Jupiter - 1st attempt

[LouisJB]

Hi,

First time to ever try and image a planet last night.

No idea what I'm doing, literally. 

Got some video, put it through registax and fiddled a bit.

Got this result.

Not very detailed, where is the spot!

Given I've only a short focal length 130P should I expect more? Does longer video help? The resolution was low, will try increasing that next time...

[tingting44]

hey mate, not bad at all for your 1st image!!

what are you using to capture the data?

these are some pics ive taken with my SW 130p and my DSLR and SPC900 webcam

saturn - 20/02/13 4:58am by tingting44, on Flickr

saturn - 20/02/13 4:50am by tingting44, on Flickr

Jupiter - 06/02/13 - 9:45pm by tingting44, on Flickr

Jupiter & 2 of its moon's Europa & Ganymede by tingting44, on Flickr

so keep at it, the 130p is a great scope for the price!

the spot can only be seen at certain times, it rotates very fast does old jupiter not much point in taking long video as the rotation goes so quick on jupiter you will end up with blur in your shot

all ways shoot in RAW! practice makes perfect, this is your 1st pic so only better to come

[Laurie61]

Hi,

First time to ever try and image a planet last night.

No idea what I'm doing, literally. 

Got some video, put it through registax and fiddled a bit.

Got this result.

Not very detailed, where is the spot!

Given I've only a short focal length 130P should I expect more? Does longer video help? The resolution was low, will try increasing that next time...

Very nice first go   did you use a barlow for this shot? You could try a 2 or 3X barlow and see how the camera copes with the reducing light levels. A video of up to 2 min is ok, much more will start to show blurring due to the planets rotation, although you can use Winjupos to correct for this.  

[LouisJB]

Thanks

I can't actually remember if I used a barlow lens at the time, if I did it would have been 2x at most as that's all I have.

I used the QHY5L-II I purchased normally for guiding. I know it's not the best for planetary imaging but I thought it worth a dabble. It was captured using ezplanetary that came with the camera. The camera has a 1/3 inch sensor if I recall correctly, is that reasonable for planetary imaging?

@ tingting44 - that is a great image of Jupiter, I'm surprised and impressed that you can get that from a 130P, what chip size has the SPC900 and did you barlow that?

I think my video was something like 5 or 10 seconds max, so probably push that up to 1 minute or so and see how it goes, also it was only 640x480 res and I had to crop as the planet was a bit small. Do you find changing the settings in registax makes much difference? Or do you just take what it produces with the defaults. I played with wavelets but it made little difference, then again maybe I needed more data.

How do I know when the spot would be visible, would love to try and capture that.

Can't wait to try Saturn, although I guess it's even smaller, maybe I will need a higher power barlow too.

[tingting44]

Thanks

I can't actually remember if I used a barlow lens at the time, if I did it would have been 2x at most as that's all I have.

I used the QHY5L-II I purchased normally for guiding. I know it's not the best for planetary imaging but I thought it worth a dabble. It was captured using ezplanetary that came with the camera. The camera has a 1/3 inch sensor if I recall correctly, is that reasonable for planetary imaging?

@ tingting44 - that is a great image of Jupiter, I'm surprised and impressed that you can get that from a 130P, what chip size has the SPC900 and did you barlow that?

I think my video was something like 5 or 10 seconds max, so probably push that up to 1 minute or so and see how it goes, also it was only 640x480 res and I had to crop as the planet was a bit small. Do you find changing the settings in registax makes much difference? Or do you just take what it produces with the defaults. I played with wavelets but it made little difference, then again maybe I needed more data.

How do I know when the spot would be visible, would love to try and capture that.

Can't wait to try Saturn, although I guess it's even smaller, maybe I will need a higher power barlow too.

yes it is surprising what the 130p can actually produce

yes i used the SW x2 barlow

i cant even remember the chip size on the SPC900, its only 1mp i think, one of the best webcams imo for planetary for under £20

yes bump the length of the avi to about 2-3 mins and you will notice how much a difference your wavelets will change your picture when you have more data, yes changing the setting in wavelets makes a HUGE difference, if you got the data to complement the wavelets

here is a timetable of when the GRS shows her self

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/skytel/beyondthepage/Great-Red-Spot-Transit-Table-2012-2013-159437655.html

and another one

http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/software/jupiter.html

yes saturn is....was SUCH a wow factor for me i love it

[Laurie61]

This site will show spot position http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Planets/6/1?  I am not familiar with the qhy5 cameras I have a dfk/ 618 but it should be able to produce nice results. You want to try for 30/60 frames per sec and see if you can save uncompressed video for the best initial data. With Registax I aim to use 2000 frames and keep 700/800 for stacking, the more frames stacked the more wavelets ect

you can use to sharpen and pull out detail. There is no one formula, every video will need its own variation of settings to get the best out. Practice makes perfect but you already have the basics.  

[LouisJB]

Well here's my second attempt taken tonight. about 110s of data, stacked - but I've no idea how to tweak registax for best results.

Definitely an improvement. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and the Moon was out (nearly fully). Also the image was all over the shop, guess the seeing was BAD.

Also, I can't get my QHY5L-II to run at full res, it runs up to 800x600 then falls over if you go any higher :s

First time to get the setup running then come indoors and remote control the imaging - which was quite cool.

Anyway, showing improvement. Looking forward to a clear night with good seeing...

[Kirscovitch]

Did you barlow it the second time?

[Pete Presland]

getting better all the time, 2nd image is really pretty good, well done to you

[LouisJB]

thanks definitely improving - hopefully on a clear night it will be better still. 

It was 2x barlowed. I think the seeing was pretty bad, the image was very unstable, sometimes all surface features disappearing for what seemed like a few seconds - maybe this was thin cloud rather than turbulence.

Planing to get and try a higher power barlow, not sure whether to get a 3x or 5x, any recommendations?

[LouisJB]

Just realised something.

I was shooting Jupiter high in the sky back towards the house, sort of over the roof. That's probably pretty bad for turbulence right? Maybe I shouldn't do that and wait for it to be further around to the West.

Here's a related question. The image scale with a 2x barlow (so 2000mm effective focal length, 1000mm x2) was still pretty small,

Should I increase to a 3x or a 5x barlow, would the 5x be better or is it too much, making things worse again?

[Kirscovitch]

Can't help with the barlow question but I know you shouldn't try to view over houses. The heat rising from them can cause viewing issues.