will I ever get any real detail of Jupiter?

[theghettostylus]

Hello! So o have the skywatcher explorer 130, the 900mm version and I just can't seem to get any real quality of Jupiter. I get a very blury planet and 2 fuzzy bands. Even when stack and messed with the quality doesn't really improve. I don't want an amazing picture with lots of detail just a less fuzzy/blury photo.

I was using a tecknet 1080p HD webcam but I have been using my phone to record as my laptop battery is dead.

Could I get better if I used the laptop?

Thank you!

[jambouk]

search the planetary inaging forum for your kit and see what results others are getting.

Ideally you want apperture and a long focal length. You also need good [ideally excellent] seeing. And lots of data.

How many frames can you gather in 2-3 minutes? How are you focusing? Are you using a barlow or powermate to increase the focal length of your kit?

You'll get there.

James

[dweller25]

There are a few factors that need to come together to get good planetary results.

1. Seeing - nothing you can do about this - I have had one night of good seeing this year !

2. Collimation - This needs doing accurately - there are loads of guides on the web

3. Cooldown - Essential that you cool the scope, mount and accessories for an hour

4. Altitude - the higher in the sky the better the planet will look.

5. Eyepieces - your 130mm scope is a good one but the supplied eyepieces are 'basic' - if all the above are OK and you are not getting good results try buying a good 6mm eyepiece - that will give x150 and an exit pupil of 0.86mm that is about right.

Good luck

[Joseki]

I have been using my phone to record as my laptop battery is dead

I guess it depends on whether the software you're using on your phone to capture is compressing the output.  I'd stick with the tried and tested - proper capture software on a laptop if you can resolve the battery problem.  Also, some webcams up the compression at high frame rates, e.g. it might say it supports 30 fps but compression might be higher at those fps than at 10 fps. 

the specs on your webcam look interesting though at first glance,

heres a link for others:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-1080P-Webcam-Built-Microphone/dp/B003VOEENG

looks similar to MS lifecam but some reviews say not great for low light conditions.

[ronin]

How high Jupiter is is important, usually the higher the better.

How did you check the focus of the image of Jupiter on the webcam, it will need to be good.

Not sure on how well the phone will collect data, the spped could be too great and it is losing, in effect, images.

Next is what format is the movie stored?

The format could be wrong and you may not be able to do a great deal by stacking.

Is the mount driven?

I suspect that you will need a laptop or similar and save the movie file (.api) to that then stack that movie in software.

[Astrosurf]

Ditto the above. I was using the old Phillips SPC900NC webcam that's supposed to be excellent and got OK images, seeing-dependent. But once I'd gone onto a dedicated planetary cam, the ZWO ASI120MC (there's also Mono which is better - needs filters) the quality improved greatly. The camera quality is important. I find that getting decent planetary images much harder than for DSOs.

Alexxx