Jupiter and its four moons occulted by the moon, Camera ready!!

[scoobee]

Jupiter and its four moons occulted by the moon is only a week away. Presuming the sky is clear this supposed to be a great photo opportunity mind 0300hrs in the morning might be the biggest challenge for me but does anyone have any photo tips that I should consider? Bearing in mind I have 4inch scope and mainly use a DSLR.

Thanks

[sologuitarist61]

Yes saw that in one of the astro mags this month. We are well placed for it as well which makes a change, n ow all we need is for the weather to change for the better. Should be a good sight.

[riklaunim]

Dew shield may be handy - to prevent Sun shining into the telescope. For imaging I'll be using infrared passing filter with a planetary mono camera - to limit sky brightness (and bad seeing). Under bright sky lowering the gamma (darkening) may also help.

[Chris]

Oh yes! this will be worth staying up/getting up for, just remind me is it a week today? I'll give this a go with my 150p and Canon 1100D, also not quite sure about ISO, exposure lengths etc?

[LukeSuppalot]

Oh yes! this will be worth staying up/getting up for, just remind me is it a week today? I'll give this a go with my 150p and Canon 1100D, also not quite sure about ISO, exposure lengths etc?

15th July and starts around 2.30am depending on your location.

Can't help with the camera settings I'm afraid.

[scoobee]

Thanks for your replies, the problem I see is that Jupiter will need a longer exposure then the moon. Will this mean that the moon might suffer some over exposure?

[Eastridge]

I'm with scoobee on this is that instinct says exposures for moon & jupiter will be hugely different. New to astro shooting not sure if answer is to use 2 shots one exposed for each body then put together in Post Processing - but being old school this feels like cheating. Shooting RAW will allow most recovery of over / underexposed objects in PP.

Some modern DSLR's have HDR settings that sort of do the above automatically, don't know if your's does? I don't think my k-x can cope with such a range.

If we have a clear night before I guess the answer (for me) is to test both subjects separately and see what works for them individually so at least can do thiose then, in addition, try combined shots somewhere between on the night.

[scoobee]

Thanks Eastridge, just like yourself i am new to all this astrophotography thingy!! At present I have been snapping at the moon for some months now and ready for the next step. My DSLR is somewhat old and very basic, but as you have said using RAW will help.

Pratice makes perfect, thus I shall be waiting for a break in the clouds this week to have ago at exposure times.

Thanks

[themos]

has some comments about processing to deal with the relative brightness of planets/moon

[themos]

My dilemma is whether to use the ToUcam Pro or the DSLR in LiveView capture mode. And whether to Barlow or not the 8" f/10 Meade SCT. And whether to shoot one long video or a series of 2-second captures.

[scoobee]

many thanks themos, ideal and a great help.

[sologuitarist61]

The question is do you have Photoshop or Gimp, if you do then take different exposures, one for the moon and another for Jupiter, then blend them together. Or failing that, take the correct exposure of the moon and open it in Photoshop/Gimp, then open the correct exposure of Jupiter, do a roungh selection with feathered edge and drag the selection over the under exposed Jupiter in the moon shot. There are several ways you can do it but you do need halfway decent exposures of both the moon and Jupiter. Hope that makes sense. :smiley:

[sologuitarist61]

PS. always remember that there is always detail to be found in an under exposed (too dark) image than in an overexposed (very bright) image. In the 'bright image all detail has 'burned out' whilst in the 'darker' it is just waiting to be brought out.

[Steve Ward]

Thanks for that , been thinking about this for weeks now ,

Was going to do a few trial runs for exposure but weather still not playing ball ,

Will be a suck it and see session , nothing new there...

[sologuitarist61]

If you expose for the moon and get that right then Jupiter will be a bit on the dark side, but, as per above, at least you can bring that detail out, though you will have to select it well otherwise the darker night sky will lighten as well. Good luck.

[Steve Ward]

We can but hope...

[scoobee]

Thanks Richard and others for your input, will have bash at richards thinking. goodluck to all.

[sologuitarist61]

Thanks Richard and others for your input, will have bash at richards thinking. goodluck to all.

Good luck Matt, at least you know who to blame if it all goes wrong .... and I am only just down the road from you, so I'd better watch out :grin:

[scoobee]

Richard, no worries lol To me its a catch 22 situation would love to just watch it and not have to worry about photography side, maybe that is the advantage of having two scopes which i am considering. New products nearly every month on the market that confusing the whole issue, will have to do some research.

[sologuitarist61]

Sorry Matt, you were asking about exposure.

Strangely enough the amount of sunlight hitting the moon is as near as makes no difference the same as hits the Earth, so that gives you a good starting point. A normal sunny day would be about 1/125th @ f8. Sorry Matt I don't know the f ratio of your scope, but it should be quite simple to work it back. If it is an f5 then1/250th, if it is f11 then a 1/60th, though these are only starting points, try them and review you pics straight away to see what alterations you need to make. Another answer is to set the DSLR to Aperture Priority, then the camera will read the light coming through the telescope and automatically try to give you the correct exposure, though you may have to use exposure compensation to get it exact.

[sologuitarist61]

Richard, no worries lol To me its a catch 22 situation would love to just watch it and not have to worry about photography side, maybe that is the advantage of having two scopes which i am considering. New products nearly every month on the market that confusing the whole issue, will have to do some research.

Yes I often use two scopes and image through one whilst I look through the other. Good fun as you get the best of both worlds.

[scoobee]

My scope is rated at f13 (1/30th??), but you are right about using AP it amazing how the simples are overlooked (well by me anyway).

[sologuitarist61]

Yep that would be a good starting point, but the best thing to do once you have the shot lined up, is to use the bracket function on your DSLR and set it to -1 and +1 and then take those two shots plus the one at 1/30th and see which is best. This is the marvellous thing about DSLR as opposed to film cameras, you can take as many images as you want and it doesn't cost you a penny, so play with the camera and see what you get. If we have a cloud free night and the moon is up then have a practice run so that when the event does happen you will know before hand what you need to set everything to