Webcam Imaging of Mercury's Rotation, Amateur images of Mercury Options

[jsheff]

Hi, all,

A fellow amateur astronomer in the Boston area, John Boudreau, has been getting some neat images of Mercury, including some that show longitudes not mapped by Mariner 10. He's put together a few of them into a movie that shows Mercury's rotation and changing phase.

Before you go to check out the link, I'd like to remind you that this was all done using a backyard telescope and an inexpensive webcam - equipment readily affordable to hobbyists, using image stacking techniques that were pioneered by amateur astronomers, and that are now being refined by people like John. And perhaps most remarkably, his imaging was done from sites in the densely-populated suburb of Saugus, Mass. - not exactly an area known for dark skies and good seeing!

http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/mercury.htm

- John Sheff
Cambridge, MA

[nprev]

Hey, that's really amazing; thanks for posting!

Fantastic, really; backyard amateurs can now achieve better results in planetary observations than the pros could in the 60s & 70s. Your bud is very talented, though, John; takes a lot of time & patience to make a sequence like that for a hard target like Mercury.

Actually, I've never seen a movie like that of Mercury before; since you guys are in Cambridge, strongly suggest contacting Sky & Telescope! .

[jsheff]

... since you guys are in Cambridge, strongly suggest contacting Sky & Telescope! .

As a matter of fact, I see the story is on the home page of Sky & Tel's
website today:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/

[ElkGroveDan]

Congratulations to John! He certainly deserves the recognition!