Night of Planets

Jupiter, Saturn, Mars

It's been quite a while since I've done any planetary imaging. When skies cleared on October 14th Mars was only one day past opposition and eight days after closest approach to Earth. It seemed like a good opportunity to capture some Mars images, particularly since Mars would not be this close again until 2035!

I hauled my Stellarvue 130mm refractor outside along with accompanying equipment and had everything mostly setup before sunset. A very thin haze cleared as evening progressed. There was no wind, and temperature ranged from about 60 to 55 degrees. Miraculously, all five problematic neighborhood floodlights which usually plague me at night were turned off most of the time. That was an unexpected surprise!

I first pointed the telescope at Jupiter which was sinking toward the southwestern horizon. After initial focusing difficulty I managed to get the next mediocre picture using a 4X Barlow lens.

Seeing was poor during video capture, and the giant planet was relatively low in the sky. Consequently, Jupiter's image is kind of blurry and washed out. Nevertheless, the Red Spot is visible along with Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, on the lower left.

Next, I moved to Saturn which stood higher above the horizon. The following image was made with a 3X Barlow lens.

Saturn's image is sharper than Jupiter's, although the front edge of the rings looks a little fuzzy. Saturn's shadow on the rings came out well.

While I worked on Jupiter and Saturn Mars rose higher in the sky. Although not yet at the optimal meridian crossing, Mars was nicely placed above the horizon. The next image is the best of my attempts with the 3X Barlow lens.

Dark surface features are nicely visible, though not as sharp as I would like. The small white diminishing south polar cap is also seen on the bottom. Slight white haziness on the right limb is apparently Martian cloudiness. When I last imaged Mars in 2016 its angular diameter was 18.3 arc seconds. This time Mars was significantly bigger with an angular diameter of about 22.2 arc seconds. I switched to a 4X Barlow lens for more attempts. The next picture is the best result.

White hazy Martian clouds can now be seen on both the top (north pole) and right side of Mars. Two consecutive images taken 9.5 minutes apart show a bit of Mars' rotation below. I wish I had taken more images to show a longer period of rotation!

During this session I was amazed by heavy dew quickly forming on everything exposed to the night sky. I initially set up the telescope before sunset. By the time I returned a few hours later the telescope tube was already soaked with dew. By the time I finished later in the evening my equipment cases, transport cart, folding tabletop, and cardboard boxes were all soaked! Once inside everything was left open to dry overnight.

Most of the higher quality planetary pictures I see online are captured with bigger apertures and longer focal lengths than my setup. I guess the somewhat fuzzy images here are the best I can do with my equipment.