My first Jupiter!

[Space Oddities]

So a few days ago, I went to the loo during the night. On my way back, I checked the sky outside for some reason, and I saw Jupiter, between a tree and a crane. It was 2 am, but of course I had to take a picture, since clear skies were so rare last winter. So I got my gear out and started imaging from my open window. Some people were still getting drunk in the bar below my apartment 

I used the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi, with a 102mm Maksutov from the same brand, a Celestron 2x barlow, and a ZWO ASI224-MC camera. I did a quick 1 star alignment on Jupiter (my window happens to be perfectly parallel to the north, so that's convenient!) and Jupiter was easy to find  

The seeing didn't seem very good that night, and I had a lot of trouble focusing correctly... Also, I didn't really know what settings I should use. I just knew Jupiter was quite fast, so I just tried different combinaisons. 

In the end, I had 4 files, and one of them seemed to have a better quality graph in Autostakkert. After processing 40% of the frames, I sharpened everything in Registax (trial and error) and finished in Photoshop, where I'm definitely more comfortable!

Here is the result   For a first, I'm really happy! And I also took 5 minutes to watch the planet and its moons with my cheap eyepieces, also a first time, and what a wonderful view!  

Conclusion: I'm glad I went to the loo!!

 

 

Acquisition with ASICAP, preparation with PIPP (what an awesome software!), stacking with AutoStakkert 3, sharpening with Registax, and final contrast/color adjustments with Photoshop.

 

[Fraunhoffer]

nice - well done. 

 

[Pete Presland]

A fine 1st image, some nice detail visible there.

[Saganite]

Pretty good considering the 'seeing ' that you had at the time.

[Debo]

On 30/04/2019 at 15:07, Space Oddities said:

For a first, I'm really happy!

I'm not surprised, ?

[tooth_dr]

Yes that is fantastic. Great job. 

[Stargazer33]

Well done. That's a nice capture; good colour and detail showing.

Your poor seeing could be down to the fact that you were imaging through an open window. Thermals from the building would have been rising right in front of the window.

An ADC (atmospheric dispersion corrector) would help with the colour fringing. It is better to do this during image capture rather than doing an RGB align in processing.