Jupiter and The Moon

[Rover]

Just had 2 clear nights in row so thought I would dust things down and have a go at some imaging. I will post some of my first attempts once I have processed them but I was hoping I could get a bit advice for the future.

I really wanted to image the whole of the half moon that was out not last night but the night before but I can never get anything in focus unless I use a barlow. This takes me in really close but does allow me to focus. I thought initially I needed an extension tube to allow me to focus but even with that in it still wouldn't. What have I missed?

Last night I tried Jupiter a phillips 800 flashed to 900 with a 2x barlow and sharpcap. After a good while trying I managed to find it and centre it. After playing with all the sharpcap settings I found that I could get the bands with some settings (the moons disappeared when the banding was there) and to get the moons the bands disappeared. I was wondering if anyone could post their settings that they use to image Jupiter with I could use as a sort of template to go from?

I did some captures of both Jupiter with bands and one with the moons seperately in the hope that I could stack and then merge them both together. Is this the right thing to do? Never used photoshop so will have to have a look through some of the tutorials. Little bit scared as I hear it's quite a steep learning curve.

Any help/advice that could help would be welcome.

[Rover]

Does anyone use a phillips webcam to image the moon in it's entirity? if so how do you do it? Would it be better to use a DSLR?

[JamesF]

You can use a webcam but you'd need to do it as a mosaic of lots of images. I use a DSLR, but I'm not using a 200P

How are you fitting the DSLR to the focuser? Screwing it onto the focuser T-ring thread, or with a 1.25" adapter? It's probable that there's no enough inwards focuser travel, but depending on how you're using it now you may be able to get a little more.

James

[Rover]

Thanks for replying. I have the adapter screwed onto the webcam and that slots into the standard 1.25" that I use to put eyepieces in. I was trying a 130 relector to do the moon rather than my dob though. Sorry didnt make that clear to begin with. I have processed what I got in registax of the moon and will see if I can figure a way to screw the focuser in further to try and use the webcam. I will try my DSLR next time too and see if that gives me the full moon.

I have stacked and used wavelet to get something that vaguely resemble jupiter. Is there a way I can add colour to it though or can someone point me in the direction of a tutorial?

[JamesF]

Ah, some of the 130mm aperture scopes are known to be almost impossible to achieve focus with when using a DSLR.

If you have no colour or very little colour in Jupiter after stacking it's probably because there's not enough light getting onto the camera sensor. Longer exposures may help. I'm not really sure there's much else you can do other than try again.

James

[Rover]

Ah ok, thanks for letting me know. I am very happy with a black and white image of Jupiter to begin with and will try longer exposures next time.