Solar&Planetary LtE Now for CMO/ISMO #68 (CMO #442)

Good evening to all at the CMO !

Please find attached an image of Mars taken on the 29th December UT in IR passband.
Hopefully this is the first of many for me for the forthcoming 2016 apparition.

Happy new year to all.

Best wishes

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151229/MVl29Dec15.jpg

Maurice VALIMBERTI (Melbourne, AUSTRALIA)

��Subject: Tr: Mars-CME

Received: 30 December 2015 at 21:45 JST

Dear Masatasugu,

Here is an alert on Mars that could interest CMO observers....

Best wishes,

Christophe PELLIER (Nantes, FRANCE)
========================================
Message du : 30/12/2015 12:24
De : "Agustin Sanchez Lavega "
A : "Marc Delcroix", "Christophe Pellier" , "Jose Maria Gomez"
Copie � :
Sujet : Mars-CME

Bonjour tous,

J'ai envoy� une alerte d'observation urgente de Mars � ALPO Japan (en bas) et aussi � mes contacts avec les missions MEX et MAVEN. Pour si vous voulez l'envoyer � vos observateurs.

Joyeux No�l et Bonne 2016!
Amiti�s

Agustin

Alert on Mars limb observations:

Dear observers,

In December 28th a solar flare M1.9 and a CME occurred on the Sun. Models of CME propagation indicate that the CME edge could reach Mars between 1-2 January. Currently Mars is at Ls = 90 deg. which is the season when the 2012 March plume was observed by amateur astronomers in Terra Cimmeria region, as we reported in Nature this year. Recently it has been proposed that a CME could be behind the plume origin.

For these reasons I think important to look the region of interest on Mars these days in spite of the difficult observing conditions on the planet.

Thank you very much

Regards

Prof. Agustin Sanchez-Lavega
UPV-EHU

========================================

��Subject: Jupitermap 2015-12-27/28/29

Received: 30 December 2015 at 11:30 JST

Hi all,

during the last 3 days I captured enough videos for a complete map of Jupiter from my balcony in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Therefore I used an 150/1800 Cassegrain-Maksutov (Skywatcher), 2x Barlow-Lens and ALCCD5L-IIc.

On the night of 27th, we had good transparency and seeing, on 28th the sky was coverd by light fog, on 29th we had good transparency, but terrible seeing. It was hard to fit the colours/sharpnes to a similar look, so You might see the frontiers of the single images. :(

http://sternwarte-zollern-alb.de/mitarbeiterseiten/kowollik/jupiter/jupiterkarte-2015-12-27-28-29.png

Cheers

Silvia KOWOLIK (Ludwigsburg, GERMANY)

��Subject: solar images 23-Dec-2015

Received: 27 December 2015 at 05:14 JST

Hi Guys

At last a blue sky day and with better than expected seeing for just 13 degrees altitude. Some fair sized spot groups too. They were quite close to the limb, where the seeing was not good enough to image the foreshortened convection cells clearly.

The white light shots were imaged with an AP178T f9 Starfire at f18 . Filters were Baader solar continuum and IR blocker, in the nose of a ZWO ASI 120MM-S plugged into a 2 inch Intes Wedge with ND filter.

The full disc shot was with the 178 @F9 using a Canon 70D off the Intes wedge and Baader solar continuum filter.

Ha images used a 90mm DS solarmax scope.

Best wishes

Dave TYLER (Bucks, the UK)

www.david-tyler.com
Ham call G4PIE

��Subject: Mars 02 November 2015

Received: 26 December 2015 at 17:33 JST

Dear Sir,
Enclosed find my first Mars image of this apparition.
Regards,

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151102/JSb02Nov15.jpg

John SUSSENBACH �(Houten, The NETHERLANDS)

��Subject: Mars - December 21st

Received: 23 December 2015 at 01:32 JST

Hi Mr. Masatsugu and all!,

Here is my latest session of mars on december 21st.

