First Proper Go at Jupiter

[SeedyF]

I have had a Philips SPC900 for about a month but have been cursed by cloudy skies or having to do other stuff. I had one go with imaging jupiter a couple of weeks ago but didn't have enough time to really play with the settings on the camera control. Last night I was given several clear hours . This is the result.

The webcam was connected to my Skywtcher Explorer 150 with a 2x Barlow. 20 sec video, 205 frames, captured with SharpCap, processed in AviStack.

[bus_ter]

Looks good! You can see the GRS and possibly a moon transit shadow?

(btw there is an imaging section on the forum if mods want to move this..)

[SeedyF]

oops didn't realise there was somewhere else I should have posted this

[Trillian]

That's a great shot! I'd be well impressed with that.

Are you using the standard barlow that came with your scope or have you upgraded? I have a 130p and the spc900 webcam and am using sharpcap. I am still playing around with the webcam and tweaking the images- but I can barely get the banding to be visible let alone the GRS and a transitting moon. Any tips? :icon_scratch:

[SeedyF]

Trillian, I am a month old novice at this webcam thingy-mah-jig but I can tell you what I did to see if it helps

I didn't get a barlow with the scope it was an addition, it's a really cheap one, cost £15 from Seben.

The first time I tried out the cam I messed about with the gain and exposure setiings to make the cloud bands stick out a bit. The software developed by one of the forummers (SharpCap) made this much easier to do and actually see the results on screen in the preview pane. Basically, what you see in the preview is what will be captured so tinker and see what happens.

The settings I used in SharpCap were as follows (SharpCap saves the settings in a text file)

Brightness=52

Contrast=26

Saturation=60

Gamma=21

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=9

Exposure=2

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=I420

I swear, if that was a moon transit I got really, REALLY lucky

[Trillian]

Thankyou for that.

I will give it a whirl next time I get an opportunity and see if I can improve my images using those settings.

[SeedyF]

Trillian - i didn't read you post properly but I now see you are using SharpCap - hope my post didn't cme across as patronising tell you all about it

I'm gutted that the weekend is over and it's cloudy so I can't try some of the tips I have picked up from the various jupiter threads on here.

[Trillian]

No not at all. I appreciate any feedback because I REALLY don't know what I am doing:o. I have been just randomly playing with all the settings and hoping for the best. I need to do a bit of research into what each of the settings is actually doing.

Also I am not sure if it is more to do with the clarity of the image through the scope that is the issue-hence my q about the barlow.

Like you I have only had my webcam for about a month but I am so eager to get a kicking shot. Just too impatient I suppose!!! I'll get there.....eventually.

Unfortunately, as with you, the clouds rolled in and have not had another opportunity to have another go.

[oldfruit]

I think that is a great pic with lots of detail.

[Skills]

Nice picture, I never get bored of Jupiter, it's awesome. I've never seen Saturn through a scope though, I'm really looking forward to that.

Adrian