Catching the GRS!
Having fixed the rotation of Jupiter in Stellarium a couple of nights ago - see my previous posts - I noticed that there was a convenient Great Red Spot (GRS) transit this evening to test the software out, so I went out with the specific intention of checking that the prediction was accurate.
After slewing my Altair Wave 115 refractor to the rough position of Jupiter using Stellarium, I accurately aligned the system using AstroTortilla and there it was - I had Jupiter slap bang in the middle of my field of view. I then swapped my camera for the QHY IMG132E planetary camera and added the Tele Vue 2 x Powermate for extra magnification. After a little playing around with the focusing I could clearly see the GRS at meridian, meaning that Stellarium had accurately predicted the transit.
The image below is the result of the best 400 frames from an 87s AVI, stacked using AutoStakkert 2 and processed in RegiStax 6. Not a bad image for a 4.5" refractor! - click on the image to see a better quality version on flickr.
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| Jupiter and the Great Red Spot, with 2 of Jupiter's moons - Io (bottom) and Callisto (top) |
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