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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Jupiter _ Io's shadow on Ganymede

Posted by: Hungry4info May 29 2010, 02:20 PM

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=18&month=08&year=2009
(animation)

Posted by: Bill Harris May 29 2010, 05:57 PM

And what is most astounding is that Christopher Go is using an 11 inch (a modest, commercial telescope, although likely highly modified) for this. An example of the wonders of digital photography! 25 years ago I was doing deep-sky (long exposures of faint nebulae and galaxies) astrophotography on film, and can well appreciate the quality of difficulty of his work.

--Bill

Posted by: As old as Voyager May 29 2010, 06:23 PM

Wow, that is really impressive.

Posted by: JohnVV May 30 2010, 12:55 AM

bill -- cold cameras and gas sensitizing , those were the days .
My younger days with the Livonia astro club, low brow ( A^2 ) and DOA ( detroit )

Posted by: nprev May 30 2010, 09:34 AM

Amateur astronomy has technologically progressed in leaps & bounds over the past 20 years or so. This is just amazing work!

Notice as well that surface details are visible on both Io & Ganymede. The first time in history that we had views of them this good was a few weeks prior to Voyager 1's encounter with Jupiter in 1979....and today a talented am with a 11-in. scope & advanced electronics equals--in many ways surpasses--that.

Wow.

Posted by: S_Walker May 31 2010, 12:25 PM

Chris lives in Cebu City, Phillipines, where the seeing is often excellent and the ecliptic passes nearly overhead. He doesn't use any specially modified equipment, just good capture techniques. He's even imaging all these great shots from his apartment balcony!

Yes, amateur technology and technique have come a long way in the past two decades. I may be young compared to the average amateur (one solr lap shy of 40), but I cut my teeth on film photography in the early 90's. It's so much easier and much more enjoyable shooting the planets today.