Jupiter Season 2015

[ags_]

It's that time again, Jupiter is gradually showing us it's beautiful moods and not far behind Saturn with perhaps some surprises again this year.
Imaging has started well for me this year with some good seeing already, and a new 20" planetary newt scope to be built it's all looking great.
Regards, Phil

[strongmanmike]

Fan-bloody-tastic Phil, some crazy shape features revealed there!

Looks like fairly high contrast processing but I like it :thumbsup:

Mike

[rustigsmed]

wow they are great Phil, the new scope sounds pretty exciting too!

[Somnium]

Great work, looks fantastic :thumbsup:

[John K]

Nice going!

Keep us posted about your new scope as well!

John K.

[ags_]

Thanks for your generous comments. Bird my good friend and mentor has been an enormous help with my new astrophotography hobby, he has also help with my new scope design which is expected to be complete in the coming months. I'll start a new thread when the scope parts start to arrive, 20" F4 Techno mirror from Normand Fullum and 600mm x 1900mm 3 part tube from Gary Mitchell on a Losmandy Titan mount.
Phil

[Matt Wastell]

Great start to the season - looking forward to many more!

[EricB]

Fantastic Phil! Looking forward to more of your pictures.

Eric

[PeterEde]

Great shots
Wish I could get shots like that.
Upgrade

[Domol]

Hi Phil
Great shots!!
I'm assuming those jupiter pics are taken with 14" @ F10, with a x3 barlow.
What sort of extra detail will we expect to see on jupiter with a 20" scope@ f4? Thanks for your reply

[uwahl]

Had I seen pictures like that when I first became interested in astronomy in the early sixties I would have bet they where taken through at least 100 inch scope. Thanks be to technology backed up by some really terrific skills.:thumbsup:

[ags_]

Thank you all for your very generous remarks, for those interested here is my setup in Rubyvale.
I have a ROR observatory home made mount and wedge.
14" Meade ACF GPS with home made collimation knobs. Both RA and Dec drives completely rebuilt with new bearings and shims.
Underneath: Orion 80mm Autoguider
Above: Skwatcher 100mm ED with Atik 383L+ mono, Meade El Focuser
Meade Guide scope with internals removed for Green Laser Pointer
Imaging Train:
Moonlite 2.5" focuser with High res motor and DRO
2" 2x TV
Orion Nautilus 7 pos usb filter wheel 1.25"
Astrodon I ser gen 2 filters 1.25", L R G B IR UV
Custom Scientific CH4 1.25"
720Longpass 1.25"
ZWO 120mm-S camera lens cover removed
Software: PHD, Firecapture, StarryNnight 7,Autostakkert, PSP, Ai3pro, Winjupos10, MaximDL, Registax6, Ninox

[ags_]

Hi Domenic, I use a 2x TV Barlow and sometimes a 18mm Ortho which I can adjust to change FL to suit the seeing.
The 20" is designed for planetary imaging only as it has a 100mm secondary and will have a low profile 2.5" focuser also the new ZWO camera when available. Having 2 times the area of my 14" I have hopes of much better contrast and colour resolution when the seeing is better than good. Time will tell, I doubt it will be complete and testing finished before mid year as I have to extend the obs first.

[REVEREND]

Terrific shots. Just a quick question from a beginner..Is it possible to take pics of Jupiter with a 7D camera and a 400 L lens?. I know I wont get the quality of yours.
Cheers Reverend.

[ags_]

Hi Reverend, not my field I'm afraid. I have used a water cooled Canon 600D at PF on my 14" for Deep Sky imaging which worked very well. Planets need high speed video and at FL20 good tracking not sure the 7D would work. Certainly good for Deep sky with a good mount though.

[AG Hybrid]

Superb. Really great.

[John Hothersall]

The best image so far, results from a 20" planetary optimised scope will be eagerly watched here.

John.

[Quark]

Nice work Phil, off to an impressive start, well done.

Cheers
Trevor

[Sebbie]

Awesome Phil.. reference quality stuff :thumbsup:

Rgds, Sebastian

[astronobob]

Mighty fine imaging and some serious F/L. grouse capturing ! !

[ags_]

Much to learn yet about processing, less is more but how much is the :question:

[Quark]

Yep, it is possible to still extract worthwhile detail from rather ordinary data with heavier processing but very good data needs to be lovingly caressed and not hit with a sledgehammer. Reckon experience is the best teacher and the only way to get that is to be out capturing data at every opportunity, in all conditions to gain an appreciation of what works best for the particular conditions at the time. You just never know what might happen, some event such as an impact, SED's outburst etc when it is vital to capture data, regardless of the conditions that might prevail. If you make sure you get a good grounding in a variety of seeing then you will be better equipped to contribute when something significant happens.

Regards
Trevor