First ever Image of Jupiter

[archway69]

Hi all

I thought i would share with you my first ever image of a Planet with my Neximage solar 5MP, i know its not ther best and ive got a long way to go, im still trying to get use to registax 6 and i have the scope on decking which needs to be changed due to to much vibration but im still pretty chuffed with the result.

Any tips and advise would be appricated

Many Thanks

[asteele3]

Great image... it may be fuzzy but you can clearly see the GRS!

[Stargazer Jack]

I would say that is a superb first image. I can definitely see the GRS so well done and keep it up

[Stargazer Jack]

I forgot to ask in my first post. Firstly, what telescope are you using and any Barlows or filters. Also, how many frames did you capture and stack and what settings did you use?

Sorry for all the questions but would like to help you if I can

[JamesF]

That's a good first attempt. The speckling on the surface could be down to pushing wavelets too far in Registax, but they can take a while to get the hang of.

James

[archway69]

Hi all

Thanks for your replies

I was using a Celestron 127SLT, no Barlow i was using a infrared blocking filter, and i captured 193 Frames, stacked 90

[archway69]

Hi James

I think your right the Wavelets are very hard to get the hang of

[JamesF]

I would go for lots more frames if you can. You could use at least three minutes worth of video.

James

[archway69]

Thanks James, The cloud has now rolled in and i think its here to stay for a while, i will try your advise next time its clear

many thanks

[Stargazer Jack]

Yep, I agree with James. Also if you have time when imaging, try different settings until you find ones that work well. For me, highest gain, 10 FPS for around 3 minutes works well but it may differ with your telescope

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

You nailed focus, which is hard. More frames will get rid of the noise. I tended to go for 1000 frames or above at 10 FPS with my SPC900. I chose the longest exposure time supported by the frame rate, and then set gain, offset and manual colour balance such that for each channel (RGB) almost the entire range available was used (using the histogram option of wxAstroCapture). Typically the histograms would be occupied from 2-3 to 220-240. This ensures the whole range of the ADC is used, and "onion-rings" are reduced.

[SnakeyJ]

Hi Archway,

I think you've done very well on this and got a very credible result - I spent 2hrs last night and failed to get anything reasonable enough to publish! The focus and detail are good, as James and Michael say you just need more frames to help reduce the noise - if you get good seeing then you should be able to get higher magnification with a 2x barlow, but in poor seeing you loose a lot of contrast/detail. I believe your scope is around f12, so a 2 x barlow would take it out to f24. Not sure if it would get decent results with 3x barlow - though sure that another member will comment.

I found this image of Jupiter taken on the same scope by Nexus21 - However no details of what he was using to image!

[Jcousins]

Hi

Enclosed is a my first picture of Jupiter captured last night. I was using my new 102GT refractor scope and manually held my smartphone to the eyepiece more luck than judgement!!!

Jupiter is over exposed but 3 moons are captured.

It was windy also, so the mount was shaking a bit!!

James

[Jcousins]

Hi

Very impressed with your results, very good!

James

[archway69]

Thanks everyone for your comments I'm pretty chuffed with my first attempt all I need now is another clear night to put all your advise into practice

[archway69]

Hi Guys

We had another clear night last night so i thought id give it another go, Hope you like the results.

[Vectoron]

Nice images!

[Stargazer Jack]

Another set of very good images!

[Stargazer33]

They are good pics. I can never seem to get the moons to show up in my images, but you have captured them very clearly. Well done!

[SnakeyJ]

Archway,

Excellent shots on your 2nd run, squeezing a whole load more detail out and the colour looks good (to my inexpert eye). Perhaps a little gentler with the wavelets to avoid the onion rings on the first one, second is much better, though my favourite is the third of these which looks great with the two visible moons and GRS. Looking at the detail here I'm guessing you managed to capture a lot more frames for these - what sort of numbers were you catching and stacking?

I've only done mono images so far, but will be trying LRGB if the bits arrive and the weather is kind, though also got a colour webcam coming so will be very interesting to see how the mono, LRGB and colour compare. Loads to learn though, particularly with the post processing side.

Regards - Jake

[archway69]

Hey Jake I was capturing about 2500 frames and using half of them, I to am just learning how to do it all but very pleased with my results so far, we had a clear night on Saturday so i set my alarm for 2am to get some shots of Saturn but the good old Cornish weather had other ideas and clouded over by then, fingers crossed we will get a whole night of clear skies soon.

[SnakeyJ]

At 2am the good old urge to get my head on the pillow usually wins over! But on the plus side I think we're due to see something of Saturn at night time around March - I've never seen this first hand, so looking forward to the chance and if it gets high enough to clear some of the obstructions, or if I can get out somewhere better to view I will get some images

The details from the extra frames definitely showed through in the images. Saturday night was very clear here on the Isle of Wight, and visually at x125 jupiter looked stunning. However, when focusing and reviewing the video the poor stability/turbulence in the atmosphere was very obvious. I was shooting 2400 and 4800 frames of video and then selecting and stacking 25-15% of the frames and even quality of this small sample was not great. Hopefully conditions will be more stable for the next outing and I can get a bit more magnification. I was getting a 300x300 image at around 100FPS, so I should be able to get 6000 frames in a minute and be more selective. I will also try and use an IR-PASS filter as the longer wavelengths should be much less affected by atmospheric distortion - all theory and experimentation, but nice to play around and get a feel for the limits of the kit. I hope my end results show significant improvement

Where abouts in Cornwall are you viewing from? Should have some great dark skies if you can get away from the towns and roads.

[archway69]

North Cornwall, wadebridge its nice and dark with hardly any light pollution I have an uninterrupted east view. Looking forward to march its the best time to view, you will never forget the first time you see Saturn its amazing.

[SnakeyJ]

Lovely spot and not too far from the rest of civilisation (or at least Bristol and Birmingham) if you need them - at the same time you can head down to bodmin and get out in the wilds.

Might get out for a little play tonight, though looking a little iffy - but tomorrow morning 5am looks clear, so might just leave things setup/ticking and see if I can sneak out early for Saturn in the Morning!

[stellawolf]

Very nice first attempt well done