First pic of Jupiter

[trevboyd]

Hi all

I've just got my first scope - a Skywatcher Evostar 120mm refractor. Last night was the first night of relatively clear skies since my t-ring for my Canon 350D arrived earlier in the week, so I thought I'd try a picture of Jupiter. Since it's nice and big and bright, I thought it might make an easy target... Not as easy as I expected!

Here's my pic, made from a stack of 8 images in Registax. I'm quite pleased for a first attempt, obviously not up to the standard of other pictures on this forum! I am in awe of what some people are able to achieve.

What's the best/easiest way to focus? It's really hard to tell if the image is in focus in the camera's viewfinder, so I ended up taking loads of pictures and inspecting each one at full zoom on the camera's LCD screen. I've seen auto-focusers for sale - how do they work, and are they any good?

I see that lots of people use webcams to image planets - I have one that I want to try. How do you attach it to the scope?

I can see myself getting hooked on this imaging thing as well as normal visual observing. If only we could have some more clear skies!

Thanks in advance

Trev

[geppetto]

And another smashing capture...

That's a lot better than you might think as Jupiter is a poor target

this season due to it being at a lower altitude and in the murk...

Re focusing your DSLR, check out this thread for a fairly cheap way

to achieve proper focus

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?topic=14989.0

What make/model is your webcam?

Very well done

[trevboyd]

Hi geppetto

Thanks! I've had a look at the thread about right angle viewfinders - they look good - might need to get one in future if they really make it that much easier to focus. I'm not sure 2x feels like a big enough difference to make it much easier?

My webcam is a Creative something-or-other - can't remember the exact model.

I've noticed lots of people complaining that Jupiter is a poor target - what do you mean by "this season"? Are planets only visible once a year or do they come and go? I know some constellations are only visible in summer or winter, like Orion. Are planets the same? And what causes it to be at lower altitude? Does its altitude vary with each period it is visible?

Sorry for what might be silly questions, but I'm quite new to astronomy and trying to get my head around how some things work.

Trev

[GazOC]

Hi Trev,

Thats a cracking first attempt, the banding is very easy to see.

The reason Jupiter is low this year is just the angle we see it at, the plane the planets lie on is not perfectly flat so the altitude depends on where the Earth is in its orbit and where the particular planet is in its orbit. It is different every year but 'good' and 'bad' years (ie. high and low altitude) tend the bunch together.

The planets come and go at different times of the year but they always, roughly, follow the same line round the sky as each other called the 'ecliptic' which is just our line of sight across the planetary plane.

The best way to get focus on Jupiter is to, over expose the planet and use the Moons to focus a sharp image and then adjust the settings back the correct exposure for the planet. This works well with a webcam but I've no idea if it will work with a DSLR.

I hope at least some of that made a little sense....

[legion48]

Great first capture Trev.

I can't help you with the DSLR focus questions but a Hartman mask works a treat on getting good focus with a webcam.

[daz]

Its a great first image Trevor!!

The only trouble with DSLR and planets is the snap-shot image. Any seeing defects are caught and can't be processed out.

Planets (and lunar) are usually imaged with webcams to improve the signal to noise ratio and process out the (majority) of the seeing effects.

Depending on your webcam, you'll need a 1.25" adapter that screws into the lens holder on the camera, and then fits into the draw tube of the focuser. You then need some software to capture the AVI movie (K3CCD for example) and something to process it (Registax for example).

Then you need to brace yourself, your wallet and wife as you head down that steep and slippery imaging slope

[mpeniak]

Nice first image Trev. Like Daz says...get a webcam and you will see what difference it'll do

Martin