Problems imaging jupiter

[TheAstroChannel]

Hey everybody, i have been trying to get a good picture of jupiter recently and all i get is a big bright blob, with no detail. the moons are good, but Jupiter, i can't see any detail!

What can i do to bring more out of jupiter imaging?

[Shark Bait]

That is a reasonable attempt, no doubting that it is anything other than Jupiter. It is not easy to get a lot of detail using the afocal method on an Alt/Az mount. When I have tried to image Jupiter I have had to experiment with the settings to get the best results possible. I have found that reducing the onboard exposure setting helps a lot. Even then I still have to modify the image when it has been transferred to the computer to extract more detail.

It looks like your image was taken on Jan 4th around 2130 hrs EST (1130 hrs UT). These screen grabs are from Starry Night and will give you an idea what Jupiter's banding looked like when the photo was taken.

[rmuhlack]

Good effort. To bring out the detail you need a much shorter exposure.

One trick you could try is to take video of jupiter, and then use Registax (free software - http://www.astronomie.be/registax/) to combine all of the video frames into a final image. Registax can be set to reject any individual video frames where the image has been blurred by camera wobbles or from turbulence in the atmosphere so that only the best frames are kept - these are the ones that are then used to stack for the final image.

The camera I use for planetary (a QHY5) takes video. I usually have it set at about 50 fps. I see that your Canon IXUS105 takes video at 30fps, so i would give that a go using short videos of about 30-60secs each. Good luck!

(ps - have you considered using a digicam bracket rather than the old-stickytape-to-the-eyepiece trick. Will be more reliable for focus and camera alignment, and you wont be putting stress on the lens motor. You can get them from Andrews Communication for $39. Follow the "Long Perng" link from here (http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm) and then scroll down the page. Delivery would probably only be $10-15. Something to save up for maybe...:thumbsup:)

[TheAstroChannel]

alright, thanks for the advice guys :)

[Mark_Heli]

Hi Sean,

That's a pretty decent picture showing Jupiter and the moons.

As others have said, you need to reduce your exposure times to bring out the details in the planet. When you do this, you will find that the planet starts to show details, but the moons will not be so bright.

Cheers,
Mark