Jupiter with iPhone

[PeterStudz]

I’ve been busy recently so haven’t posted for a while. But still been at the telescope and messing with a phone camera, although the weather has generally been terrible! I now have quite a few images of Jupiter and here a a few relatively recent examples. All done towards the end of observation sessions. All processing on the phone or an iPad. I’ve deliberately kept the processing soft - it’s easy to be tempted to over-sharpen!

I think the first is interesting. Around the GRS there were 3 white swirls easily seen at the eyepiece. And a relatively large odd/out-of-place looking blue-ish disruption off the north editorial band. It was (probably due to contrast) far more obvious that the GRS and could be seen even when way out of focus. Maybe part of a festoon? Never seen anything like it before and the only mention of it I can find is by @Nigella Bryant who describes it perfectly in “What did you see tonight” (see post on 8th October)…

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/385898-what-did-you-see-tonight/page/156/

Anyway here’s the resulting image. Seeing was decent but something “transparency” made the images flick briefly in/out of focus. There was high clouds around so maybe that. However, the blue-ish area off the NEB shows up well as do the swirls around the GRS.

Sunday 8th October at 4:40am

The second image was captured just over a week later. Although I’ve gone a slightly different way with processing the swirls around the GRS are gone as is the blue-ish disturbance. The moon is Io and I’ve done a separate layer in order to increase exposure. I also whacked up the saturation which gave Io colour - I was surprised by this. It’s a mobile after all! Again, seeing was rather average.

Monday 16th October at 1:16am

One area where these can work is wide-field as the resolution isn’t so obvious. This on the same date/time.

 

A few things I’ve noticed. These were all taken using a BST StarGuider 3.5mm. Which with my 200p gives x375. Far too much power, certainly visually, and at the eyepiece Jupiter looks fuzzy. But it produces a better video than a lower power eyepiece (I have BST StarGuiders). Colours and colour contrast is better too and I struggle with colours anyway. Why, I don’t know. Maybe pixel size?

I find it tricky to get colours/colour balance to the way I like it. Sometimes Jupiter turns out rather brown.

If only I could get some good seeing! The last time that happened with Jupiter was back in the summer and then I didn’t bother taking any pictures. 

The latest version of the VideoStack phone app is far more stable and I’ve run/stacked 120sec videos without it crashing. Well done to the developer. Although anything more than 60sec doesn’t make much difference and might make things worse due to rotation.

With a tiny camera and none of the PC apps you are up against it. But I find it fun!

Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. iPhone 14 Pro held at the eyepiece with a basic no-brand smartphone adapter. BST StarGuider 3.2mm & 5mm. 4K video at 60 fps using stock camera app. All processing on the phone/iPad. Stacked using the VideoStack app. Edited/processed using the stock camera app, WaveletCam, Lightroom and occasionally SnapSeed.

Edited October 24, 2023 by PeterStudz