My first ever picture of Jupiters and moons!

[ChrisThePuma]

Hi All

I am getting bored waiting for my scope - so started snapping at Jupiter with my camera - and got his moons!!

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice. Something i'll get round to eventually.

What camera did you use?

[twotter]

I like that! It reminds me of the first time I looked at Jupiter through a pair of binoculars. I still remember being excited at seeing the bright planet and four moons, just as you've captured here

[ChrisThePuma]

DKD - i use a Lumix FZ45 with its 24x zoom cranked right up. i also changed the ISO setting to 800 because i have heard changing the ISO makes a difference, although i dont really understand what the ISO actually is/does (any help here much appreciated).

[Bizibilder]

Well done - you are now on the slippery slope of Astrophotography madness!!!

ISO, by the way, is a measure of the "sensitivity" of your camera. A large ISO number like 1600 means that your camera will collect a brighter image than if you used ISO 100 -for the same exposure setting.

Sounds good! Crank the ISO up for astro work and you are away!! Not So - there is a downside. As you raise the ISO you also increase the noise produced in the image which can be ruinous to Astro photos. Therefore you have to compromise.

It all depends on your camera but often an ISO of 800 is about as "high" as you can go - some cameras you may not be able to use over 400.

You balance the lower sensitivity by increasing the exposure time. However there is, of course, a downside here as well! Most Astro images are so dim the we take exposures of minutes (or hours!) so this is not easy to do.

For the Moon and planets you may find there is enough light from them to take pictures at ISO 100 or 200 and exposures of around 1/500 sec to 1/5 second - it all depends on your set-up and camera.

Hope I've explained this - I tried to keep it simple as there are whole books on the subject!

[zainraza]

Thats as good as Jupiter looks through my scope anyway so I'm gonna say its really good

[Ender Of Days]

I still use my old FZ -18 for grabs of Jupiter and the 4 Gal's

JJ..