Merry christmas to All!.
Efrain

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151221/EMr21Dec15.jpg

Efrain MORALES RIVERA (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico)

��Subject: RE:Mars 2015/12/22 0222UT IR

Received: 22 December 2015 at 16:24 JST

Hi, all

Forgot to mention that I will be visiting family in Durban from tomorrow until 27th, so will not be capturing any images over this period.

May I wish you and your families a very happy, peaceful and restful Xmas.

Best regards, Clyde

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars 2015/12/22 0222UT IR

Received: 22 December 2015 at 15:36 JST

Hi, all

Unfortunately conditions were very poor this morning. Attached a single IR capture.

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151222/CFs22Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars 19 December 2015 Colour

Received: 19 December 2015 at 15:50 JST

Hi, all

A colour capture from this morning.

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151219/CFs19Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: last observation of Percival Lowell

Received: 19 December 2015 at 07:33 JST

Dear Masatsugu,
Here is the very last observation Percival Lowell made, of the fifth satellite of Jupiter? the penultimate line reads �Last Contact.� The following morning he suffered a massive stroke.
Bill

Earl C. Slipher, who was observing with Lowell that night, squirreled this and other documents in a cigar box, and it was long forgotten until rediscovered 2 or 3 years ago by Mike Kitt who was sorting through things in the Slipher building prior to the opening of the Special Collections center.

Bill SHEEHAN (Willmar, MN)

��Subject: Mars essay for CMO

Received: 19 December 2015 at 07:24 JST

Dear Masatsugu,

Hope all is well.

I have been quite busy. Though I �retired� from my psychiatric position in October, it seems that my wife and I may soon be moving from Willmar, Minnesota to Flagstaff, Arizona. She has received quite a good job offer there, and the opportunities for me to practice professionally are much better there than here (I had a very warm welcome from the Flagstaff Medical Center when I was last in Flagstaff, in July, for the New Horizons encounter). So there is much change afoot. Next time I write, it may be from Flagstaff!

There are some events planned at Lowell Observatory for the 100th anniversary of Percival Lowell�s death. We are hoping to put together quite a wide-ranging program discussing Lowell�s interests and accomplishments, in and out of astronomy. I would still like to think that you or one of your colleagues (Reiichi perhaps) could attend, and represent Lowell�s Japanese legacies to us.

Without more ado, here is a text for the January CMO, as I promised you sometime ago. I will send along some illustrations that may be of interest perhaps over the next 24 hours or so.

Warm regards for the season and the new year, 2016,

Bill SHEEHAN (Willmar, MN)

��Subject: Mars 17 December 2015 Colour

Received: 18 December 2015 at 07:36 JST

Hi, all

A colour capture from 17 December. Elysium and Hellas show as whitish. Possibly a bright spot (IR and R) at the tip of Syrtis Major?

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151217/CFs17Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Re: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 15 December 2015 at 14:21 JST

Thanks for the comments Jim.

Regarding your question I capture in RAW with the debayering deactivated during capture. There is a tickbox in Firecapture for this.

Looks like I should keep to the RAW , IR and possibly CH4 band imaging with the ASI224MC, and consider the monos(ASI120MM, ASI174MM) for the R,G,B's. Splitting the channels from the colour capture can be used if I am tight on time, or weather is intermittent. I will continue to experiment, and look forward to what Mars will show us this apparition. Plenty of time, and Mars will be beautifully placed from down here. Just not sure what our conditions will be like, as this summer has definitely been "strange" so far(everything from drought and intense heat to chilly, windy, hailstorms)�.

Best regards, Clyde

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Re: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 15 December 2015 at 12:40 JST

Hi Clyde,

Based on your results, I suggest that you to keep using raw frames from the color camera. Unless you prefer using rgb avis from a monochrome camera. That's fine too. Am I right that you captured raw color frames for the Color,IR, RGB monochrome frames? I think the dark marking detail is real and very detailed when compared with Ebswama's map. The red frame dark markings match that of the Color image and the color balance looks good to me. There may be artifacts running alongside the Western limb, but that's no biggie. What really stands out to me is Nilosyrtis that has mostly vanished in recent apparitions. A noticeable change is a new broad dark band under Sabaeus Sinus.

