Jupiter with a Barlow problem.

[Starlord19]

I'm totally new to this hobby and was hoping for some advice. I have had my skymax 127 and asi120mc for about a month and I think that this is my best image of Jupiter without a Barlow. (I know it's upside down!) 

When I use the 2x Barlow I get a decent image but the colour and contrast look washed out and faded. 

I've tried various gain and exposure settings and there is not alot of difference. 

Have I missed something. 

[vlaiv]

This is quite normal, when you are using barlow light gets spread out over surface of the chip and intensity falls down. This does not matter, since you are interested in SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) rather than just signal, if you have good SNR that means you have strong signal compared to noise so you can actually increase signal in post processing without image degradation. Just increase contrast, brightness and saturation to the level you want (until noise starts popping out).

[laudropb]

Very nice images. A warm welcome to the SGL.

[PeterCPC]

I find that the seeing is the biggest issue with Jupiter imaging at the moment and I expect that you would have the same issue. Your images are pretty good I'd say.

Peter

[Starlord19]

I thought seeing might be the problem but it was fine for the smaller image. They were both taken on the same night with the same equipment. 

[Starlord19]

Thanks for the info, vlaiv. I will have to research snr because I think it is above my current knowledge level. 

[astroman001]

Lovely image, a good start and welcome to the SGL community.

Peter

[Starlord19]

Thanks very much Peter. Everyone seems really helpful and friendly, I've learnt so much already but have still only scratched the surface!

[Pete Presland]

Both are very nice images with plenty of detail. You could trying set the gain higher than usual and the gamma low and adjust the exposure to fill the histogram to around 60-70%. This might help improve the contrast maybe?

[Starlord19]

SNR, gamma, histogram... Seems like I have alot of learning to do. Thanks for all the answers though.