First novice attempts at Jupiter - any advice?

[meryck]

I'm new to astronomy / astrophotography, and bought my SkyWatcher 200P Newtonian in March, with EQ5 motorized mount. I have to say, it's been a fantastic couple of months and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

I wanted to decent size pics of Jupiter without spending too much, so I bought 2 additonal barlows (Seben 2x and Ostara 3x), although I was warned by online reviews that the quality wouldn't be the best. Still for about £40 for the pair, I couldn't go far wrong.

I went for the entry-level imaging camera (ZWO034MC) - and with a low-res sensor, so I figured it was important to get Jupiter to 'fill up' a large part of the array without too much distortion.

Here are my first few attempts:

1) Stock 2x barlow, moderate seeing

2) Ostara 3x barlow, good seeing

3) Stock 2x barlow + Seben 2x barlow - good seeing

4) Best so far - Seben 2x + Ostara 3x - excellent seeing (got Europa's transit too, right in the middle of Jupiter)

It seems the cheap barlows produce pretty good results, especially when combined together - which really surprised me. I thought doing 6x wth a Newtonian would give bad results (which is what I'd read). But my best Jupiter seems to be from doing exactly that!

Any comments and advice to improve things further (without breaking the bank)?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I would be very pleased with that. Excellent first efforts

[meryck]

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm not sure what the limiting factor is for the images, as the quality varies wildly from night to night. Seeing and collimation appear to make the most difference in my case. What would you suggest I upgrade first to get the best improvement-for-money?

[leelee970]

Wow, excellent captures, very well done.

Lee

[Astrosurf]

You're doing extremely well! MUCH better than my first attempts. Have you tried pushing the processing on your last Jupiter a bit, to bring out more detail? That's just me though. But it's so easy to over-process Jupiter as it's such a subtle planet. Did you use Registax and Wavelets?

Alexxx

[meryck]

Thanks Alex! Yep, I stacked in AS2!, then played with the wavelets in Registax, followed by a few more enhancements in GIMP. I tried taking the wavelets further, and just got noise. Maybe I'll have another go!

[Astrosurf]

The more frames you can get the better, but with limits due to Jupiter's rotation speed. If you image for too long you get blurring of detail. I've done 5000 frames and it's come out much better than 3000 frames. That's at 25-30fps with my ASI cam. Take several at different lengths to compare. Good luck!

[meryck]

@Astrosurf: Great advice, thanks! I've found 5000 frames at about 20 fps has given my best results, so that matches with what you're saying. 10000 doesn't really give any benefits, and over 10 minutes the rotation seems to blur things.

[leelee970]

If you can keep the histogram to around 70% while capturing that will also help. 

On Registax you may want to try RGB align and RGB balance.

Lee

[meryck]

Thanks Lee! I played with RGB align, and it certainly helped, but haven't tried RGB balance or histogram settings on capture. Just getting the gain/exposure balance right to avoid 'onion rings' proved challenging enough! Next time I'm out I'll fiddle with different Histogram settings and see what difference it makes. So many settings, so little time!

[leelee970]

You'll need to adjust the gain setting and exposure setting to alter the histogram, a bit trial and error to get best result.

the "seeing" conditions plays the biggest part in any capture run.

Good luck.

Lee

[meryck]

Lee: So I should adjust gain/exposure so the histogram is 70%? I'll have a play next time. Very helpful, thanks!

[leelee970]

I'm no expert, but it seems to be what most people set to.

Also if you can reduce the ROI then you'll increase the FPS but this makes it a little difficult keeping the planet on screen.

[purdo]

Well done, lovely images, I would be well pleased.

[Scorpius]

Those are some awesome photos of the giant planet. My favorite is # 2 - may not be as large as 3 & 4 but in IMHO the color is deeper - the detail is better, especially around the temperate zones - plus the moon looks "sharper" as well.

Very nice images so congratulations and keep em coming...  

[meryck]

Thanks Scorpius and purdo! Didn't think #2 was anything special, but you're right, it is a little sharper than the others. Tried Jupiter again tonight, hoping to capture a shadow transit, but the seeing was awful. Felt like trying to photograph a coin at the bottom of a swimming pool with the wave machine switched on!