Jupiter's August cavalcade.....

[Kokatha man]

Hi all - seeing this is almost the end of August and the weather is not looking conducive to imaging tonight or tomorrow, I thought I would post all of my August Joops together.....

Apart from a couple of sorry images at the end of July when I was just setting up my newly-acquired C11, my imaging really only began in earnest this month.....during which time I not only had to deal with a serious fall right at the start of the month but also do things like make an artificial star for fine-collimation, handle hi-res imaging challenges in general and (just last Thursday) deal with cleaning the corrector plate which had, in a very short time, become covered in dust, pollen and the salt air rind from our particular region; exacerbated by the heavy fogging/dew and hair-drier removal thereof which was "baking" said crud onto the corrector plate with each drying effort....!

But we're still up and running (and with an even cleaner c/plate than when the OTA arrived in mid-July whereby the former owner had had it professionally-cleaned just a couple of weeks beforehand....!)

Although the C11 had its own peculiarities for me to become accustomed to I believe the preliminary spade-work i did with the old 6" achromat (now sold) stood me in good stead.....

I haven't grappled with learning how to create animations yet (amongst the plethora of tasks I've found in front of me!!!) so thought I'd do this parade of Joop images I've taken this month: fairly pleased with them even though the best seeing night wasn't anything to write home about - I listed it as 7/10, but in reality was only the marginalist amount more than the proceeding images of 6.5/10.....

The last 3 images were from avi's taken on Thursday evening between 10 and 10.45pm.....very interesting to note that the image during capture (especially for the first 2 taken at 10.05pm and 10.15pm) looked very good onscreen and I was optimistically thinking that an especially good image (ultra-hi-res!) was on the cards.....alas, not to be.....but it seemed that others here in Oz were also noting similar phenomena - although the first 2 images were more than acceptable as "hi-res" imho.....but still hoping for that window of 7.5 - 8/10 seeing before Jupiter motors too far away from us though....!

Interesting to watch the changing features over a 19 day period.....hope you enjoy the images!

Additionally, for those people I have promised to post a processing tute with screenshots etc; it is in the pipeline....!

[Kokatha man]

.....the next 4.....

[Kokatha man]

- and the last 3....!

[Theninjagecko]

Amazing images my friend, really made me realise i want a dbk or dfk. You have a website with other images?

[Kokatha man]

.....thanks TNG - my website is devoted to me professional career as an artist, and is very out-of-date .....but is being revamped soon and will feature my astrophotography as well as other photo-comps as I find my time and interests/directions heading more in those particular ways over time.....

These are actually (apart from very similar Joops) my sum total and experience/adventures in planetary with the C11, although I have a couple of nice moon/sun and DSO images etc from my Canon lenses and ED80 that have been put on the backburner whilst Joop is around opposition!

[tom.yates]

Fantastic images i think they are the best i have ever seen truly stunning

[steve_bham]

Wicked images, very stunning.

[wenjha]

Amazing!!!

perfect!!

[ashenlight]

Wow, excellent work. The detail on that moon in #6 is astounding too - could you tell us which moon it is?

[astroman001]

An amazing set of images.

[Kokatha man]

Wow, excellent work. The detail on that moon in #6 is astounding too - could you tell us which moon it is?

Hi Amanda - and thanks everyone for the very kind comments: the moon is Callisto.

I have had to go back onto the heavy-duty painkillers because the effects of the dislocated rib injuries are still quite severe after 4 weeks plus (and at 60 you don't bounce quite as quickly as when you're a bit younger!:)) but I've still manage to grin like a cheshire cat at times over the results of using the sleepless nights I've had doing something I love....!

And this isn't rocket-science stuff - sure, some good kit helps but if you'd seen the images I was pulling not long ago you'd realise that it is within many people's grasp to get good images.....and to those in the Nthn. Hemisphere, in a couple of years you'll be the ones with good elevation for Joop!!!

And I WILL do that processing write-up I promised (Alan etc) .....I'm a firm believer in "what goes around comes around."

[Brinders]

They look brilliant

I'm considering an Imaging Source camera - what do you shoot in colour or b/w using RGB filters?

Brinders

[Kokatha man]

They look brilliant

I'm considering an Imaging Source camera - what do you shoot in colour or b/w using RGB filters?

Brinders

Thanks also, Astroman and Brinders:- as I've commented before, I'm not a subscriber to the PR about the mono DMK being vastly superior to the colour DBK.....I based my selection of the colour Imaging Source cam primarily upon 2 factors - despite the mono being able to use the full sensor for 45 second runs of each of R,G & B (allowing time to change filters and refocus between each) I can run the DBK for 150 seconds with a sensor that is 50% Green, 25% Red and 25% Blue.....creating 150% of the Green channel data, 75% of the Red channel data and 75% of the Blue channel data of the mono DMK.....the other utterly pragmatic factor/consideration I took into account was that the best images I could find (with roughly comparable seeing and scopes) were no better with DMK's than DBK's.....

It has been pointed out that a DMK can just use (say, 70 seconds) of Red and 70 seconds of Blue and synthesize the Green from said.....I have not delved into this yet, but have a "gut-reaction":eek: that re-using data to create the 3rd colour channel is not quite the same as introducing extra capture data.....but regardless of the truth therein of this possibility I don't have to worry about filters, I didn't have to spend money on decent ones nor worry about 2 focussing operations during the allowed capture period, and finally, I see nothing vis a vis my DBK and anyone's DMK images to convince me otherwise.....without any consideration of apertures used.

On the subject of focussing.....it is my firm belief that this is perhaps the one single issue that contributes most to final image outcomes after the essentials like exposure are taken care of: the (added) element of slightly different focus for each channel if refocussing is employed between each channel capture becomes another problematical re final image detail clarity.....in my humble opinion, as someone who honestly believes my background in ultra-fine precision flame and TIG welding assists with focussing, I would not want to be focussing twice more during focussing and be expecting to repeat perfectly these procedures....!

Just to explain the connections (and I am a professional artist who works with colours and fine nuances constantly).....with welding one is continuously scanning the workpieces to observe the fine flickerings of extremely subtle colour-changes to determine temperature changes for filler-rod flow or true-fusion bonding (it is like heat-tempering steels, and also eye-gauging of molten metal pouring temps during casting, which I also engage in etc) and these situations are very similar to watching the very subtle changes to the smaller detail which flashes in and out of view with extremely slight focussing adjustments, particularly in less than ideal seeing (which is most of the time!!!) This "working experience" herein is why I say that attempting refocussing during actual capture can only introduce more variables that can degrade image quality and "narrow the gap" between DMK and DBK.....

I refocus after a maximum of 4 avi's to not only counter any mirror-shift of the SCT but also to "average out" possible razor-focussing variations to maximize the likelihood of getting some avi's "right on the money."

Finally, I wouldn't want anyone to be put off (or out!) by my own position regardless of which camera they are using or purchase.....but whichever one you use I maintain that a correct histogram with not too much gain (meaning appropriate fps/shutter speeds) and moderate gamma along with "FOCUS - FOCUS -FOCUS" is the mantra....!