Jupiter, Io and Ganymede - 12th June

[iceman]

Hi all

Here's the second final processed shot from last night, this time including Io about to disappear, and Ganymede shortly after emerging from behind Jupiter.

Same details as previous image.

5fps, captured for 125 seconds. 160 frames of each channel stacked. Io and Ganymede aligned, stacked and processed separately, and merged back into the final image in Photoshop.

Thanks for looking.

[jjjnettie]

I like the details that comes out with the separate colour channels. Red Jnr shows his size well in the red.
And you captured detail in Ganymede!!
Beaut picture, thanks for posting.

[sheeny]

G'Day Mike.

Another great image as we expect from you.:thumbsup:

I was sure I already posted a reply basically saying the same as jjjnettie but I don't see it here.:shrug: Ooops... maybe its on another thread???:P

Well done anyway. Seeing up here was more like that described by Asi! I don't hold high hopes for my captures of Jopps or the moon... I'll process them tonight.

Al.

[davidpretorius]

These are excellent Mike!

I was down to 60 seconds captures at 10 fps for the images that had IO in them. I love your ganymede.

Looking at yours and from processing mine last night, I am really ready for a more sensitive camera first for yours and then later mine.

I think we have squeezed everything we can out of the 10" GSO optics and toucam combo. As the camera is cheaper than a c9.25, then that is the first to go!

Excellent stuff!

[h0ughy]

ooohhh I can see Ken walking out one night to find his eq mount and the 12" missing.................very nice results Mike and Dave and ASI (after seeing other images) Its a real treat

[Lester]

FANTASTIC.

[Robert_T]

Lovely image - detail within detail. Love It:thumbsup:



Hey DP - Mike and yourself have certainly pushed the envelope on the 10in GSO; do you reckon you'll do any better with C9.25? I haven't seen any 9.25 shots that would surpass the best of your/Mike shots (though maybe a couple of Dennis's freakishly sharp ones might be in the category they don't have the same image scale). The only major improvement I reckon that can be gained is additional resolution from larger aperture... how's the wallet looking for a C14:D

[Dennis]

Absolutely stunning - well done Mike.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

Great Stuff Mikey!!

[asimov]

Wow!

Good stuff mate! Thats a pearler! Congrats.

[ronnierigel]

Ceratinly setting a benchmark here.. Thanks for sharing!!

ron

[Mick]

Sweet images Mike, your getting the most out of your equipment and yourself thanks for posting. :)

[Phil]

Absolutely fantastic shot the detail just pops out 10 out of 10
Phil:eyepop: :jawdrop:

[iceman]

Thanks for the comments guys.


I captured for 125 seconds because there was no shadow or moon on the disc itself. Because Io was off the planet, I was able to align separately and it didn't matter how much Io moved in that time.


I agree with Rob here.. while there have been and will continue to be some fantastic c925 images, I don't think they're any *better* than what we're getting with the 10" GSO Dob, with the same camera (ToUcam). Dennis has had some amazing images, no doubt about it. In great seeing, he will continue to get great images. As Rob said, the image scale is also smaller so there's a tradeoff sometimes.

I think the next step up is the better camera, not a different scope with less aperture. Bird proved last year that a 10" reflector can give images that are about as good as is gets.

We all know that seeing is king - no matter what scope or camera you have, if you get a 9/10 or 10/10 night, the image will be fantastic (if you've collimated, have enough gain, etc).

I'm hoping that when I get the DMK it will give me the extra step in fine resolution and detail, and squeeze a bit more out of my scope/platform combo.

[Dennis]

Off the top of my head, I'd say the 10" dobs used by Mike and DaveP are probably producing the "best" Jupiter’s in terms of the optimum balance of image scale, resolution, colour and detail. Just check out their Ganymede detail, although Robert has produced that kind of detail too, using the C9.25, whereas I haven’t. Not sure if this is due to the Newtonian design being better for planetary detail compared to the SCT?

On those occasions where I managed to get some really sharp images, apart from seeing, collimation, focus and restricting my image scale to the x2.5 Powermate, I think that having an excellent equatorial mount may have made a significant contribution?

I’m not sure what it looks like from a dob platform, but with the Tak I was able to use K3CCDTools to grab 90 sec sequences, every 2 minutes for up to 1 hour, and Jupiter would still be substantially in the central region of the notebook display at the end of that hour. This meant that I could just set up the system and grab as many avi’s as the conditions would allow, with little manual intervention. I’m not sure if you dob guys have to tweak or nurse your systems along, maybe missing the occasional 40 or 50 secs of really good seeing?

This automated approach I used with the C9.25 and Tak, may just have allowed me to grab those few avi’s where the seeing really settled down within a period of already good (7-8/10) seeing.

Anyhow, another potential factor in the chase for those elusive, perfect images of Jupiter.

Cheers

Dennis

[Robert_T]

Reckon you've got a good point Dennis, what's more you've got a Tak mount and I'm insanely jealous:P and drooling at the prospect of an hour long run with Jupiter staying on the chip:D

[matt]

Yep. Spot on Rob and Dennis.

My polar alignment is hopeless.

I'm lucky to keep Jupiter on my laptop screen for longer than 30 seconds before I need to use the hand controller to re-centre.

Polar alignment is something I will have to get around to mastering very soon if I want to take my imaging to the next level.

I've got a rough alignment. But gee... it's rough!!!:P

[Dennis]

These threads are quite illuminating. Here's me naively thinking that all the IIS planetary imagers set K3CCDTools running, go upstairs to say hello to loved ones and enjoy a cuppa, to return back to their rigs and set off another routine, to then idle in the back garden looking at other stuff visually.

How wrong I was!

I have a new respect for those with dob’s, lesser mounts and sub-optimum polar alignment.

Although the above may sound a bit precious, I do mean it sincerely and with empathy.:bowdown:

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

ok, here goes....

dave gets the 410px high jupiter down the bottom of the screen starting to move upwards, presses the capture button, holds breath and then fights the dob driver for the 60 - 90 seconds......exhale.......

it starts off as smooth adjustments, but as the capture process ensues, i feel like a drunk bouncing down the sidewalk!

Hey Matt, i saw rumples at snake valley "drift align" the eq6 and c9.25 in just under 40 minutes and it was solid tracking for a very long time.

Bird also tried to explain it to me....

[matt]

and Dennis...

we have respect for you, mate, for having your rig set up so sweeeeetly!;)

I'm hopefully catching up with Ian Ogilvie (stringscope) over the next few days for a viewing/imaging night.

Fingers crossed he'll pass on some wisdom in the polar alignment dept:thumbsup:

So many things to learn and master. Tiz a wonderful passion, this astro thing