Jupitering with the Dob

[LostInSp_ce]

For a couple of hours last night the skies cleared so I grabbed the Dob did some observing. Before packing up to have that long awaited hot coffee I grabbed the camera and took a snap of one of our favourite celestial neighbours.

[Mickoid (Michael)]

I'll return the compliment by saying that's a nice take and the colours look great too. I've been trying to make sense of Winjupos to improve my detail but I'm finding if I capture less than 1min of video the rotation of the planet won't blur the final stack too much. I think Winjupos is more suitable for longer video captures. My shots have good detail but they are quite noisy due to the lower frame count and the DSLR.

[LostInSp_ce]

Thanks Michael. WinJUPOS is a great little program, but I'm not sure if it can improve details. It does quite a few things, but what I find really useful is it's ability to de-rotate individual colour channels that are out of alignment due to planetary rotation. Having said this as good as a program it is there's only so much it can restore. I guess like anything digital if the data isn't there to begin with, then it's hard to create what's not there. At least that's how I see it.

You may be right about it being better suited to longer recordings. Unfortunately I haven't captured anything long enough to see for myself. Perhaps someone else who has a greater understanding of it can chime in. Either way it's definitely a handy tool to have in the toolkit. I hear you on the DSLR noise issue and their slower frame rates but considering this, I think that they still do a good job and your images show that. We're fortunate now to have so many choices with both DSLR and AP cameras that it makes me wonder how good they will be in 5-10 years from now.

[samgibbs (Sam)]

Could one rightly describe it as such?
Nice work and great results. I am curious to know if you have motorized your telescope or do you manage to do this with a gentle nudge.

[LostInSp_ce]

Originally Posted by samgibbs

Could one rightly describe it as such?
Nice work and great results. I am curious to know if you have motorized your telescope or do you manage to do this with a gentle nudge.

Haha I like what you did there and thanks. The Dob isn't motorised or modified in any way but I am considering building/buying a new base (not because the current one is poor or anything) to see if it can be improved for even better performance.