Jupiter 25-Oct with GRS

[Olorin]

First GRS of the season for me.

I got some detail in the GRS (also a first for me - ever)

Still I need to learn to get a smoother and more "focused" imaged.

Many more frames from this session are in the queue so I hope to have an animation soon...

Thanks for looking (as always advice are welcome)

Dror

[si@nite]

Nice image Dror plenty of detail,i agree maybe slightly out of focus, but could also be down to seeing, what fl was this shot taken at?

[Virgoman]

Nicely detailed image Dror. I agree with Simon. Hard to know if it is the focus or the seeing. GRS is showing really well. It does seem to be redder this apparition.

                                        Best regards,

                                                                Ralph

[Freddie]

Nice shot Dror. Other thing to check is collimation as that can have a big impact on the sharpness of the image.

[Olorin]

Thank you all for the comments, I think that it is a combination of a few things, I continued processing the images from that same session and found out that as I get closer to the time of focus and collimation the better the image gets...

So I conclude that my scope is not very good in keeping the focus or collimation (or both) for a long time.

I think that the seeing was not changing.

If I have to bet I would bet that the main problem is my focuser as the cam+filter wheel are heavy and I am unable to lock the focuser after I do a BMask focus since the locking screw just moves the focus by far.

Here is the image from the session right after the collimation and focus (frankly I am not sure if my 8" SkyWatcher scope can do better than this).

Thanks for all the comments seems like I have 1 item for my shopping list for my next BDay to bad this is only next summer

Dror

[U Cyg]

This second image looks much sharper with nice detail showing.

[Kokatha man]

As I said on CN Dror, they're coming along nicely!

After seeing your last image I wasn't going to post a little reworking of your first image (I didn't scroll down and see the much better one just above this post...) but I thought I would 'cos I said on CN you could eke a bit more from that first image...

This was exceedingly "quick & dirty" and I dropped the image scale down markedly but I think it shows that even with the poorer images you have still done pretty darn well..!

Btw, as I just said to Charles in my latest thread over on CN - forget Bahtinov Masks etc for Jupiter, focus ON the planet (you'll see soe of my own procedures in that " Jupiter in smoke & haze" or whatever thread...

[t_ilan_s]

Well done Dror! the second image looks much better, great details inside the GRS!

[Olorin]

Thanks again everyone.

Darryl thanks for pointing me to your focus procedure.

I just now started to work with Photoshop so I am still learning but it seems that PS is much better at getting the detail out than GIMP.

Thanks

Dror

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great image Dror. Well done

[theo]

Nice work Dror. Some nice details coming through. 

Pete

[neil phillips]

I agree with Darryl Dror forget masks. if something moves you will be shooting out of focus for ages, Learn to focus by eye on the detail you can see on the pc screen. Keep focusing in and out until you see you have got it as sharp as you think you can get it.

It helps to stand a little bit away from the screen when you do this I find a couple of feet maybe. It helps the eye see the detail better when its live on screen. Something else I do, is focus often. I take a couple of shots then focus again. if you have many focus positions during the night your likely to nail some. if it looks blurry on screen live. then of course that's what your going to get when stacking. theres your first warning that you haven't nailed focus. it wont look sharp live. Just keep focusing until you see a big improvement over any blurry appearance. Hope this helps. You have got some good detail. I think your sky watcher should do well. you could take some shots of stars defocused using a barlow then stack them. to see what your collimation looks like

[Space Cowboy]

Looking good Dror! Detail inside the GRS is impressive for a 8" scope.

As the guys say live focusing is the best way. I look at Jupiter like a face but not just the eyes, nose and mouth I'm looking for frown lines on the forehead and a dimple in the chin. Once you can see those you've got focus nailed though seeing has to be decent to see the fine stuff.

[Olorin]

Thanks Neil and Stuart, will give this a try next time out

Dror