When I start imaging Mars I plan on using raw color frames for the Color,IR, RGB monochrome frames and then Debayering them with ASTROPIPP. Did you see the article by Dan Llewillyn "Redeeming Color Planetary Cameras in the May 2014 S&T? See what you think. Maybe compare rgb monos with raw color frames. I'd be interested in seeing that.

See attachment for a modified version of your presentation that I plan to post on our highlights page. Keep up the good work!

Good seeing,

Jim

Jim MELKA (Chesterfield, Mo)

��Subject: Mars - December 11th, 10:10ut

Received: 13 December 2015 at 05:49 JST

Hi Mr. Masatsugu!, Here is my latest session from december 11th, 10:10ut.
Efrain

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151211/EMr11Dec15.jpg

Efrain MORALES RIVERA (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico)

��Subject: RE: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 12 December 2015 at 23:01 JST

Clyde --

I'm glad that you are experimenting in this way -- it's the trying of different methods that will ultimately lead to the best images possible.

The increased detail that you have noticed in your second-processed, color-camera images is artefact. A simple way to perceive this is to note that it all has the same spacial frequency -- that is, all the contrast detail has the same width. As you enhance contrast by adjusting wavelet strengths, the limitation on each wavelet's strength is the appearance of a "background" of pervasive detail at the spacial frequency controlled by that wavelet. That's what we are seeing in this image with the light spot in Syrtis Major and the regularly spaced dark spots across Aeria, Arabia, and Eden.

I am enjoying your images. Please keep up this good work.

-- Roger

Roger VENABLE (Mars Section, A.L.P.O.)

��Subject: RE: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 12 December 2015 at 22:12 JST

Thanks Marc.

I thought there would be some benefit on the single channel captures due to using the full bayer matrix, but as you have indicated , the benefit through the other matrix elements is unlikely to add much, if anything. So likely better results with a mono?

I do have an ASI174MM, so will give it a try with my Mars and Jupiter imaging. I believe I will probably need to go up to a 3x Barlow to get the right "/pixel.

Out of interest I grabbed a couple of quick colour images of Jupiter yesterday. I processed quickly and not particularly well. I did however notice an "eye" in the NEB(complete with eyebrow�. :-) ) , and have not seen it on any recent Jupiter images I has seen. I have not been following Jupiter recently but am aware of the NEB expansion. Is this "eye" a relatively new feature? My image attached.

Cheers for now and I hope things have settled down a bit over there.

Best regards, Clyde

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: RE: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 12 December 2015 at 21:40 JST

Hi Clyde,

With a color camera, I do not expect that doing RGB would improve the result compared to using directly all of the colors. Your process is correct for me, but you cannot get much more sensitivity using a R filter with the color camera compared to use the R layer of the color image (you might get a bit more if the green (or blue) bayer matrix filter let a bit of red wavelength pass, but not that much). The only thing that could change is if you use an atmospheric dispersion corrector, because you could get better correction for each filter acquisition than for a color acquisition.

The rest might just be a matter of turbulence/focus/reinforcement variation between the two series.

I did not use my ASI224MC on Mars/Jupiter, but my plan is rather to use the ASI224MC for its better sensitivity with IR / CH4 filters, and a monochrome (ie ASI120MM or ASI174MM) for the R, G and B acquisitions.

Hope that helps,

Marc DELCROIX (Tournefeuille, FRANCE)

http://astrosurf.com/delcroix

��Subject: RE: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 12 December 2015 at 20:06 JST

Hi, Gents ,

My apologies for bothering you again, but I have found out a few interesting things regarding the ASI224MC camera I am using and also my processing technique/s(or rather the lack of�.!!!)

