For the first time in about two weeks I finally managed an observation of Jupiter as it meandered into the south west. This really was an awkward observation though. What makes things difficult is that my view from the south east to the south west is blocked by several tall buildings, so for around ten minutes Jupiter disappeared from view behind one of them. I moved my position more than once to try and get a better view. Finally Jupiter reappeared and I managed around ten minutes of viewing before the clouds blanketed the western sky.
I made the following render in Photoshop of my observation. The moons from left to right are Ganymede, Io and Europa. For some bizarre reason I never observed Callisto, which should have been within another 10 arc minutes or so to the left of Ganymede. Trying to find an optimum viewing position possibly distracted me - either way, it was nice to see the giant king of the solar system again.
The waning gibbous moon was also on show later on that evening, rising gracefully out of the eastern horizon. This really is the best time to observe and photograph the moon with it’s black terminator, debossed shadowy craters and sublime surface detail.
I captured two Afocal images through the Pentax Optio last night. The first one required a little smart sharpening in Photoshop, but even without this the level and clarity of detail is excellent. The second one is also a good shot, but it lacks the clean focus of the first capture and required a harder level of sharpening. These two images for me, are the best Afocal photographs I have taken to date. Just shows what you can achieve with a simple digital camera.
Tags: Afocal Photography, Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, Moon, Photoshop, Strathspey 25x100