Jupiter with a Small Scope and an iPhone

[theropod]

Hey folks,

Here is an imagine from a stack of 6 images taken with my iPhone 6 plus using NightCap Pro shot through my little Celestron C90 Mak using the 32mm eyepiece and one of those cheap ($8) phone adapters sold on eBay. 1.8 X digital zoom, ISO 100, exposure 1/2 (F2.2) 1/2 second exposures. Photos captured on the last Friday in June from Ozark mountains in north central Arkansas, USA. Seeing coditions fair to poor due to extremely high humidity and very warm temperatures. No tracking and mounted to a VERY old SLIK tripod. I used Photoshop to gain a little detail by adjusting levels and brightness, and align the images, but little else. Aside from the moon this was my first attempt at any astrophotography aside from meteors, which are my real passion. There's nothing quite like seeing something billions of years old vanish in a flash. I am in the market for a GoTo equatorial mount, but not until I recover from orthopedic surgery being done tomorrow on a multiply fractured fibula which I suffered the second Monday in March that just won't heal. Maybe when I get such a mount my planetary AP will improve. Hopefully this photo isn't a terrible embarrassment.

R

[Mr niall]

That's pretty good! Would it work if you shot a video and tried stacking more frames?

[theropod]

37 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

That's pretty good! Would it work if you shot a video and tried stacking more frames?

Not sure. The video capture of this app is not so hot. The ISO settings are seriously limited and exposure is even worse. I have tried it with my meteor capture efforts and was not impressed. An update is available for NightCap but I am hesitant to alter what is working. Supposedly the update has better video capabilities, and I will try it, but not yet.

Attached is a single frame of the M25 open cluster in Sagittarius taken the same night as the Jupiter shots, but using the 12.5mm eyepiece. The problem is without tracking the narrow field of view in the C90 only allows for a few seconds of imaging before I have to shut down and reacquire my target. I will up my ISO and attempt this taget again. This is my first attempt at a DSO.

This is all new to me, and I usually learn best by screwing up. When I get back on my feet I plan on spending several nights in more serious efforts, and I haven't given up on my little iOptron SkyTracker, but the ball head is junk. I made the mistake of buying both from ebay, and iOptron says these were not authorized resellers and will not honor their warranty, even though they admit the ball head is defective. See what I mean about learning via screwup?

R