I've traded in my color camera for a mono CCD for higher resolution and easier processing.
It seems to be very sensitive! As it's first test, I decided to image asteroid 1 Ceres. It just passed opposition in June and, thus is very bright at about magnitude 7.
As its number implies, Ceres was the first Minor Planet or Asteroid to be discovered. It was discovered by G Piazzi at Palermo in Sicily being first seen by him on 1 January 1801.
Ceres has a diameter of 932.6 km and is easily the largest inner asteroid, although recently a number of larger Kuiper belt objects have been discovered. At its 2006 meeting in Prague, the IAU voted that Ceres should be one of the group of "Dwarf Planets". It is the only asteroid that is large enough to be pulled into a spherical shape by its gravity.
Ceres's orbital period is 4.60 years, its distance from the Sun varying between 2.55 and 2.98 AU. The orbit is inclined at 10.6° to the ecliptic.
I'm quite please with the new CCD and even from my suburban skies, am getting down beyond mag 18. I don't know how dim I can go yet as none of my software shows stars dimmer than that. I need to download the 80GB data set and that should take a while.
(source
here)
#1) Behind City Hall. Probably the most likely to be found by someone.
Facing 140° (SE)
#2) Along highway 1 just north of the city.
Facing 265° (West)
#3) Just south of #2 along the railroad tracks.
YIKES!!!
Facing 169° (SE)
Today our Triops eggs arrived. Triops are a type of shrimp dating back millions of years before even the dinosaurs. The eggs arrived in "suspended animation" and can remain this way for over 25 years. Oddly, their lifespan is just a few weeks to a couple months but can grow to 3 inches in that short time. The package claimed to contain 30 to 50 eggs, but I counted over 70. So follow as we hatch and grow these ancient creatures.
As Jupiter passed opposition this year, I was able to get a good night of images. It took another couple weeks until I could find the several hours it took to process and create this animation. It's about three hours compressed into 3 seconds. The Great Red Spot is easily visible.
