C8 Jupiter 30-10-22

[Yawning Angel]

During this planetary season I've tried to focus on getting my C8 to perform to a level I'm happy with.

It's had an external focuser and motor, the Celestron dew rings (great bit of kit!) and a new camera. I even put a handle on the top rail! Lavished it with care, only for disaster to strike in the form of somehow managing to strip the aluminium threads out of one of the collimation screw holes!

After some panicky Googling and a fruitless search for a replacement secondary holder I bit the bullet, drilled it out and tapped it M4. After rebuilding it I was dubious (and started window shopping for a C11😇) but it collimated up remarkably well with the OCAL (oh, that should have been on the list too)

Star testing brought it to a point I was happy with so on the 30th I tried it out on Jupiter (and later Mars) to see if it was behaving

26 x 120 sec on Jupiter until the clouds moved me away, 5ms @ 350 gain and about 200fps giving around 24,000 frames per file. Seeing wasn't dreadful, which is good by the standards of NW England - some passing haze and thin clouds

Batch stacked all of them at 50% with the intention of making a short animation, but on review the small pause to refocus was really noticeable, so I thought to experiment with derotating the lot and seeing what WinJupos could make of it

I'm not sure I can expect much more from 8"

52 mins exposure time - Celestron C8, ZWO ADC, TS x1.5 barlow, IR/UV filter / Player One Mars C ii

[geoflewis]

That's quite a story Alex, but your work was not in vain; it's a lovely image.

[Yawning Angel]

4 hours ago, geoflewis said:

That's quite a story Alex, but your work was not in vain; it's a lovely image.

Thank you!

[Yawning Angel]

toned this down a little. It was, to my eyes, a little pinker than it should be

[orion25]

Cracking image, Alex! Thanks for sharing!

Reggie

[Yawning Angel]

11 minutes ago, orion25 said:

Cracking image, Alex! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you!

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

One day I might get this close, thanks for sharing an amazing image.

[maw lod qan]

Nice image of Jupiter. 

With my 8" reflector and Canon, seldom can I get mine to look that sharp when I crop them up to a good size.

[Yawning Angel]

6 hours ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

One day I might get this close, thanks for sharing an amazing image.

Thank you! For a reference point this was taken with the same scope, 6 years ago

[Yawning Angel]

5 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

Nice image of Jupiter. 

With my 8" reflector and Canon, seldom can I get mine to look that sharp when I crop them up to a good size.

Thank you!