First serious attempt at jupiter

[ultramol]

Here is my first real attempt at jupiter. Not the best in the world but it's the first time I have detail. Still trying to learn how to use a bahtinov mask for focus. I used a phillips webcam. Aligned in AS2 and then used wavelets in RS6. In the future I will use PS for sharpening and colour balancing but for now had to just go with this due to problems with my desktop PC.

P.S. any suggestions for sharpcap settings i.e. frame rate, gain, exposure and most of all how long can you run a video for with jupiter before rotational problems kick in would be most welcome. My mount alignment is very good and I have no problem keeping jupiter on the screen with very little movement . I ran this video for 1 and a half mins (600 frames). Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me....Geoff

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first attempt. I t hink you could try to capture at a larger image scale. That should pull out more detail

[Stargazer33]

That is very good, especially for a first attempt.

Is your Philips webcam the SPC900 NC? If so I believe you have to limit your capture rate to 10fps or it starts to compress the image in order to get the throughput to the hard drive on your computer. Gain and exposure you want so that the image isn't too bright. You can always bring detail out of dark areas of an image but if you burn out areas (over expose) then you will never recover the data. I believe I have read somewhere on the forum that at the image scale of your picture above you could run your capture for 120" or possibly 150" before Jupiter's rotation shows. If you go for a larger image scale then you will need to reduce the capture time accordingly.

[Tonynexevo925]

That is a very good image - certainly better than my first image!

[Space Cowboy]

Nice start! Stick to registax wavelets using rgb auto align and auto balance. At this image scale you can capture for 3-5 mins without worry of visible rotation as as!2 can align a certain amount if rotation.

Better to use a Barlow to get f25 ish and focus on the planet or its moons. B masks are for deep sky work as focus constantly changes during planetary image capture due to fluctuations in seeing and temperature.

[ultramol]

Thank you for your replies. The webcam is an unmodified phillips SPC880. I used a 2x barlow for this capture,  should I use a 3x ? . Is this the way to go to increase the image size. The fun I had trying to get the image on the screen with a 2x barlow will only be intensified by using a 3x.!!!  Although, I used for the first time the spiral search on eqmod and that made it much easier to centre my target

[theo]

Nothing wrong with that for a first attempt, well done!!

Pete

[si@nite]

A very nice first attempt Geoff, good advice from Stuart also!

[Space Cowboy]

What focal ratio is your scope Geoff? If its f5 you need a 4 or 5x Barlow or a 3x Barlow with an extension tube. If the scope is f10 then a 2x Barlow with extension will be OK.

I use a zoom eyepiece to align the planet before inserting the camera.

[ultramol]

Thanks everyone for your comments, they are greatly appreciated. My scope is a skywatcher 200p which is an f5 . You mention using a 2x barlow with a tube could you explain what that entails if you dont mind.

[Space Cowboy]

An extension tube can be a Barlow with the lens unscrewed which you then insert into a Barlow to increase the focal length. I often draw the camera nose piece part way out of the Barlow tube to give even more extension if needed. So basically the formation is barlow in first then extension tube and finally camera.

You can buy extension tubes but the standard skywatcher 2x Barlows have a removable lens and can be picked up cheaply 2nd hand.

[ultramol]

Many thanks for your help. I will be trying this as soon as is possible, thank you.....geoff

[Pete Presland]

Excellent first attempt, agreed with trying a larger image scale as well.