Jupiter and Ganymede Transit 11/10/21

[PeterStudz]

I haven’t got a PC which means no stacking for me. 

This is my second go at taking a video of Jupiter with my phone camera. With the likes of Jupiter and Saturn, taking a frame from video seems to produce better results than trying to taking a single shot with the camera. But that might just be me.

Seeing was good to very good. Skywatcher Skyliner 200p with BST StarGuider 5mm. Video 4K at 60 fps with standard camera app, zoomed at 1.7x on a regular iPhone 12. 

Later manually selecting what looked like the best frame, taking a snapshot (for simplicity & speed) and editing in the standard iPhone camera app & Lightroom, zooming in a little cropping and resizing in Image Size. I like to try and do everything on the phone. 

The result doesn’t match up to the experience of observing last night but I didn’t expect that. At least the black dot that is Ganymede can be seen!

[Kon]

That's excellent for a single frame from a mobile movie. It will be interesting to see if you stack the movie if it brings out more features.

By the way, what mobile holder are you using?

[PeterStudz]

On 16/10/2021 at 09:17, Kon said:

That's excellent for a single frame from a mobile movie. It will be interesting to see if you stack the movie if it brings out more features.

By the way, what mobile holder are you using?

Thanks! Was pleased & pleasantly surprised the result. Have been very busy recently so only just had some spare time to reply. 

When I get hold of a PC I’ll try and take a proper look at the videos I’ve taken and try stacking. Maybe a nice winter evening activity. There are definitely some good frames in there! One of the things I found was, on my iPhone 12 at least, is that I got far better results when I zoomed in the video a little when recording. 1.7x seemed to be the limit. It wasn’t the same as zooming in via editing after the video had been taken. Odd, as I have learnt to avoid that on pictures through the eyepiece. On the iPhone 12 it’s digital zoom after all. 

The phone mount I used is the one shown in the pictures. The red marks are some mods I plan to do but haven’t got around to doing. Can’t remember who I bought it from but there seem to be a few people selling the same or very similar design. But can remember that I paid £9.99. 

It’s simple, light, easy to use in the dark once you get the hang of things and it fits the BST StarGuiders that I mostly use really well once the rubber eyecup is removed. Once on the eyepiece the the “z” adjustment is near perfect although you can get some movement by twisting up the barrel of the eyecup.

I also have the Celestron NeXYZ but I find it heavy and on a small telescope with a basic focuser it pulls on the eyepiece/focuser assembly. It’s slight but enough to effectively put things out of collimation. On something larger and more substantial, like my Skyliner 200p, not so much but it’s still there. Also my phone doesn’t quite sit level on the mount. I bodged it with a bit of card packing but it’s annoying! Consequently I’ve stopped using it altogether. 

[Stu]

Excellent image @PeterStudz. I’ve tried a similar technique and it certainly works better than a single frame. My results weren’t nearly as good as yours though which has come out really well. 

[Kon]

Thansk for the info; Since my message, I have acquired a NexYZ. I  agree it is heavy even on my 200P Dob but I quite like that i can adjust the z axis to get closer to the eyepiece. I got some nice moon shots the other night. I tried with Jupiter but it was all washed out so i may have to pay with the phone settings a bit.

[PeterStudz]

Yes, I saw your moon pictures. They did turn out well! Much of this, inc phone adaptors, are what you get use to. I haven’t given up on the NexYZ and will certainly give it another good go. It’s probably better suited to something like my and your 200p.