Imaging Jupiter

[mickyjd]

Hi Can anyone help me out here i have been trying to image Jupiter and not for the want of trying it just never seems to work i have a canon 350d and have tried all the settings and i have numerous filters all of which just seem to distort the colours and most of the pictures come out to bright with no detail. Any tips would be gratefully recieved.

[rowan46]

sorry just read your post and seen its been unanswered for a while I can't help as I don't own a dslr. If you post in imaging advice section somebody there may be able to help. I read somewhere that dslr's were not the best on planets but as I said I have no experiential knowledge of this.

[jamespels]

Hi Mickyjd,

also just starting out at this but set up with a view to being able to move into imaging so read up a lot about it on here. Best bet for imaging many objects is using a reasonable webcam to record an avi. Freebie program (digistacker, I think it's called - there must be others) will take the individual frames and merge them (allowing you to take out any pants ones). The merged frames will give a far better image than you can get with a single frame - or so the theory goes.

Good luck,

J.

[E621Keith]

I think the biggest problem is the camera. The DSLR sensor is far too large for the job. You C8N has a FL of 1000mm, which only gives around 30x magnification with your camera. You will need a camera with higher pixel density and smaller sensor, such as a P&S or a webcam, and a barlow lens to increase your scope's effective focal length.

[mickyjd]

Thanks for the answers everyone I have now invested in a phillips webcam which i am hoping will turn up this week Keith I already have a 2x barlow which I attach to the camera but this doesn't really help to be honest. J I will let you know how i get on with this, but just to let you know the DSLR has given me some good pics of deep sky objects I just need to learn how to use the software properly now. I have downloaded registax in anticipation of the webcam.

Mick

[mickyjd]

Hi I have now received the webcam however to download the drivers it says I need to flash the webcam first. I have no idea what this means can anyone help.

[Dazzio]

Hello mickyjd, I can't really give you much advise on the imaging stuff... well to be more precise, next to sod all really... SORRY!

But I do know about computers (a little) and I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and assume you bought an Philips SPC880NC which needs to be flashed to an SPC900NC? I was gonna go down this route but I am a lazy [removed word]. Anyhow, I found this thread while searching through google and is what brought me to SGL. Gave me a lot of useful info. Hope it helps you, if it's wrong then I'm sorry. http://stargazerslounge.com/astro-lounge/113699-philips-spc880nc-now.html there be your linky.

Good luck

Dazz

[LukeSkywatcher]

Here is an image i took of Jupiter a couple of yrs ago using a Canon 450D on a fixed tripod with the standard kit lens.

I also used the 10X zoom function of the camera.

Yes it is blurred. I only owned the camera for a few days at the time. However it clearly shows banding. The splodge is NOT the GRS. I think it was dust on the lens: maybe just maybe it is the GRS?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Here's the image: i am really very proud of it.

[mickyjd]

Thanks Dazzio looks like i need to go back to XP to sort this out looks like vista doesn't support this camera!!!!!

And Luke good picture never thought about using the zoom function to be honest although i am not sure the 350d has it but i will look.

Will keep you updated as to what i find out cheers.

[Dazzio]

No problems mickyjd, it makes a change that I can help someone else out. In theory you should be able to flash it in a VirtualMachine... or if you can dual-boot into XP if you have an XP CD/key. Altho saying that you should be able to run the flash in "XP-mode" but with Vista being as flaky as it is, I wouldn't recomend it.

Just a brain fart really... if you already have an XP rig set up then totally ignore what I just said.

Dazz

[jgs001]

You'll seriously struggle with an SLR, even if you can get the focal length up to silly levels... Jupiter is there and you can get colour and the main bands showing at 1200mm, but you have to crop away about 95% of the image, what you **** is just black anyway, but getting a reasonable exposure is also hard. If you can get up to 12000mm (it's a very precarious proposition with the amount of tubing you need to do it, I wouldn't recommend trusting an slr on that lot, and you can achieve any sort of focus with it, and maintain any kind of tracking [i have tried it, and it's a nigh on impossible]) you can get away with not cropping, but it's a small scale image.

The webcam is the way to go, most definitely.

you'll need Registax or avtistack to process the data, and I'd suggest, either, Sharpcap, QCFocus or wxastrocapture as the program to capture the video with. You need to get the webcam off auto settings, and adjust them manually.

[mickyjd]

Thanks Guys

Dazzio i have an old computer that runs on xp and it works on that so that's ok however just to let you all know I seem to have cocked up a bit. After going back to Morgan's it seems they will flash the camera for you so that the camera actually thinks it is t scp900 this is then allegedly compatible with windows vista when you download the drivers from the phillips support page.

However i also bought the adaptor which as far as i can see will not screw into the front of the camera i have tried to take the lens cap off but this does not budge so that's annoying everyone on here says the adaptor will screw straight in to the lens, if anyone knows what i'm doing wrong or how it fits i would be grateful to hear.

John thanks for the advice on the software i will definately go for these.

[Dazzio]

For the eye piece. If you look at the cameras front you'll see a little silver screwy bit? What I did was to screw the lens as close to the sensor as I could then, quite by accident I literally ripped it off with my hands. But a screw driver or something is recommended to praise it off. Then once that's off you can unscrew the lens cap and fit on the new eye piece. Where did you get your eye piece from?

As for the flash, usually when you try to flash the firmware and something goes wrong, that's a bad sign and it means you've knacked the thing. Not sure if that's the case here too... Try eBay, I got my SPC900 on there for £15

Dazz

[Steep]

The silver rim round the lens will pop off with a little bit of effort, after that unscrew the lens completely and the adaptor screws back in its place if it's the one from Morgans.

[mickyjd]

Thanks Steep that worked! hopefully this will help me focus it as well as when I tried the other night I had to give up.

Will keep you posted.

[mickyjd]

Just an update for you guys it still seems a bit bright on the planets but it did give me a couple of good shots of the moon just using the xp software.