Máximo Ruiz is a Spanish astronomy amateur who uses DMK 21AU04.AS astronomy camera for his astro-photography hobby. This monochrome Saturn image is another work from him:

We translated his email as follow:

I am now sending you the picture of Saturn that I have captured with a DMK 21AU04.AS camera and a Meade LX 200 10 telescope.

Location: Barbera del Valles, Barcelona

Time: 12-01-09 about 18:30

Tube S/C Meade LX 200 10”  f/11

1 video of 100 frames.

15 fps with DMK 21U04.AS  monocrhome camera & red filter

Filter:  Optec, Bessell U

Process with  Regixtax Photoshop and Pixinsight

The following picture is the screen shot of an excellent solar animation made by a German astronomy amateur, Ingmar Glass. He took all the images with his DMK 31AF03.AS astronomy camera.

Click the picture to open the animation in your browser.

Vielen Dank Ingmar! Gut gemacht!

Mike Salway has been working really hard lately. The picture below is the 2nd one we received over the past two days.

Here is what he said in the mail:

This image of Venus in Ultra Violet light was captured on the morning of the 23rd June … …

The colours reveal some albedo differences in the cloud tops on Venus, and come from a combination of using a Schuler UV filter for capturing the luminance (detail) data, and processing the image as a false-colour composite using colour data from the RGB channels as well as the UV channel.

The seeing was only average, and Venus was at a respectable 30° altitude – shining brilliantly at mag -4.18.

More here: Venus in UV False Colour – 23rd June

Thank you Mike! Wish you a clear sky!

We received the picture from Mike this morning.

On Tuesday morning, 23rd June 2009 I captured my first image of Mars for 2009. It’s still very early in the season, with Mars still 288 million kilometres away, subtending a tiny diameter of a 4.9″ on the sky.

Mars doesn’t reach opposition until late January, 2010 when it will be 14 arcseconds in diameter – a lot smaller than it was at its closest in 2003, when it grew to 25″ in diameter.

No polar cap is visible, but the features of Syrtis Major and the Hellas Basin can be seen.

More here: My first Mars for 2009.

Thank you Mike!

The observers of Venus get pretty much nothing more than its phase and quickly changing size in visible light. However, the infrared spectrum can reveal the planet’s dynamic atmosphere and weak light on its night side.

Silvia Kowollik, an German astronomy amateur, wrote an interesting article about how to photograph Venus in infrared with The Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras and published it in the July’s edition of the German astronomy magazine “Sterne und Weltraum” (“Stars and Space” in English).

Should you wish to read her article (in German) and view the exceptional images, you can order online at Die Nachtseite der Venus.