Jupiter and Saturn under a Sydney Full Moon

[Startrek (Martin)]

Conditions during planetary season in Sydney have been ordinary thus far but snagged a clear stable night on Tuesday night so gave Jupiter and Saturn a go

6” f6 Bintel newt on an EQ6-R Mount
Canon 600D with Televue 5 x Powermate
Goto and tracking EQMOD , StellariumScope and Stellarium
Captured with BYEOS Planetary mode
Sampling rate 30.1 fps
ISO 1600
1500 AVi video frames
Stacked in Autostakkert 3 , best 65% frames
Processed in Registax 6
Original frame size ( no cropping )

Comments most welcome

[PKay (Peter)]

Not too shabby M, considering the moon was out.

And you just cant put away the trusty Canon!

Anyways, tight focus Martin (& all).
Heaven forbid, I have to go and work for two weeks :-(

[Startrek (Martin)]

Peter
Thanks for the comments
Focusing on a planet in live view that’s continually fading in and out plus jumping around due to image scale and atmospheric turbulence is not an easy exercise.
It’s really hit and miss , that’s why it’s called “lucky imaging” as you have to take quite a few videos and hope you’ve nailed a good one out of the batch
The fun begins in planetary when you finish stacking as its a good indicator that the next process sharpening , noise and colour etc ... will land you a “keeper”
Planetary also doesn’t take hours and hours and hours like DSO imaging , that night I was happy with enough captured after 30 or 40 minutes total for both Jupiter and Saturn
Thanks again
Cheers

[LostInSp_ce]

Nice Martin. Are these your first planetary for this year?

[Kuz]

Nice work Martin. 2 good images there

[Startrek (Martin)]

Thanks LIS
No about the 3rd time since June but the others were poor images due to med to high atmospheric instability , not worth posting
These are 2 of my best out of about 8 videos on each that night

Thanks Kuz
I know this is about the best I can do with a small newt and a DSLR but I’m happy with the results just the same

Cheers

[xelasnave]

Excellent..I need to get one of those fancy 6 inch scopes...actually I should refurbish the one I have as it was a great little scope when new.
Alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

Alex
Thank you for the nice comment
My 6” scopes not fancy , only cost me $299 back in 2017 , I had Bintel replace the single speed focuser to dual speed focuser , replaced the crappy primary mirror springs myself with locally made springs ( Better Springs ) and that’s about it
It’s an f6 so I have about 150mm more focal length than your common 6” f5 scope
It’s an all round great little scope for all types of AP and visual
observing as well

[LostInSp_ce]

Originally Posted by Startrek

Thanks LIS
No about the 3rd time since June but the others were poor images due to med to high atmospheric instability , not worth posting
These are 2 of my best out of about 8 videos on each that night

Was just curious I couldn't recall seeing any from you this year. Though I haven't been around much as of late. Life's busy again so I'll probably be randomly disappearing and reappearing over the coming months.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by LostInSp_ce

Was just curious I couldn't recall seeing any from you this year. Though I haven't been around much as of late. Life's busy again so I'll probably be randomly disappearing and reappearing over the coming months.

LIS
I think you missed that I mentioned the images I captured were “not worth posting”
Cheers
Martin

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Very good images Martin, just goes to show what a 6", 150mm scope can do with some care taken with focusing and processing. A longer focal length would be better, I have been using my 150mm f8 a bit, last year and this year, with acceptable results, depending on the seeing.