Total Novice Street light questions on imaging

[ezza123]

Forgive me for posting this but I just want to make sure that it will be an improvement at a darker site - the following picture is where I am able to view Jupiter and image - I have the street light you see to the right - and one out of view to the left, Jupiter is clearly visible.

Would this be why I am getting poor images??

Will a darker site greatly improve?

I have and IR/UV filter and just received my Baader Neodymium filter will this help?

Please feel free to beat me round the head if its pretty obvious that its the lights causing this!

Also attached is the kind of image I am able to create in registax about - 250 stacked in registax from spc900 x2 barlow ir/filter

Thanks

Aaron

Jupiter.tif

[TopHouse]

Don't be so hard on yourself mate, that isn't that bad an image at all, I'm only new to imaging but what I can tell you is that you should be looking at shooting a minimum of 1000 frames. I have a streetlight that is close to 'my' jupiter at the moment too and it actually doesn't do so much harm as Jupe is so bright anyway, but a dew shield/shroud on the scope will help, also I'd try putting a 2x barlow into the mix and add a little contrast to your processing and i think you'll get a result you're more happy with.

I have found during my very limited experience of webcam imaging the three most important things though are focus, focus and focus, take a LOT of time over that and be critical.

[ezza123]

Thanks TopHouse, I guess the only way I am going to compare is to go to a dark site. Tell me about it - trying to get the sweet spot focus on my Mak is a skill in its own!!!

[sgazer]

if I got an image of Jupiter like that even after 2 years of doing astronomy, I'd be very pleased!

For bright objects like planets, light pollution doesn't affect the results any where near as much as for long exposure deep sky work, as long as there are no light reflections inside the scope or onto the ccd.

[greenkat]

Hi Aaron

Thats a realy great image, lots of detail in there.

Hope you dont mind, I adjusted the levels up a tad in photoshop to make it a bit brighter, hope you like

Greenkat

[ezza123]

Thank you for the input and the edit Grrenkat, looks loads better already!

I will try to capture more frames and have a bit more patience when using Registax ( following the new tutorial)!