Solstice Jupiter - 21 Dec 2012

[Sebbie]

Hello and Merry Christmas to everyone! Finally had enough time to process my Jupiter clips from last week.. This is as much detail as I can master so far down here.. :lol:

Taken over the roof top of my house, only about 12% of captured frames stacked in AS!2 followed by wavelets in Registax and ACDSee intensity / colour balancing.

Adding a GIF of the Io occultation.. seeing has deteriorated badly by that time :shrug:

- Seb

[EricB]

Nice one Seb! The GIF animation is cool!!

What camera did you use?

Eric

[Larryp]

Nice work, Seb!

[Scorpius51]

Impressive work, Sebastian.

[Chif]

They look awesome!

[Sebbie]

Thanks guys, I was taking stacks of avis that night but only one came close..

Eric, I am using Imaging Source CCD with Sony ICX618AQA sensor http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/cameras/usb-ccd-color/dfk21au618/. At the time I was in Y800 Y800 capture mode at 60 fps. In the end only 700 of 6000 frames proved to be stackable (after some comparison tests with AS!2). Before imaging I verified my collimation on nearby Aldebaran and used Bathinov mask / microfocuser to fix final focus position.

I am posting one full sized frame from the animation showing Io's disk half eclipsed by the planet.. pretty neat effect despite the seeing. Two minutes later the clouds rolled in.

- Seb

[EricB]

Thanks Seb. Is the difference between the DBK and the DFK the IR-pass filter?

At this stage, having a DMK41 for the Moon, I am toying with the idea of getting a DBK/DFK21 for planets, or a DSLR for general astrophoto. It all comes down to funds. I was warned that astrophotography was a expensive hobby. Boy, they were right:sadeyes:

Cheers,

Eric

[Sebbie]

Hi Eric,



Yes, DFK has one built in, CCD chip is the same. I got mine from Adorama for around A$500 including shipping.



So far I found 60fps option great in poor to average seeing (and we've had quite a lot of it lately down South). DSLRs are good all rounders but much harder to work with imo, too much trial and error.



Yes it's expensive and QA varies between products :doh:. Price does not necessarily indicate better quality, research is key (and that takes time). Just last night my Meade 2'' diagonal adaptor became loose in its thread, no idea why. I have only used it for visual few times.. ended up collimating scope on the laptop screen. By the time I've finished the clouds arrived :lol:

rgds
- Seb

[EricB]

With my DMK41 I find that it's difficult to get good results on Jupiter due to the low framerate and below average seeing I have had since getting the camera. It's great for the Moon as you can turn average data into fairly decent pictures. However, when the seeing conditions are good, then you get stunning results because of the resolution. In my very limited experience, it doesn't quite work like that with Jupiter as the low framerate is a serious handicap, and the higher resolution doesn't compensate for it ( I hope I am making some sense as I don't really have a technical mind).

Cheers,

Eric

Can I ask you why you chose the DFK over the DBK?

Cheers,

Eric

[Sebbie]

I guess I did not want to buy yet another filter and the price was slightly better than locally sourced DBK.

BTW I really enjoy your Moon photos, they have great resolution and texture (a very natural look that is hard to get with digital camera).

Cheers,
- Seb

[EricB]

Thanks Seb!

Since I am on holidays and have a bit of time, I am reprocessing some of my better moon pictures. This time, I am trying AviStack + Astra Image (while most of my Moon AVIs have been processed in Registax in the past). I will post some of them soon for feedback.

I will have to look into the DBK/DFK dilemma to try to understand the difference a filter makes.

Eric