First Jupiter Image - One Added (double eq FL of 22m)

jgs001

jgs001

Brian Cox
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John
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Had a short play last night with my Skymax 102 and SPC900 webcam... hmm... focal length of 1300mm, crop factor of 8.5x.. equiv focal length 11,050mm :D

The atmosphere was too turbulent last night to double the real focal length, the resulting AVI was just mush... so the image scale is a little teeny...

Anyway... 570 or 1204 frames, stacked in Registax, wavelets and a high pass sharpen in GIMP, a little dodge/burn (not sure which as this always muddles me...) to bring out the moons (the little dots either side).

jupiter-1-170909-570of1204.jpg


I'm very pleased with the result though... Hope you like it. No C&C needed, I know it could be better, I find this much harder than Deep Sky imaging..
 
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Thats Pretty amazing John (y)
BTW "Burn" darkens
( think of a piece of wood being partially burnt it turns to charcoal)
 
Top stuff...!

I am stunned. Our moon comes out that kinda size on my camera... :LOL:

:notworthy:
 
Cheers everyone..

Chris in that case it was dodging...

Lee ;)... I managed to get something out of the barlowed image (think 2xTC for astro use)... so this is at an equivalent FL of 22100mm.. the light is getting to the point the gain on the webcam is a bit high, so you can see some form of noise patterns across the top of the image. The seeing also really didn't support this level of magnification but hey :D

jupiter-barlow-1-170909-486of788.jpg
 
Nice John, very nice.

Must give the planets ago at some point, struggling to find the time at the moment though due to work, always tired at the moment.
 
Thank you...

Stuart, you should be able to get good results. I've seen some amazing images with the Skymax 127. The extra focal length and extra aperture (improves the resolution of the image) all adds up, and mine isn't 100% collimated which reduces the quality of the image. Of course, an SLR is not going to give you any image scale...

I know what you mean about being tired with work, but I had to get out last night and do something as it was clear.
 
John is Jupiter the big bright star I can see looking southish, you have inspired me to have a go (y)

what settings would you recommend, with my 150-500mm @500 plus X"2, I was thinking F11, ISO 100 or would that exposure be to long, if so up the ISO,
 
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Thanks Kevin.

Dave, that sounds about right, but you'll be able to tell even through a pair of Binos, the star will blob out a little and you'll hopefully see a couple of pinpricks of light either side (the galilean moons)... but crumbs... that's not going to be easy... you're gonna want to open the lens wide (the working distance is, even at closest, 365,000,000 miles ;)), shove up the ISO... anything more than very short exposures are gonna result in trailing unless your tripod/mount tracks. (I was working at 10fps with the webcam on a tracking mount, I'd love a 60fps Imaging Source camera...)
 
jgs001 said:
Dave, that sounds about right, but you'll be able to tell even through a pair of Binos, the star will blob out a little and you'll hopefully see a couple of pinpricks of light either side (the galilean moons)... but crumbs... that's not going to be easy... you're gonna want to open the lens wide (the working distance is, even at closest, 365,000,000 miles ;)), shove up the ISO... anything more than very short exposures are gonna result in trailing unless your tripod/mount tracks. (I was working at 10fps with the webcam on a tracking mount, I'd love a 60fps Imaging Source camera...)
Click to expand...

Thanks John, (y) I haven't had a go yet as it was a bit overcast last night, I'll up the ISO to 800/1600, would that be better, don't think there's much chance I'll get anything decent but worth a try (y)
 
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You'll get used to the clouds Dave :)... we get more clouds than clear nights.. From memory, I was getting a little trailing showing at 1/2 second at 1200mm with my SLR... it's also going to involve a lot of guesswork for the right exposure.
 
:D.. not exactly.. .and it's manual focus only too...
 
Thank you :D.. There are many better planetary and lunar imagers around than I, but it does help having the ideal kit, which mine isn't really...
 
Damn you John - you've raised the bloody bar again :)

Superb!!!
 
By Jupiter, I think the lad's got it (y)
 
Cheers all..

John, when I get one of the 60fps super sensitive cameras, I'll give this another go with the 2x or maybe a pair of them.... or maybe even my 5x .... of course getting it focused is going to be exceedingly painful... and getting my little mak collimated will make a big difference... but that needs a clear night, and the ability to use 2mm and 3mm allen keys in the dark and make teeny tiny (a 1/4 turn is way way too much) adjustments to the out of focus pattern of a star (airy disk) to try and get the blobs concentric about the middle point.

Dave :razz: :LOL:
 
Cheers Kirk
 
Thanks guys (y)
 
Thanks SJ (y)
 
I am always very impressed by your images, very well done :clap::clap:. Jupiter has a very special spot in my heart ... goes back a long way.

jgs001 said:
Thank you :D.. There are many better planetary and lunar imagers around than I, but it does help having the ideal kit, which mine isn't really...
Click to expand...

Realistically speaking, what would you consider as an ideal kit?
 
Thanks Wail... Hmm... ideal kit... something like at least an 8" aperture Reflector or SCT (The Celestron 11" SCT seems to be an instrument of choice, if you could find it anywhere. But as a guide, the C8 is £900) and a high speed camera (50-60fps). Jupiter's rotational speed means that you have to complete your capture in under 2 minutes or you start getting surface motion blurring of the clouds. And the high frame rate helps reduce the effect of seeing conditions.
 
John,

Thanks .. I think I will be coming back to you on this subject in a few months, if you don't mind! I just need to settle down a bit better first :)

Again, fantastic shot you got there.
 
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