SOHO Comets/Asteroids/Planets

[EarthlingX]

If you go to the SOHO movie theatre and put in Apr 24 as the start date and Apr 26th as the end date you can see it.

I post this stuff in real time as it's happening, but will give start and end dates in the future.

Time too, please. LASCO C2 for 24th at 1k images is 10MB, C3 almost 20MB, to clarify my point.

Movie theatre uses 512x512 images, and i'm not happy with that.

I'm downloading C2 and C3 for 23-26th, because there was a cute prominence at 24th i think, seen by STEREO.

I'll drop it in the Solar Cycle Progression thread, but i have images on the disk, and if i spot Mercury, i'll post it here.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Mercury doesn't show in the C2 images, only the (Blue) C3. It's too far away to be seen in the C2.

 

[EarthlingX]

Mercury doesn't show in the C2 images, only the (Blue) C3. It's too far away to be seen in the C2.

I'm learning

SOHO LASCO C3, 1 frame/sec, 2010 04 23 - 26 :
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjUm-HnHk8U[/youtube]

I think, it's a pale dot on the bottom of the left top corner (130 MB images download, 34 MB upload to YouTube, but i think it shows all images from Mercury pass .. )

 

[MeteorWayne]

Just a comment on the youtube video. The frame rate is too slow to easily show the different speed of the background stars and the planets. It makes it hard to pick out the very faint Mercury moving faster, especially with all the normal background noise. The speed on the gif links seems to be the best. If I want to examine something in more detail, I then go to the Movie theater link and select the images; then I can step through one image at a time.

 

[MeteorWayne]

BTW, Mercury is now visible to the right of the sun exiting stage right. It shows up about midday on May 1, after the satellite flips (note the support for the occulting disk moves from the lower left to the upper right). It's almost exactly to the right of the sun, whereas on the way in it was just above the height of the sun.
It's quite faint at first since it was a veryveryvery thin crescent.

MW

 

[EarthlingX]

Just a comment on the youtube video. The frame rate is too slow to easily show the different speed of the background stars and the planets. It makes it hard to pick out the very faint Mercury moving faster, especially with all the normal background noise. The speed on the gif links seems to be the best. If I want to examine something in more detail, I then go to the Movie theater link and select the images; then I can step through one image at a time.

Thank you for honest opinion, i appreciate it.
I make them so slow, because i have trouble with movie theatre. Images are too small, it takes a lot of time before it runs at the speed i like, and pressing 'step' negates the idea of movie theatre. 1 sec per image gives me enough time to press 'pause', if i see something i want to check for a bit longer, and it also gives big enough part on the track to be easy to navigate - to position slider on the exact image i want.
If movie runs too fast, as those gifs do, i don't see anything, it's hard even to see the time of image. There are minutes, sometimes hours between those images, and a lot of things happen in that time. It might be a bit harder to clean out the noise, so i will try and make a bit shorter steps, see how it works, at least for this ..

I go check a couple of things, thanks

 

[MeteorWayne]

Yeah, it was just a helpful suggestion. The key to identifying planets (especially the faint ones) is being able to catch the speed being different from the normal star movement rate as earth (and SOHO) orbit the sun at around 1 degree per day.

Like I say, the gif speed makes it easier to discern that. For other events, the slower rate makes sense.
The next planet to go by will be Mercury as it goes through superior conjunction in late June (June 27). It will be much brighter then (being fully illuminated, 99.8%, mag -2.2 so will have the "UFO bars") and will also be moving right to left, the opposite direction of the stars.

Wayne

 

[EarthlingX]

This is 4 frame/sec , cropped and enlarged, to look better on the full-screen, SOHO images from 2010.Apr.30 22:30 - 2010.May.02 15:40 :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkZZcrEGLHM[/youtube]

 

[MeteorWayne]

Me like, that's good. It clearly shows Mercury moving faster than the stars, and the crop/enlarge helps too.

Thanx!

 

[EarthlingX]

Me like, that's good. It clearly shows Mercury moving faster than the stars, and the crop/enlarge helps too.

Thanx!

