before during its previous 9 years in orbit. But this time, the images that
will be collected have been specifically designed for something very special.
They will capture, in natural color, a glimpse of our own planet next to Saturn
and its rings, during an event that will be the first time Earthlings know in
advance their picture will be taken from a billion miles away.
'It will be a day', says Cassini imaging team leader, Carolyn Porco of the
Space Science Institute in
'Ever since we caught sight of the Earth among the rings of Saturn in September
"While Earth will be only about a pixel in size from Cassini's vantage
point 898 million miles [1.44 billion kilometers] away, the Cassini team is
looking forward to giving the world a chance to see what their home looks like
from Saturn," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "With this advance notice, we
hope you'll join us in waving at Saturn from Earth, so we can commemorate this
special opportunity."
The intent for the upcoming mosaic is to capture the whole scene, Earth and
Saturn's rings from one end to the other, in those particular camera filters -
red, green and blue -- that can be composited to form a natural color view, or
what human eyes might see at Saturn. It also includes imaging the Earth and the
Moon with the high resolution camera, something not yet done by Cassini.
Three years ago, Porco and her staff members at CICLOPS began carefully
examining Cassini's planned trajectory for the remainder of its Saturn mission
in search of the best time to image the Earth when it was unobstructed by
Saturn or its rings, and when there weren't other pressing scientific
observations that rendered the idea impossible. Imaging any planetary body
close to the sun necessitates doing so when the sun is completely blocked, so
that no undiluted sunlight can enter the cameras or other Cassini instruments
and damage their sensitive detectors. Such opportunities during Cassini's
orbital tour are rare.
When all was considered, the best time for this event was found on
Grabbing the chance to image the Earth within the mosaic of scientific images
already being planned by both the imaging and infrared mapping teams involved
special care and a lot of work to ensure a mosaic without gaps and an
unobscured image of the Earth without the overwhelming glare from nearby rings.
It was a big challenge and turned into a fine example of teamwork.
'My colleagues on the VIMS team were great sports about it, and allowed us to
tweak their mosaic to find the best placement of mosaic images and the best
times for the high resolution Earth images', said Porco. 'In the end, we all
got what we wanted.' Unlike previous images of Earth by NASA interplanetary
spacecraft since the days of Voyager, this will be the first time that the
world's people will know ahead of time that their picture is being taken.
Porco is hoping for a memorable event.
'My sincere wish is that people the world over stop what they're doing at the
time the Earth picture is taken to revel in the sheer wonder of simply being
alive on a pale blue dot of a planet, and to appreciate the ever-widening
perspective of ourselves and our world that we have gained from our
interplanetary explorations. We are dreamers, thinkers, and explorers,
inhabiting one achingly beautiful planet, yearning for the sublime, and capable
of the magnificent. Let's celebrate that, and make this one day a day the whole
Earth smiles in unison.'
Cassini's images of Earth, both wide angle and narrow angle, will be captured
between
Graphics illustrating the position of Earth with respect to Saturn and its
rings, and the part of the Earth viewable during this event are available at http://www.ciclops.org/view_event/193/
,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/waveatsaturn
and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
a division of the California Institute of Technology in
imaging operations center and team leader (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space
Science Institute in
-----------------------------------------------
¤·····Subject:
Got home
Received;
18 June 2013 at 22:58 JST
Dear Christophe,
After 10 hours of comfortable flight from Paris to Tokyo, followed by 80
minutes Bullet Train trip, then 40 minutes driving, we have just reached home
now.
It was a great pleasure for us to finally meet you in person in Paris! And we
can never thank you enough for giving us a privilege of visiting the Sorbonne
observatory, the beautiful 15cm refractor dome, and the optical workshop of the
SAF which must not usually be
opened to the public.
When I was home, I found your opening essay for CMO#411 has already reached
me, I'll be starting on a
translation of it soon.
Thanks again, with Best Wishes,
Reiichi and Reiko KONNAÏ (Fukushima, JAPAN)@
¤·····Subject:
Solar Images
Received;
17 June 2013 at 05:37 JST
Hi Guys here are a couple of solar images grabbed between
clouds and showers, which looks the norm for the foreseeable future here in UK
,which is about 3 days such is the nature of weather forecasting here ! It is
mild though considering its mid summer !
Best wishes and clear skies
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
16 June 2013 at 03:17 JST
Hi Guys
Seeing was not too bad at 27deg alt . Good enough to
pick out a lobe on one of the hexagons' apexes at the pole, located at
approx 260 degs' in S2.
Best wishes
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject:
Re: Re: Re: ISMO 2012
Received;
13 June 2013 at 21:57 JST
Dear Masatsugu,
No problem. The article is almost ready as I had
written it first for CMO 410. I will send it tomorrow.
