First ever - Jupiter 18th September 2009

[TheThing]

Try not to laugh too hard!

Taken with a Meade LPi, thru a 152mm Soligor Reflector, 750mm, f4.9. Both 50 images over 45 secs - 1 mins, saved as BMAP.

A hint of banding, perhaps?

Some moons!

I really am not sure how these have turned out. I've tried to put them thru Autostar, and they seem to load in as single pictures. My Autostar manual (downloaded from the net) doesn't really explain 'what' it does, just tells you what each of the buttons are for!

I've tried putting into Registax too, with similar results - single frames only.

I'm assuming this is simply due to the number of images taken - 50 not enough and after the LPi has weeded out the bad ones I'm not left with much?

Only thing I've done is fiddle with the contrast and brightness slightly to bring out the bands a bit!

Any constructive criticism or help, much appreciated!

[Space Cowboy]

Way over exposed but well done for getting the moons in! I doubt stacking will make any difference. What barlow did you use...i see you have 2, maybe if you stacked them together to get a larger image your camera could cope better with contrast and exposure. Anyhow i'm sure there are people better qualified than me to help. I've only been imaging Jupiter a couple of times afocaly :-)

[TheThing]

No barlow, that was just camera on it's own in the scope. It is, apparently, equivalent to a 6mm EP.

[Euan]

Remember that no one who embarks on the huge learning curve that is imaging gets top results straight away, that's really good for a first attempt!!

[rawhead]

Definite banding on the first

I think the moons look great on the second. Wouldn't change that one a bit!

Try a barlow and few more subs.

Cheers

Jon

[TheThing]

Thank you kindly gents!

Steep learning curve, considering that up until the beginning of last week I had no interest in astrophotography at all!

I'm stoked to have just got something recognisable. Roll on the next clear night.

[Clayton]

Try both Barlows individually, then stacked. In my experience, and as others have advised me, stacking Barlows is not generally good practise ie. 1 by 4x is better than 2 by 2x stacked. And spend a lot of time focusing. Try refocussing between shots, as sometimes you can fluke a perfect focus that is hard to judge by eye.

Try to record avi's rather than bmp's as you will get a lot more frames to work with in the time before the planet rotates enough to cause blurring when the frames are stacked.

The exposure on your first image looks close enough to begin with.

Keep trying, as it is surprising what a difference experience makes.

You have made a respectable start.

[TheThing]

Cheers gents.

The LPi doesn't allow for recording as avi's only BMPs, JPEGs and TIFFs. BMPs seem the best for me (so far!)

Typically, it's been cloudy every night since, but roll on the next clear on!

[Clayton]

Cheers gents.

The LPi doesn't allow for recording as avi's only BMPs, JPEGs and TIFFs.

Hmm. Have you checked this out

Meade Lunar-Planetary Imager

There are lots of other free programs, like wxAstrocapture

wxAstroCapture - Windows and linuX Astronomy Capture

and QCFocus

QCfocus help

QuickCam

I am fairly sure that these will allow you to capture avi's.

Unless your French is good you will need to turn on the English interface with QCFocus

I have heard that K3CCD Tools have a free version although I have never managed to find it:icon_scratch:

[TheThing]

Cheers Clayton,

I'll have a look at those in depth. They look very helpful from a quick glance.