Hand-held Jupiter

[Blackheart]

Hi guys

Nice night here in the Scottish Borders last night. Pretty good seeing so I thought I'd try a quick shot of Jupiter. This is taken just by holding a basic digital camera to the lens and pressing the button. Taken through my 12" SW dob with a 6mm Skywatcher wide angle eyepeice. Not brilliant but not too shabby for a hand held single shot!

Enjoy the giant over the next few weeks...

BH

[smt1988]

good image for a hand held shot

[astro mick]

Some nice detail there.

Good effort for a hand held.

Mick.

[Astro Imp]

Nice shot, just shows what is possible with minimal equipment.

[Asur84]

Good looking shot there BH.

[Lurker]

I have seen a few handheld, This is probably the best I have seen.

[SeedyF]

That is better than my first webcam image lol :-)

[Blackheart]

thanks for the kind comments guys. I'm planning to hold a Jupiter night in our village soon, so hopefully some complete newbies can take home shots similar to this. That's the plan at least.

Clear skies

BH

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one for a hand-held shot. Well done

[JimStan]

I have tried shooting Jupiter with a P&S camera clamped into a camera/eyepiece bracket, but I have always ended up over-exposing the planet. If I get the planet nearly properly exposed, then the moons are invisible!

That is really an excellent effort ! Now the question would be, can you accomplish that REGULARLY ?

Jim S.

[Blackheart]

Hi Jim

I too have noticed this problem of over exposure. I find that if you hold the camera to the very edge of the exit pupil then the glare disappears and the cloud bands become visible. I'm not sure why this would be, and it's tricky to keep the camera in the right spot but yes it can be done time after time. The thing that surprised me with this shot was the presence of a definite colour.

You notice this effect if you try to take a hand-held video through the scope. Most of the time Jupiyer appears bright and washed out but as your hand wobbles and the image drifts towards the edge the the cloud bands become more apparent.

Cheers

BH

[cabby]

Nice shot, gives me hope with my compact when the clouds behave!!

[che guevara]

Spot on, Love Jupiter

[rightguard]

thanks for the kind comments guys. I'm planning to hold a Jupiter night in our village soon, so hopefully some complete newbies can take home shots similar to this. That's the plan at least.

Clear skies

BH

in halls at uni atm, brought my 200 out the other night for jupiter and the moon and must have had 50+ people come and see, ended up letting hallmate run the show, ie finding, focussing and explainging how to use the hand controller - showing my family 10+ times was enough for me!! anyhow he enjoyed it and i was stunned at the amount of people who absolutely loved it! what was going to be a quick 10 minute show for my mate turned into a 3 hour session! even had taxi drivers and the security blokes getting out and having a look!!

my point is that up until this point my viewing has always been solitary, and when you tell people you liek astronomy, most get turned off. But when they actually see for themselves, its lovely to see others enjoying it as much as i do

so i really hope you hold your jupiter night im sure the locals will be delighted with it and you will get an enormous sense of satisfaction!!

[Peter Drew]

It's likely that the better image of Jupiter when it is near the edge of the camera's view is because you are effectively reducing the aperture and so not over exposing it.

[tomo]

By Jove! Good shot.

Tom

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

By Jove! Good shot.

Tom

LOL :D