First Jupiter Image (UK) - Help Appreciated

[abodee2]

Hello,

This is my first try at planetary imaging, Jupiter was fairly low on the horizon, close to an almost-full moon. Managed to snap a video on sharpcap (1500 frames) between clouds and put this together using Autostakkert & Registax. I know it's not great, I'm pleased just to make out the bands!

Equipment used: Celestron C6 XLT on HEQ5 and ZWO ASI120MC-S Camera.

Any comments or criticisms on how to improve this image in the capture or processing would be greatly appreciated.

Abdulrahman  

 

 

[DougM43]

That’s pretty good considering how low it is at present,, you’ve got the Great Red Spot and one of the moons showing. 🙂 

[Pullock]

That's a really good attempt, really good, much better than my white blur with my DSLR, keep pushing you can only go up from here!

[abodee2]

6 minutes ago, Pullock said:

That's a really good attempt, really good, much better than my white blur with my DSLR, keep pushing you can only go up from here!

Very kind of you.

It's not much compared to some of the other images on here! Wish I knew exactly where to improve/What to work on - is it general seeing conditions, camera settings etc. Think I need to read through a few tutorials/ Watch a few videos.

Edited June 18, 2019 by abodee2

[Nigella Bryant]

Generally imaging at f20, also with low altitude an atmospheric dispersion correcter improves the image. I've yet to get any clear skies to try this year so far. Well done.

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Nigella Bryant

[MilwaukeeLion]

Terrific first capture, better than my first also.  Seeing conditions big factor can make focusing difficult.  Capture as many as you can with different roi, exp, gain, barlow, no barlow.  Process all.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Here are some things to try:

Crop the frame when shooting (I use 320x240) to reduce storage used and increase the frame rate.

Use a longer video - I use 5000 frames and have tried 7500.  Try different limit settings _ I usually try around 20% (i.e. best 1000 frames stacked) 

Focus on a star higher in the sky - easier than focusing on a moon, especially if seeing is poor.

Use an ADC - you can correct the dispersion in software but an ADC does it better.  Image within an hour or two of meridian transit, when the planet is highest.

Use a bigger telescope. 😕  I did a side-by side imaging trial once and found that my C8 performed markedly better than the 127mm Mak.

Keep trying till you hit a night with decent seeing.  At my site the seeing rarely if ever supports imaging at f20 rather than native f10.

[abodee2]

Thank you to all, very helpful!

[astroman001]

Good effort, about what you would expect given conditions and scope etc. Try some of the things Cosmic Jeff suggests such as cropping to increase the frame rate and an ADC helps although not fully at this low altitude.

Usual workflow is to capture 7000-1000 frames, stack the best 30% in Astrostakkert, wavelet sharpen in Registax 6 and final tweak of colours, contrast and sharpening in Photoshop.

Peter

[Cosmic Geoff]

On ‎24‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 11:47, astroman001 said:

and an ADC helps although not fully at this low altitude.

An ADC is adjustable to compensate for the low altitude dispersion, and in practice will reduce it to an un-noticeable level. That's the  whole point of using it.  One is still imaging through a long atmospheric path, however.