Due to cloudy skies, it has nearly been a full month without a chance to head outside into the cold.
However last night was clear enough for an hour – so I made the most of it.
The initial plan was to try out my new 2x Barlow against Jupiter. I own a 3x Barlow but its magnification when used with a modded Xbox Web Cam was to great and Jupiter passes by to quickly without a guided mount.
I started manually tracking Jupiter with the 2x Barlow – however I was unable to find the optimum settings on the webcam to take any decent pictures/videos – better luck next time !
Not wanting to waste the clear sky – I started taking some pictures using just my regular digital camera. I managed to take the following picture – which includes Jupiter at the top of the image along with a small area of the constellation Taurus (Latin for Bull).
Objects of interest within this image are Jupiter (largest planet in the Solar System), Alshain (44 light years away), Aldebaran – the Bulls eye (44 times the size of our Sun !).
Tagged below:
Finally to help visualize this section of Taurus I have drawn in the lines of Taurus with Jupiter watching over:
Not bad for a digital camera with 4 second exposure’s.