You don't have to have a telescope to see Jupiter up close every day...

[rodsky]

You don't have to have a telescope to see Jupiter up close every day. Cebu's very own resident amateur astronomer, Christopher Go, has a website dedicated to his nightly (depending on Jupiter's availability in the Earth's night sky) Jupiter observations and photographs.


(image by Christopher Go, Cebu City, Philippines)

Click here to see Chris Go's Jupiter Page

He also has a Saturn page...

Click here to see Chris Go's Saturn Page

Granted, a photo is no substitute to looking directly into the eyepiece, but this is way better than nothing, and what's more important is these are very recent photos of the planet.

It was by using this same telescope and equipment, that Chris discovered Jupiter's 2nd red spot (Oval BA, or "Red Spot Junior") back in February 2006 which called the attention of NASA and earned Chris a spot on the Hubble team.

Click here to see Chris Go's page about his discovery of "Red Spot Junior"

Here is a photo of iStoryan amateur astronomy enthusiasts, together with Chris Go (center, white T-Shirt), during a stargazing activity for high school kids in USC, Talamban. Hopefully, we can have another stargazing activity like this soon.


-RODION

[tams7154]

wow! nice info, thanks for posting

[Ramini]

kulba jd nis rodsky oi

[cptn_star]

payter man jd na c sir rodsky...wahaha..

[randzg]

cool! hey, i hope you dont mind posting saturn here:



I took this with a low quality, cheap refractor telescope (sold it already), 2.5 inch aperture. I used ordinary canon A410 (not sure coz i sold that too some time ago) 3.5 megapixel using super macro shot and forced it on the eyepiece coz i didnt have a mount for camera on the telescope.

[josephdc]

^ Saturn looks so lonely in that photo...

[rodsky]

Quote: Originally Posted by randzg cool! hey, i hope you dont mind posting saturn here: I took this with a low quality, cheap refractor telescope (sold it already), 2.5 inch aperture. I used ordinary canon A410 (not sure coz i sold that too some time ago) 3.5 megapixel using super macro shot and forced it on the eyepiece coz i didnt have a mount for camera on the telescope.

That is an amazing shot considering the limitations of your equipment randzg! I truly am impressed I am an advocate of "low-cost and dirt-cheap amateur astronomy" so your attempt is probably one of the best I've seen around Great work!

BTW, the term used for "...and forced it on the eyepiece coz i didnt have a mount for camera on the telescope" is "hand-held afocal". Much easier to say it now, doesn't it?

-RODION

[Hellblazer 2.1]

nice picture of saturn. ('c',)

[bluedes]

wow nice picture..

do you use some sort of software to find the coordinates of these heavenly bodies? have you used kstars from KDE? on linux?

[rodsky]

List of astronomy software (WinXP) that I use:

1. Starry Night Pro v4.5 (commercial product)

2. Stellarium (free, Stellarium )

3. Celestia (free, Celestia )

4. Cartes du Ciel (free, Sky Charts, Free Astronomy software , Celestial atlas )

5. Deep Space Explorer (commercial product)

6. Orbiter's Planetarium mode

-RODION

[bluedes]

nakagamit na ko anang celestia, but not as informative or flexible as i had hoped it to be..
i used to have this other astronomy software na for windows, but i totally forgot the name na..

but so far, kstars for linux ra ang the best for me..

do you attach your telescopes to your windows software?

[rodsky]

Quote: Originally Posted by bluedes do you attach your telescopes to your windows software?

Starry Night Pro has that capability, but havent gotten the chance to try it.

-RODION

[bluedes]

Quote: Originally Posted by rodsky Starry Night Pro has that capability, but havent gotten the chance to try it. -RODION

okay, thanks for your replies.. appreciate it much..

[ethzneuron]

Quote: Originally Posted by randzg cool! hey, i hope you dont mind posting saturn here: I took this with a low quality, cheap refractor telescope (sold it already), 2.5 inch aperture. I used ordinary canon A410 (not sure coz i sold that too some time ago) 3.5 megapixel using super macro shot and forced it on the eyepiece coz i didnt have a mount for camera on the telescope.

+2 na bro, rodsky + ethzneuron. ok kaayo bro bisag dili pro.

[fritzd]

very nice info! I also joined these events sa USC back when I was also in the USC astronomical society. hehehe!

randzg, very nice! klaro gyud ang rings sa saturn.. hehehe