Jupiter - My first attempt!

[Craig86]

Evening all!

Well had a go at imaging Jupiter tonight for the first time. Sort of a success although I'd like a bit of advice on how to sharpen the image up, if at all possible!

I used my TAL-1 scope with a Canon 550d, i've had a basic exposure to Photoshop but apart from that I'm well an truly in the dark!

Thanks!

Craig

[zakkhogan]

Very good, especially for using a DSLR,

Does the 550D support video mode?

[Daniel-K]

as Zakk said thats good for a dslr. the thing with dslr and planets is the size of the chip on them is huge so you really have to crop the image and by the time you do that you loose alot of resolution, you could always try using a barlow with the dslr. i would say though get a cheapo web cam and modify it to fit a 1.25 nose piece and take AVI's then stack them you will get a much better image and its a cool little project to work on wen its cloudy. good luck

[Craig86]

Cheers everyone!

Yeh it does have a video mode, had a go but ran out of SD space so retired for the evening as was very cold!

I know what you mean about having to crop the image, was suprised that it maintained the quality that it did by the amount I had to crop. I may have to give the webcam a go, seems a bit of a cheat but who am I to argue What type of software would I use to stack the images?

Ideally I'd like to do some deep sky imaging, galaxies etc however my TAL doesn't have any tracking motor or such kit so kind of stuck on that one I think...unless I upgrade the old scope!

Well and truly caught the bug now!!

[MikeMc]

As has already been said, taking a movie (with a cheap webcam attached to the scope in place of the EP, I use an old black film case - cut the end off and attached the cam without its lens) and save the avi. You can then use a free prog called Registax that will stack all the separate avi frames into a single image and do some post processing too. Take a look at the 'embarrassing Jupiter pics' discussion, very useful.

[Daniel-K]

Good advice by mike

[springbok]

As above a webcam is the standard way to go.

Although if you have a laptop to hand you could have a go with a bit of software called Backyard EOS, which has a free trial version.

One of its many functions is a plantery option. This basically allows you to use your 550D to take a pre "zoomed" or cropped image and record AVI's.

It's a bit of a learning curve, but if you are using a webcam, you'll need capure software anyway (Sharp cap).

HTH,

Grahame.

[Pete Presland]

that is a pretty good image well done.as others have said get an spc900 webcam and some free software, such as sharpcap and registax and you will see quite an improvemnet.