Unconventional bridge camera.

[StormAurora]

I just wanted to share this with you.

Jupiter and moons taken solely with my Sony Cybershot HX300 bridge camera. I am still gobsmacked that this image was taken with such a camera. 

Half a billion miles away! ?

What do you think?

[Stub Mandrel]

Excellent! Although I now have a 'proper scope' I started with a bridge camera and it's surprising how much detail they can get of planets & the moon.

What you need to do now is experiment with exposure and stacking. I found the best results come when the image is very faint - it's very easy to over expose. And take huge amounts of subs!

 

If you take multiple pictures of Jupiter, aiming to expose it as a brown dot, much smaller than it appears in your shot, it is possible to process the pictures in PIPP then Astrostakkert2 (both free programs) and actually get the main stripes on Jupiter. It's also possible to get the rings of Saturn and the basic outline of light and dark areas on Mars. As for the moon, stack 50 or 60 pictures and you will be amazed at the detail and crispness you can get. You can resample/drizzle to make the pictures big enough to see (!) but don't expect razor sharp detail.

These are all taken with a Nikon P520.

 

 

[StormAurora]

Hi thanks for the great advice.

Wow your images are brilliant! Something to aspire to.

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, StormAurora said:

Hi thanks for the great advice.

Wow your images are brilliant! Something to aspire to.

Take your time and get the exposure right and you should be able to get Jupiter like that, saturn and Mars are difficult at the moment.

Of course the problem is that it's a slippery slope - I took that Jupiter picture on 24 March 2015, and on 28 March 2015 I collected a Skywatcher 150PL!