Jupiter - 18th Sept - SPC900

[solarwallace]

Hi all

There are some great Jupiters on here so I nearly didn't upload this. I need time to play more with the post processing (wavelets) I think but it's an ok start. Plenty more time yet for improvement over the next month or so....

[malc-c]

Nice....

It's amazing to think that 20 years ago you only saw images like that taken from large professional scopes based in astronomical institutions.... now armed with a humble £30 web cam and free software we're all able to get cracking results like this

[singlespeedman]

That's a nice shot

[stev74]

Very nice image, well done!

[Space Cowboy]

Very nice shot! What altitude was this taken at? You could possibly be more aggressive with wavelets though that depends how good the seeing was. Very good colour balance.

[solarwallace]

Hi Spaceboy.

It was taken from my garden in Stafford so pretty low - around 300ft ish above sea level I would think.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone

Steve

[Space Cowboy]

I meant what altitude was Jupiter

[Space Cowboy]

[solarwallace]

Oh the embarrassment I couldn't say as I spent most of my time looking at the screen of my netbook. It was about 1 am though so that should give you a clue ...

[Space Cowboy]

lol no worries Steve. I guess that would be 30 odd degrees so if you can get a capture when Jup is at 50 then i'm sure you will see a lot more detail. I'm using 6x Barlow with my Dob and its bringing out lots of detail (admittedly using a DFK cam).

[solarwallace]

6x barlow. Wow Didn't know they existed... I think next winter I might upgrade the camera but there's still lots to learn before I buy any more kit.

[Space Cowboy]

Its actually a 5x powermate but produces 6x magnification when imaging.

[Spikey]

Nice colours and a very nice Jupiter Steve.

[Wildwood]

Very nice.

You're not too far from me and using the same kit - but your pics are far better than mine.

What settings are you using on the webcam?

[RogerTheDodger]

Best SPC jupe image I've seen so far

[Olorin]

Hi Steve

Great start! try to get a Barlow that will get you to ~ F25 also create a bahtinov mask that will get your focus dead on. One last thing try to get between 500 - 1500 frames in the final stacking (you can shoot 3 minutes @ 10 fps to get 1800 frames then Registax will do the rest)

Clear skies

Dror

[Clayton]

Great start SW

[solarwallace]

Thanks for the tips Olorin.

@wildwood: well I'm not doing anything special. I'm actually capturing at 5fps (wondering if that cuts down on compression?) and only tweaking the exposure from default in Sharpcap. Using a 3x televue Barlow which is quite nice. Used 200 frames from 500. Then spent quite a while tweaking my wavelets I can't actually see where you're located wildwood as I'm using my mobile app to type this. Maybe see you at the wolves and west mids group farm site some time if you're a member of that? We're a lazy lot though

Might try using 10fps for longer to see what that does next time. Don't hold your breath though as I need the weather gods to behave at the weekend as I'm too tied up with work in the week. There's always Kielder though

Thanks again.

Steve

[solarwallace]

@spaceboy: shouldn't that be attitude? Blaming you for the confusion :-)

[Space Cowboy]

I would go for 10 fps or even 20 fps I know people talk about compression above 10 fps but James (AztecastroMcJ) has produced some great shots at 20fps.

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-planetary/155995-jupiter-15-9-11-c11-spc.html

If you take a 3 min avi then you've got so many more frames to work with.

[spaceboy]

Great image SW good colour and plenty of detail. I keep meaning to try out my SPC in the 250PX. As Space cowboy said you can use more magnification than you would usually consider usable visually. I found stacking 2 x2 barlows has really started to improve my attempts.

[solarwallace]

Sorry. Got confused between spaceboy and space cowboy....

[solarwallace]

Nice images by James.

I'll be aiming for longer avi's next time then. Might even try and stack barlows as well if I can improve my tracking.