Jupe + Moons

[Mamsoth]

Hi guys, this is the best of the captures from the night of 08/02/11 taken at 18:04.

Camera was the Atik 2-HS

1/50 exposure

5fps (was actually closer to 4.4 with my shoddy laptop struggling all the way)

500 frames stacked and processed in Registax

Also included is a 300% zoomed jpg of Ganymede Io and Europa. On Ganymede there are some darkened spots and on Io some lighter spots, can anyone tell me if they are actual surface features (I'm pretty sure at least Ganymede is) or whether they are only random artifacts?

Click thumbs to enlarge

[Gra]

Dont know your answer, but nice pics

[Astromart]

Great images. Could well be surface features on the moons - not sure tho' !

[oldfruit]

That`s a great result, especially considering Jupiter is getting lower and seeing is not always good.

[BobMax1200]

Amazing picture of Jupiter. I only wish I could get one as good.

[eriwig]

Lovely pic of Jupiter, been showing it off round our office

[Mamsoth]

Thanks for the comments everbody

[MrsR]

Fab photos

[digitalight]

Great photo. First one is very sharp. Well done

[lukebl]

Nice one of Jupiter.

What scope did you use? The dark marks on the second image (particularly on the upper one - Ganymede?) look like the effects caused by an out-of-focus image taken on an Newtonian rather than actual surface details.

[saturn5]

Superb image,realy sharp.

Have to agree with Luke as to what the dark spots may be,but if these werent shot using a newt then i dont have a scoobie.

[Mamsoth]

Nice one of Jupiter.

What scope did you use? The dark marks on the second image (particularly on the upper one - Ganymede?) look like the effects caused by an out-of-focus image taken on an Newtonian rather than actual surface details.

Hi luke, I actually used my refractor, a celestron omni 120. I agree though it does look like that, I think possibly the reason it looks a bit odd is because I really had to raise the contrast in registax and process it a fair bit. Possibly the markings are a result of such aggressive processing? The only thing that makes me wonder whether they are genuine features is that they seem to match up to what you would expect to see on ganymede and Io, ie a single large dark spot on gany and several small lighter spots on Io.

I've been browsing other amateur images and can see the same sort of patterning on the moons (although generally speaking they kick the "£!!$% out of my image).

Thanks for the comments everyone, I really want to get to the bottom of this genuine surface feature vs random anomaly problem.

[RogerTheDodger]

Lovely pic of Jupiter