Resolving Jupiter's Moons

[Superdavo]

Hello everyone!

I'm hardly a good planet photographer, and can't hope to capture this much detail, but I'm curious. What would it take to actually resolve the moons of Jupiter? I know it's been done

Of course, this one has a lot of detail, that would need many years of experience, a perfect location, on a perfect day etc, how much would it take to simply show the disks? 

Here's a test during one imaging session, of Europa (DMK 21AU618.AS, average seeing, F/20, 10,000 frames, of which 5,000 stacked)

Has anyone done it?

David

[Freddie]

With good seeing, a high frame rate cam and ~9m focal length, this is the best I have achieved. Was with my old DBK so would expect to get a little more detail with the more sensitive DMK618 I am now using, not shot any moons with it yet though.

[Superdavo]

Wish I could take something like that!

David

[lensman57]

Wish I could take something like that!

David

Hi,

To resolve the moons under good seeing conditions you need atleast 14"of aperture, at about 5 m of FL the dots become discs.

A.G

[Freddie]

Hi,

To resolve the moons under good seeing conditions you need atleast 14"of aperture, at about 5 m of FL the dots become discs.

A.G

I don't agree with the 14" comment as proved in my pic. I've seen many others (Stuart, Neil etc ) with <14" showing the moons as clear discs.

[lensman57]

Hi,

To resolve the moons under good seeing conditions you need atleast 14"of aperture, at about 5 m of FL the dots become discs.

A.G

Hi Freddie,

I don't think that there is any disagreement there, I did say that above 5 meters of FL the moons become discs and you were at 9 Meters. To resolve discernable detail on the moons about 14" of aperture is needed. A 14" SCT is nearing Meters of FL native but has much higher resolving power than an 8" or even your excellent 9.25", it can start to show detail.

Regards,

A.G

[kirkster501]

You also need super seeing as well, a rare thing indeed in the the UK - England especially.

[lensman57]

You also need super seeing as well, a rare thing indeed in the the UK - England especially.

I agree 100%, a true dark site and good seeing is essential. Very few locations in UK are true dark site and even fewer have good seeing.

A.G

[cgarry]

I am not convinced that a dark site has anything to do with it.

Chris

[lensman57]

I am not convinced that a dark site has anything to do with it.

Chris

This is not strictly true, however as the background sky flux is also a function of the focal ratio and in planetary with the use of a barlow the F ratio is imvreased  by some margin the background flux is  reduced to some extent but this does not mean that given a chance a darksite is not preferable to a white zone. Very few if any modern  observatories are located in a white zone.

A.G

[jpython]

Wow, I didnot know that was even possible except from space or a large observatory.

Phil