First Ever Jupiter

[mick pinner]

l actually went out to get a few pics of the moon but the clouds rolled in so l got one quick shot of Jupiter with the LPI, first shot but no doubt not the last now that the bug has bitten.

[iceman]

Well done Mick, much better than my first jupiter!

You will be able to get some fairly decent results with the LPI and your 12".. It's just a matter of playing around with the settings, getting focus right, and of course the post-processing.

How many frames did you capture?

In general, registax will do a better job than the Autostar software. You should set the LPI to save the individual BMP's so you can process them in registax.

There's plenty of good LPI and registax users around here to help you out!

[mick pinner]

Thanks lce, that was only one individual frame, l just haven't had the time to read up on the LPI so l am a complete novice at this l will download Registax soon, is there any particular version or just the latest one that is best to use?

[ving]

its a good starting point :)
well done.

[mick pinner]

Second try at Jupiter, poor conditions, LPI at f/6, single frame, no processing.

[ving]

got some moonage in there. congrats :)

[mick pinner]

The scope still wont power up yet so it's all manual, very frustrating chasing these things by hand.

[rumples riot]

Good start to a whole new obsession.

A couple of things to look at prior to your next imaging session. Collimate your scope prior to each planetary imaging session. With practice you will see whether the scope needs it or not. It has to be really good for good images.

Next take your time with focus, this is critical go forward and backward through focus, use a Hartman mask in you feelyou need to. In your last shot the moons are out of focus, which means your shot is out of focus.

As for the LPI, the save every images box is on the right hand side of the screen. Just check that. Then look at Kernel filter and go for medium edge enhancement. I found keeping the gain at 85 and offset at 49 gave reasonable results. Exposure at 0.377 sec. And yes set the BMP mode also, try not to use the JPG mode as this will greatly decrease your image quality.

Anyway, your well on your way to producing some nice shot.

[mick pinner]

Thanks Paul, l'm really only mucking about at the moment, the scope still isn't working, changed both drive motors, mother board, hand controller and control panel, still nothing, as l said only trying to satisfy the addiction till the new scope arrives.