Jupiter - Are the white spots possible with 8" SCT?
Hi,
I'm still trying to improve... Last night the conditions seemed (to my untrained eye) excellent in Melbourne, but the results don't seem much better than what I previously posted in quite average conditions.
Visually I could see the red spot, and make out the cassini division in Saturn, and was hoping my captures would reveal those 3 tiny white dots that show in the band under the red spot (at least according to skyportal)
Should I expect to see these in an 8" scope (or at least expect the camera to see them)?
I used a 2 x Powermate and grabbed 3500 frames in 150secs (needed 1/24 for exposure) Should I ditch the 2X to get better FPS?
Or maybe I need to learn better focus / collimation?
definitely nice effort Brett. you need the focal length more than the fps imo.
Not sure on the conditions in melbourne last night... I didn't look however i've been keeping an eye on jetstream activity and it hasn't been looking good.
Hang in there Brett, you're not doing anything wrong. I got out last night because I too believed the conditions here in Melbourne were to be better than average for planetary viewing/photographing. Seeing and transparency were going to be around 8 to 9 according to Skippy Sky but the high velocity Jetstream cancelled out any chance of benefiting from that.
Here are shots taken with a DSLR through an 8 inch Newtonian. The first two from last night were taken with a 5X Powermate and the last one, last year, with a 6mm eyepiece and a 2X Barlow. The difference is only really in what you can get with the atmospheric conditions on offer at the time. If you get good conditions, you'll be amazed with the difference it makes to your final image. Note the white spots you're talking about in last year's image.
Continue with what you're doing because one night you'll be out there in those perfect conditions and you'll achieve that image you're aiming for!
That's a great image Brett. I don't think there's 3 white spots under GRS at the moment. Just 1 and an oval, which you have. There's 3 on the other side, going by other people's images.
Hi Brett,
Thats a nice image you have taken of Jupiter and yes your scope 8inch SCT is more than capable of imaging the white spots.
I have attached an image i took with my 8 SCT a few years ago now showing the spots.
My set up was the 8inch scope with 2x barlow and ZWO120mc camera.
Thank you all for the kind and encouraging words.
I'll try and keep an eye out for "slow jetstream" winds.
Here are another few images from this week (even if conditions arent improving .. I think i'm 'getting' the processing a bit more)
One other thought popped up during the week ... I have been just swapping the eyepiece for the camera, but reading the scope manual it indicates the optimum backfocus distance is 133mm, but my 2" diagonal + adapter + camera is closer to 160mm. It still seems to focus, so what is "less than ideal" and could that be effecting my results?
Thanks again
Brett
Last edited by brettd; 05-08-2020 at 09:08 AM.
Reason: corrected backfocus measurements
