.UNIQUE
EVENT OBSERVATIONS
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LATEST IMAGE!
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ECLIPSE REAPPEARANCE OF GANYMEDE
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LUNAR OCCULTATION OF JUPITER
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| Seeing conditions were, as usual, pretty turbulent,
but watching and video taping the occultation of Jupiter was a rare treat.
Unfortunately I over exposed the video some and lost what little surface
detail I could see on Jupiter on the monitor. |
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LUNAR OCCULTATION OF VENUS
| The daylight occultation of Venus by the waning
moon was a spectacular sight to behold. Even to the naked eye, to
see bright venus near the crescent moon in the brightly lit morning sky
was a surreal, unforgettable experience. It took only 15 seconds
or so for the illuminated surface of Venus to disappear behind the bright
lunar limb. Because the Astrovid 2000 allows the manual adjustment
of shutter speed, I was able to expose for the bright surface of Venus
causing the lunar limb to be well underexposed. Unfortunately, as
I was playing hooky from work, I was not able to record the reappearance..... |
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MERCURY TRANSIT 1999
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Six frames stacked, unprocessed.
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| The November 15th 1999 transit of Mercury was
my first truly spectacular "unique observation" since the total solar eclipse
of 1979. Though seeing conditions for the transit were turbulent
with intermittent clouds there was still found on the video recording several
seconds of extremely sharp frames of Mercury. Six of the best frames
were stacked together to reduce video noise (above, right), then enlarged,
sharpened and adjusted for contrast in Adobe Photo Shop (above, left).
15cm Maksutov-Cassegrain @ f/30, Astrovid 2000 |
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BIRT SUNSET RAY 29 Oct.
1999
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| A unique shadow was cast upon Rupes Recta by a depression in the wall
between crater Birt and Birt A. The small depression is actually
a small crater on the top of the wall separating the larger craters.
It is just visible as a bright point in the detail image at right.
Both images were made with a 25cm Newtonian. The image at left was
recorded with a PC23C video surveillance camera in very turbulent seeing
while the image at right was made with an Astrovid 2000 in mildly turbulent
seeing. |
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WALTER SUNSET RAY....well
almost.
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| I have tried many times to catch a glimpse of
the Walter Sunset Ray but thus far this is as close as I have come.
Only during a specific combination of lunation and solar angle to the crater
surface is the ray produced. When I finally do catch it, it should
be a splendid sight. 25cm Newtonian @ f/37, Astrovid 2000. |
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LUNAR OCCULTATION OF URANUS
| The occultation of Uranus was an exciting event
to witness. The disappearance occurred close enough to the terminator
so that the overall effect was very 3 dimensional . Uranus faded
from view in a matter of a couple seconds, and though the seeing was quite
dreadful (horrible turbulence) I was still able to find usable frames in
the video recording made with a PC23C video surveillance camera. |
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JUPITER OCCULTATION OF SAO92746
| Observing the occultation of a star by the planet
Jupiter is a rare experience and though, due to the glare of Jupiter's
disk, I was not able to see or record the moment the star disappeared from
view I did obtain one frame showing the star only moments before its disappearance. |
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MARS PASSES CLOSE TO 8.4
MAGN. STAR
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| An over exposed gibbous phase Mars passes within
2 planet diameters of 8.4 magnitude star HD154053. The star was occulted
by Mars for observers in a portion of Arizona. |
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PALLAS SUNRISE RAY
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| Seeing was horribly turbulent when I came upon
this lunar ray on the floor of crater Pallas. The ray is created
by sunlight streaming through a break in the wall between Pallas and Murchison. |
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