'Sense and Sensibility'(in the wonderful universe of astro-imaging).

 

The Jupiter - Moon Conjunction in the Constellation Gemini on a 'dark and stormy night' Credit: Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert.Combination of data captured with: a Canon 600 DSLR and a fast EOS fixed 50mm lens and the Seestar S30 at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"March has been a very strange month at the Jodrell Plank Observatory! We have 'enjoyed' a fast changing range of weathers including: cloud, fog, rain, sleet, rainbows and very short and intermittent clear skies. On rare occasions, like this morning, we have actually seen the sun! We shall be 'showcasing' some excellent sunspot activity on the 'Sun's Photosphere' in our next post.

The other night it was blowing a gale, Kurt went out to check the JPO buildings were secure and whilst he was out noticed the conjunction between the planet Jupiter and the Moon at half phase. Relativity is a wonderous thing and although the clouds were moving, the Moon and Jupiter appeared to 'sail' through the clouds. Every now and then Kurt saw the bright stars Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini, 'wink' into view as the cloud gave way to clearer sky.

The Moon being considerably brighter than even the planet Jupiter, in concert with atmospheric high level ice crystals, from time to time, created a halo of light in the colours red, magenta, yellow and blue. 

The whole thing was quite beautiful and a visual treat to the eye!

Kurt decided to try to capture and process the data in such a way to represent the beauty of it as perceived by the eye rather than follow the accepted protocols, adopted by astro-imagers, when creating asto-images.

What a bit of kit the human eye is! Since 'the time of trilobites', evolution has been changing and refining the ability of the eye-brain combination to perceive and register photons of light. Our eyes and brain are quite extraordinary in their ability to take in complex visual data, with huge differences in brightness and to accommodate relative movement.

Digital cameras are brilliant at detecting faint light, a few photons, and are able to build up a complex image over time. They are so much better at capturing colour in low light conditions, ie at night, which the human eye struggles to do.

Camera sensors come in different types and sizes but the variations between them are limited. Us human's, with our eyes and brains are infinitely variable. As a simple example, our health and age radically affect what we see. Our current Director, Kurt, is nearer 80 than seventy years old. At his age, the aperture of his dark adapted eyes is at best 4mms. A person under the age of 30 years is likely to have an equivalent aperture of 7mm. As the amount of photons gathered is proportional to the square of the aperture, this is a significant difference between what Kurt sees and what his grand-children see. Also there are a number of issues that affect eyesight: astigmatism, myopia, colour blindness and general health issues etc.

So capturing the data and processing it,to create an 'as seen' image of an astronomical event is no easy task because what Kurt sees and what you see are likely to be significantly different. Probably, this is why astro-imagers have adopted protocols for capturing and processing data to create a generally acceptable consensus view of how the Universe looks.

The above colourful images were created by Kurt and Pip using: the Seestar S30 smartscope in planetary video mode to best capture the bright Moon and the Canon DSLR with f=50mm mm lens to capture the wider field of view encompassing the colourful Moon halo,the planet Jupiter, the stars Castor and Pollux and the clouds.

When processing the data, Kurt and Pip agreed on what they thought best represented what they think they saw. We hope you like their work?" - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO - the Uk's most easterly astronomical observatory.