This is a bad news, for your eye :( the left one is
still safe ??
We have experimentated the coldest spring since
Best wishes,
Christophe
PS Reiichi,
Reiko and I will visit the optical workshop of the SAF at La Sorbonne. I don't
think you saw it when you came in 2009 for the IWCMO ?
========================================
Message du : 13/06/2013 11:35
Sujet : Re: Re: ISMO 2012
Dear Christophe,
I heard from Rei-ichi just before he departed to Paris that he and his
better-half were going to meet you on 15 June at St-Michel somewhere. I hope
you will enjoy a nice rendezvous with them. I suppose they at present are
spending their times in visiting many splendid Art Museums in Paris. Especially
I hear his wife is fond of arts.
By the way, I hope you are preparing an opening essay for #411 about the
pro/ama collaboration in planetary observations. Officially its dead line is
within 15 June. I expect we will receive your interesting essay with some
photographs soon. I have just begun to make a layout of #411.
Here in Japan it has become warmer. I disliked the cold situation especially
this winter, and so it is better for me. However I have a trouble on my
right-eye; maybe I am losing it.
Thank you very much for your kind collaboration concerning the CMO.
With best wishes
Masatsugu
========================================
Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)
¤·····Subject: SOLAR IMAGES 5/6-June-2013
Received;
13 June 2013 at 01:42 JST
Hi Guys here are a few solar images from a week ago. The
were taken with a Skynyx 2.0M. Not a great deal happening up there, but
as it was sunny,,,,,, . The images are a slightly longer FL than I normally
use, which gives a very different character to the Images, more three
dimensional. Pity the seeing has not really been up to it.
The big filament , I saw got called a "crack
in the sun" !
Best wishes
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject: Saturn, June 11
Received;
12 June 2013 at 11:45 JST
Hi
all, seeing was good again last night for a short while, here are two images of
Saturn - one RGB and one combined R channel (3 images, combined and reprojected
in WinJupos).
Links:
Red channel image:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130611-114224/large.jpg
RGB
Image:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130611-114609/large.jpg
regards, Anthony
Anthony
WESLEY@(NSW,
Australia)
¤·····Subject: SOLAR IMAGES 9-June-2013
Received;
11 June 2013 at 07:26 JST
Hi
Dave
Manged
a few images on Sunday, some nice filaments, but no big spots heres the link
www.davegradwell.com/imageslatest.html
under the June 9th section
(strangely enough!)
DaveG
Dave GRADWELL@(Co. Offaly, Ireland)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn + dark spot, red channel additional image, 9th June
Received;
10 June 2013 at 12:48 JST
I
hope you don't mind me posting an extra image - this one processed specifically
to highlight the dark spot and polar hexagon. It's a combination of 3 red
channel images in WinJupos and reprojected. The dark spot is quite visible
here, more so than in RGB images.
regards,
Anthony
Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130609-102600/large.jpg
Anthony
WESLEY@(NSW,
Australia)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn + dark spot, 9th June
Received;
10 June 2013 at 10:31 JST
Hi all, here is a Saturn RGB image from last night in
reasonable seeing, showing the long-lived dark spot, the polar hex and now
mustard-yellow surrounds, and satellites Enceladus (bottom right) and Dione
(top). The moons are smeared by their movement during the 270 seconds taken to
record the RGB data.
regards,
Anthony
Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130609-102147/large.jpg
Anthony
WESLEY@(NSW,
Australia)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn 2nd June
Received;
10 June 2013 at 07:39 JST
Here are a couple of images of Saturn from 2nd June in
the UK. Seeing fair.
The IRRGB and RRGB images show contrasting colour
banding near the pole.
regards,
Peter EDWARDS (West Sussex, the UK)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn 2013.06.04
Received;
9 June 2013 at 22:36 JST
Dears,
Under average conditions:
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604-21h37.4UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604l-21h33.3UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604r-21h35.4UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604i-21h13.6UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604p-21h13.6UT-MDe.jpg
http://astrosurf.com/delcroix/images/planches/s20130604p-21h33.3UT-MDe.jpg
Sincerely,
Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille,
FRANCE)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn, 4th June, additional RGB
Received;
9 June 2013 at 11:25 JST
Hi
all,
I
spent some time yesterday working on extra noise reduction in some of my
processing with the new ASI camera - it has appreciably more noise than my
other cameras and can benefit from more pop-filter style processing. Here is an
extra RGB image from June 4 with the new filtering, this data was not
originally processed since it did not correspond to a longitude where the
interesting things are happening, but the image quality was quite good
nonetheless.
Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130604-111354/large.jpg
regards, Anthony
Anthony
WESLEY@(NSW,
Australia)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
9 June 2013 at 07:12 JST
Hi Guys, Yet another clear one, seeing not as
good as yesterday but fair for the altitude for an hour after sunset .
Best wishes
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
8 June 2013 at 00:08 JST
Hi Guys last nights seeing for Saturn, at an
altitude of just 27 degrees here in the UK was quite spectacular, and very very
rare. Poor transparency though and very pink in the colourcam with a blue
background early on in the session. No spots were note although the polar
hexagon is evident.
Best wishes
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject:
Saturn
Received;
7 June 2013 at 08:10 JST
Hi,
Here
is Saturn with my new ASI colour camera in reasonable seeing from last Sunday night.
Details on the image.
Cheers,
See
more at www.skyinspector.co.uk
Martin
LEWIS (St. Albans, the UK)
¤·····Subject: M1.3-class solar flare from AR1762
Received;
6 June 2013 at 19:52 JST
Hi
This
is the first decent flare that I have been able to capture at 3.2m focal
length, I hope you find it interesting?
Here
is a link
if you do not wish to download it
Regards
Andrew DEVEY (West Yorkshire, the UK)
¤·····Subject:
Images Saturn and Solar
Received;
6 June 2013 at 18:40 JST
Hi Guys, Here are a few offerings from the past
week . Saturn in poor seeing here is simply a record of colour and
shadow but was still enjoyable to capture. The solar images are
off my old Skynyx as my flea's express card has failed and I 'm awaiting a new
one. Time for USB3 CMOS I wonder ?
The skynix chip is is bigger than the flea's so the mag
is a bit lower on the 3rd with my normal set-up. For the images on
the 4th I played around with Barlows various, which has puffed the plasma
clouds up somewhat. I wish Televue made a 3x constant mag powermate.
Best wishes
Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)
www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE
¤·····Subject:
Saturn in good seeing, June 4
Received; 5 June 2013 at 15:35 JST
Hi all,
Some quite good seeing for a while last night, until the fog rolled in... one
of the winter hazards around here.
Two images here, one IR and one RGB. They both show the
long lived dark spot, sown enhanced in insets on both images, as well as the
polar hex. The colours in the RGB image are interesting, the polar region
continues to change colour slowly as the apparition progresses. The polar
region outside the hex that was light green a few months ago is now a distinct
yellow.
Both images have been derotated using WinJupos and are
the combination of several individual data sets.
cheers, @Anthony
Links:
RGB Image:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130604-120342/large.jpg
IR Image:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/saturn/20130604-123318/large.jpg
Anthony
WESLEY@(NSW,
Australia)
¤·····Subject:
Saturn 24,25,29 May;
Received;
2 June 2013 at 13:17 JST
Saturn images (S130601)
Saturn images (S130529)
Saturn images (S130525)
Saturn images (S130524)
Tomio@AKUTSU
(Cebu, the PHILIPPINES)
¤·····Subject:
from bill sheehan: request for information: L. Elpidio Lopez
Received;
2June 2013 at 01:39 JST
Dear colleagues,
I received the following communication
from Dr. Brad Smith, Chairman of the Mars Task Force of the IAU Working Group
for the Planetary System Nomenclature. His note is
self-explanatory. Do you have any information about Lopez? I have
seen a copy of El Planeta Marte and itfs really quite a remarkable piece of
work, but I donft know anything about him.
Let me know if you can help.
Best,
-------------------------------------------
Subject: L. Elpidio Lopez
Dear Dr. Sheehan,
This is a long shot, but I thought I'd give it a try. Many years ago the
late Charles "Chick" Capen suggested Elpidio L. Lopez as a name for a
crater on Mars. I have never been able to find published biographical
information about Lopez, a requirement for our IAU database. He seems best
known for his book "El Planeta Marte: 1907-1956" published in 1963 by
Imprenta Aldina, Mexico, D.F. However, that is all I have found about him.
Might you know of any biographical information about him? Chick Capen was a
close friend of mine (an excellent visual observer of Mars himself) and
apparently thought very highly of Lopez.
Many thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
Brad Smith
Chair, Mars Task Group
IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
-------------------------------------------
Bill SHEEHAN (Willmar,
MN)
¤·····Subject:
1998 QE2, May 31st 2013
Received;
1 June at 18:44 JST
Hi All,
Here's an animated sequence of asteroid 1998 QE2's passage across the sky.
Taken with a Takahashi E-130 Astrograph and Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 CCD camera.
30s exposures were used per frame. The field was rather awkwardly positioned
from my garden, and required a rapid repositioning of my main mount so I could
see it between trees.
The animation is 12Mb in size http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/asteroids/1998-QE2_Anim-crop-640.gif
Best regards,
Pete LAWRENCE (Selsey, the UK)