Jupiter, why are you so bright? :(

[Monki]

I successfully converted my lifecam for scope use yesterday, and had a quick go at seeing what i was going to be dealing with tonight...

I'm using a 60mm/700mm refracter, I didn't bother aligning the scope so i had no tracking hence the drifting. It wasn't fully dark yet and there were no stars out, i thought that might help with the contrast though...

small - YouTube

That was the one of the results

The focus is more or less fine, admittedly i have no ir filter and the blue LED isn't fully covered yet (enough for a test) but how am i supposed to stack images with a bright ball

You can see me brifely messing with the settings in sharpcap to try bring some kind of detail...but after a quick test i'm not sure what to do now. Would the Baader Neo/ir-cut filter be a good help perhaps? Maybe a ND filter?

I feel silly asking for help to be honest!

[Olorin]

hi Monki, you did right playing with the setting but you need to be more aggressive with it. don't be afraid to "lose the moons. try to keep the gain in the 70-90% and lower the exposure till you get some details on the Jupiter disk (keep the gamma on 0).

then you can try to play a bit more with the gain to get more details out. note that a dim movie can produce a good bright image.

never feel silly asking for assistance we were all beginners at one time asking similar questions.

Dror

[Asimov]

Don't feel silly, there's only silly answers lol. Olorin gives good advice here.

[Monki]

Thanks, the only problem with the lifecam is there's no gain control as of yet. I'll be a bit more aggressive with the sliders then next time It's reassuring to know a dim video can still produce a bright image.

Do you think i should be able to see some sort of detail then? Or should i realistically aim for a ball that is not pure white but say slighly orangey yellow?

Thanks again for your advice, the next chance i get i'll align the scope and try for some good results

Sent from a Galaxy S 2 far away.

[Olorin]

you should see details IMO. BTW Jupiter is very low on the horizon now... I would suggest to continue your tries on the Moon (next week) or later in the evening on Saturn (after 10PM) - bare in mind Saturn is a dim and tough target to start with...

Dror