Kon

It's only temporary until summer again 😉. As it is getting further and further away it is hard to pull nice details and the seeing is being awful to get any decent seeing. But we will be for planetary treat 2024/2025.

If you are observing from darkish skies, then a good quality OIII such as Astronomik or Tele Vue. A good quality UHC has already been suggested above.

I am not sure which scope you have but with my 200P the focuser was the issue. It has a lot of wobble. When I was collimating it, I found that all looked great with the cheshire but a star test was a bit off. Putting the cheshire back in it was off. I found as I was rotating the cheshire along the focuser it was wobbling even if I thought I had tighten it, or the tightening was never even. That of course throws your secondary being off, although it may not be the case. I resolved it by doing the collimation and making sure when I inserted eyepieces to be tighten the same way. The way the focuser is hold in place by the two thumb screws is also goining a lot of play. Not an issue for visual but for planetary imaging I wanted to have it spot on. This way star tests looked perfect. Life is too sort for this kind of thing so I recently moved to a low profile focuser as it is a lot more steadier and with the use of Baader clicklock I get even tightening. I have eleiminatedthe wobble of the focuser and it has made collimation a walk in the park.

Nice set of images. I like your full mosaic in particular, it is an excellent picture.

Excellent images. Nicely processed, smooth with details. Uranus should give you the northern polar hood with the IR filter.

Very nice images Ian. It seems that you are enjoying the new Job, how are you finding it with the goto? I think the first one is much more natural. The only thing I would change would be to up the gamma a little bit to make it a bit brighter. You can always try blend a more sharper image with a softer to get the intermediate look. But with bad weather images I am not sure the extra effort is worth it.

What's said above but the past few weeks the Jetstream has been a killer. Yes nice transparent skies but awful seeing. DSO observing doesn't suffer as much but planets and moon look all mushy. I check my collimation before every imaging session and it is the bad seeing we are having. Not much dew either the past few weeks either as the air has been dry. A star test will help to verify if you are collimated or it needs a tweak. Defocus in/out but not all the way and you should see concentric circles. Keep an eye on Jetstream maps too.

Excellent image and very nice smooth details.

Thank you. I am afraid seeing is not helping and Jupiter getting further away it's hard to get nice details.

I think that's much better but could be less. It seems that either seeing was not great or focus was maybe a tad off. The whites at the edges and the bottom are still blown off (it is either overexposed during capture or you have done auto white balance and it can give this effect or combination of both (in my past captures it was a combination of the lateral)). No need to convert to mono as then you can try up the saturation and have a nice mineral moon.

It has been pushed a bit too much, and the good thing is that you have noticed. You have an edge rind artifact around the edge of the moon and throughout the craters. The white balance seems to be a bit aggressive as the whites are washed off. Try a lot less wavelets. Less is more as it is usually mentioned. You may want to put the stacked tiff here if you want others to have a go.

Thanks Ian. Exact same thing happened to me. I was out around 553 and went downhill after that. Looking forward to your post.

This is my first Jupiter for 2024 but also the last from this apparition. I said on an earlier post that my planetary season is over but I wanted one last go on Jupiter as it is drifting away now. I managed 2x120s captures before the jetstream made imaging awful. Some details are coming through. Jupiter is much smaller in comparison to a few months ago. 8" Dob, manual, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate.

Is your concern about visual or diving into imaging? In respect to observing and planets drifting away, opt for wider FOV eyepieces. I use 82 degrees ones, you can even get well priced 100 degrees eyepieces too. I use my 8" to do a lot of nebula observing (no imaging) and I do not find it an issue with targets drifting too fast as I am usually using a low poer eyepiece for them (only a few require high mag). Ps: The weather we have been having recently, would not support a 9mm with a barlow; yes larger image but probably very blurry. If you are planning to do imaging, will it be DSO or planetary? The 10" Dob is a fantastic piece of equipment (I have an 8"). As @PeterStudz Peter said I am all manual and I am doing all my planetary imaging this way (my work has been published in several astro magazines) , so I think the only limitation is the good weather and loads and loads of patience. Yes tracking will help you but it is not necessary. Regarding DSO imaging, you can still do it manually but you will be limited to very short exposures so I would advise against it. An Eq platform will get you decent results but if you are serious about DSO imaging then a proper mount will be required. Don't forget that Dobs are light buckets so if you can have the 10" mounted you will get great results.

Looking at the rgb in Registax the blue channel is way off. Did you change the white balance during capture settings at all (accidentally?)

Excellent capture and some details coming through Ian. I am not sure the yellow hue is true. Did colour balance not sort it?

Nice capture Ian. It seems that seeing wasn't great or at least it was good but more localised. A friend of mine 30miles west of produced a very good Jupiter similar time last night. Are these your sers derotated or a single capture ? Thursday is supposed to be clear but with Jetstream but worth trying. I will retry for Mercury.

I hope you managed some good shots last night Ian. I have seen some really good images from Wiltshire (and I am kicking myself for not getting out; the jetstream did not seem to be much of a problem last night).

Thanks Geof. It has not been the best consistency, weatherwishe, but we still managed a few good shots. I am looking forward to your Uranus-ring project and of course your other planetary imaging. I will probably do some ISS captures if weather permits. Yes some excellent advice on Mercury and as Thursday is looking good I might give it a final shot at daylight.

I do it manually until I get some of the Jupiter sharper features in focus (under good seeing) otherwise I opt to focus until the grander features look focused. I never focus on its moons as I find it can be quite off. For Uranus, I focus on Jupiter and move there, not ideal but it has worked for me to capture the northern polar hood so I don't think I am miles away (with your goto you might be able to fine tune it).

You haven't had much time with your new setup yet, have you? It's good to get all the teething out of the way now and when they are more favourable you can nail some good captures. I am not sure if seeing will be good tonight as the Jetstream is overhead but you never know if the winds are constant then it might be ok. It's meant to be a bit cloudy from now but clearing again around 8. You might want to play with an IR pass filter on both Jupiter and Uranus as well.

Thanks Reggie. It has been an awful winter for Jupiter. Yes we will have a busy summer and winter 2024. Fingers crossed for better conditions.

Thanks for the advice John. I thought after I found Venus it would have been 'trivial' to spot it. I had very thin haze and it may have contributed to not spotting it. I was using my finderscope rather than an eyepiece as you mentioned below. Can you get it on your finderscope or does it need a bit more magnification? So you reckon -0.5 is possible at daylight. I have seen it naked eye after sunset before so unless the haziness was contributing to lower mag.

I wanted to finish my planetary season with Mercury. As it is low on the horizon, I thought I will try during daylight. Unfortunately, at mag -0.5 it was not possible to locate it manually despite finding the much brighter Venus at -4.4. I captured Venus in IR as I was already setup. A tiny disc to end this planetary season or until Venus is much larger later in the spring. My usual 8" Dob setup.

Nice animation. The moons give it a nice depth.