Thank you, for teaching me, how to go about it

Oh, and for noting it, in the first place, of course.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Not exactly a comet, asteroid or planet, but a pretty event is taking place as the Pleiades are passing behind the sun from our viewpoint.

http://soho.esac.esa.int/data/LATEST/current_c3.gif

 

[MeteorWayne]

Now a few days later, as the Pleiades start to exit the image above, below the sun the classic "V" shape of the Hyades can be seen with magnitude +0.85 Aldebaran within.
MW

 

[EarthlingX]

Lovely I might do something about it ..

There's also plenty of Sun coughs, charming

As i was watching it, latest images were from 2010.May.21 - 2010.May.26, with Pleiades exit.

 

[EarthlingX]

I made a video from that period, but i'm not too impressed with it in it's raw form, still, it's on my disk with 4 fps.

Here is a bit about Pleiades and Hyades for noobs like me, from http://www.youtube.com/user/JPLnews :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YrrYZe9zyE[/youtube]

 

[EarthlingX]

Now a few days later, as the Pleiades start to exit the image above, below the sun the classic "V" shape of the Hyades can be seen with magnitude +0.85 Aldebaran within.
MW

Here it is, with frame rate changed to 4fps :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVi_F04jvfs[/youtube]

 

[MeteorWayne]

Looked good E_X. the 4 fps frame rate would be good for seeing comets as well, the next time one pops up.

Thanx,
MW

 

[EarthlingX]

Looked good E_X. the 4 fps frame rate would be good for seeing comets as well, the next time one pops up.

Thanx,
MW

Glad to be part of the effort

It is also nice for a quick view of some period. Here are, in my opinion, possible culprits of the current solar storm. Check at end of the video, or updated gif you posted, which is probably better for now.

I'm also thinking about a Hyades pass, or make another video, from where this one ends ? This is rather easy, a couple of minutes, mostly waiting to click, no biggie.

I'll probably cool down, when i know a bit more

 

[EarthlingX]

I missed a couple of days, so before it is too late :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21TjRh_TVVc[/youtube]

 

[MeteorWayne]

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/

Mercury has now reappeared in the SOHO Lasco C3 image, this time passing from right to left as it passes behind the sun, reaching superior conjunction this Monday. Current magnitude is -1.6; but of course too close to the sun to be seen from planet earth.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hermes about to slide behind a quiet sun, as Gemini's northern curved foot slide beneath:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LAT ... ent_c3.gif

 

[EarthlingX]

I will drop this couple of images, to remind to make a video. My excuse for not doing it already, is messing with video software and doing some other experiments.

2010 June 22, by YourSky :


2010 June 27, by YourSky :


2010 June 28, by Celestia :

 

[EarthlingX]

Mercury pass, 2010 June 22 - 28

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TCObz7FAeE[/youtube]

Planets on 2010 June 29, by Celestia :

 

[MeteorWayne]

SOHO 2000th Comet Contest

"Even though SOHO's primary target is the Sun, its onboard LASCO instrument has become the most prolific comet discoverer in history! LASCO is a coronagraph package with nested fields of view. Since LASCO began observations in January 1996, the C2 and C3 coronagraphs have observed over 1800 comets. The majority of these comets belong to the Kreutz group of sungrazing comets.

To celebrate this outstanding achievement, we invite you to ENTER THE COMPETITION to predict the perihelion of the 2000th SOHO comet - and win a prize!"

 

[MeteorWayne]

Speaking of SOHO, you can see Mercury on the lower right, moving left to right faster than the stars. It passed inferior conjunction (between the earth and sun) on the 4th.

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LAT ... ent_c3.gif

 

[MeteorWayne]

While EIT has cut back, LASCO toils merrily on...

Now entering stage left is Magnitude +0.9 Saturn, heading toward conjunction at the end of the month.

LASCO C3 Movie

It's hard to see it's motion against the stars, since there are no bright ones nearby in Virgo.

Interesting glitches in the first half of 09/20 with dark areas near the sun shifting they must have been moving something internally. I have written to the team to see if I can find out what it was.

A few small puffs from the sun toward the end are about all the solar activity, it's rather quiet, despite 2 visible sunspot groups.