After I took the various R,G, B and IR captures on the 11th, I decided to take a couple of colour captures as well. After I had sent off my RGB/IR images earlier this morning, I thought I would have a look at the colour captures.

Having processed them I was rather surprised to see that the final colour image showed substantially more detail (at least it looks like real detail to me, comparing with my maps) than the RGB. Colour balance is not great, but the difference between the quality of the images is obvious.

A few examples of areas that are more evident in the colour capture(please excuse what I am sure is an artefact extending off the NPC, which seems to originate from the G and B channels):

Deuteronilus

Boreosyrtis

Nilosyrtis

A bright and a dark spot in the centre of Syrtis Major?

Pandorae Fretum?

Hellas(right on the limb)

The faint dusting below Sinus Sabeaus

I thought I would investigate a bit further and went ahead and split the channels(R,G,B) of the colour capture

Again, I was (pleasently) surprised to find that the individual channels( certainly for the R and G) produced significantly better results that the R and G single filter captures that I had obtained

A few comments:

For my R,G,B captures , I capture in RAW format and process in Autostakkert under the RGGB debayer. Then go to Registax(where I convert to B+W) for wavelets and the Winjupos before Photoshop.

I am not sure my RGB process is optimised, or for that matter"correct", as I would have thought I would have got a better image from the RGB than the colour capture. The other way to look at it is that I just still have a HUGE amount to learn about capturing and processing my images :-) Having said that , and having goy used to the mono cameras, I am not sure that I am using the ASI224MC in the correct way for the filtered images.

It looks like in colour mode that the ASI224MC is really producing some good(great?) detail

I am wondering if it is not worthwhile to go back to a mono camera for the single filter captures, and RGB processing, whilst still considering the ASI224MC for comparing colour captures?

Any comments are more than welcome!! (Bill, I brought you into the fray as I know you have an interest in the ASI224MC as well. Sam, I also copied you for any comment)

PS: I duplicated the IR 685 capture from this morning and included it for comparison.

Best regards, Clyde

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars 11 December 2015 RGB

Received: 12 December 2015 at 16:06 JST

Hi, all

An attempt to get "back in the groove", with my RGB imaging. Still a bit of a struggle to get reasonable G and B images. Mars now at 5".

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151211/CFs11Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars: December 5, 2015

Received: 9 December 2015 at 10:17 JST

Hi -

I am sending my latest image of Mars December 5, 2015 to be posted.

I used the moon as a guide to find Mars about 5 degrees away in daylight hours.

Thanks,

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151205/FMl05Dec15.jpg

Frank J Melillo (Holtsville, NY)

��Subject: RE: Mars 5 December 2015 IR

Received: 6 December 2015 at 03:09 JST

Hi, All

I have received a few comments on the apparent "bridge"(canal?!) linking Oxia Palu(at the tip of Margaritifer Sinus) with Niliacus Lacus, which is apparently not normally as distinct as it appears in my image. On my reference map this is shown as a lightly shaded link, named "Indus". Looking at all the IR images I took, it does seem fairly evident, but it could still be a processing artifact. I also took three Red(610nm) captures after the IR's, but conditions were deteriorating quite quickly with the approach of sunrise. I have attached the Red image for comparison, and the Indus "bridge" is not as evident.

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151205/CFs05Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars 5 December 2015 IR

Received: 5 December 2015 at 20:30 JST

Hi, All

An IR capture of Mars from this morning, with Mare Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus, and Mare Eythraeum all prominent. Margaritifer Sinus and Sinus Meridiani also clearly visible. Unfortunately I was not able to capture RGB's this morning

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151205/CFs05Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

��Subject: Mars 1 December 2015 IR

Received: 1 December 2015 at 13:32 JST

Hi, All

An IR capture of Mars from this morning, with Mare Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus, Nilokeras and Mare Eythraeum all prominent. I have taken RGB's as well, so will see what I can get out of them in due course

Best regards, Clyde

http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmons/2016/151201/CFs01Dec15.jpg

Clyde FOSTER (Centurion, SOUTH AFRICA)

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