Jupiter in perfect seeing, August 30

[bird]

Last night was one to remember for me - I got to see what Jupiter must look like from space... on a scale of 1 to 10 this seeing was a 12...

Another 350Gb of data recorded over 4 hours... the best seeing lasted about an hour around 2am, I *definitely* need a larger mirror. sigh.

Here is one image from the period of best seeing ... the processing doesn't do justice to the raw video, I'll be coming back to do this properly later on when I'm not working from a laptop.

You can see the GRS setting at lower right, and lots of lovely detail, all of this was sharply defined in the raw video. I've also left this image a bit brighter than my last few, I hope this is an improvement.

cheers, Bird

[asimov]

Congratulations Anthony! Superb image mate! Boy, perfect seeing...:eyepop:

Edit: In for a second look - Well I'm excited & I didn't get the data!:cool:

[TheAstroGuy]

Gee-whiz!!

I just finished saying the previous image was Incredible, i opened this one and i can't say what i said out loud as it is far too rude for a nice friendly forum like this but you get the picture:)

My GOD!!!!!!!! this image is officially the BEST IMAGE OF JUPITER I HAVE EVER SEEN FROM A GROUND BASED AMATEUR INSTRUMENT.

Anthony i can only imagine what would happen if you get that larger mirror.

I think for all us laymen out there you should write a little description of technique, instruments and software used to create this Marvel of Astrophotograpghy. 350 gig?? wow

Kind Regards

Shane

[Rob_K]

Just beautiful Anthony, absolutely stunning! That alone has got to make the whole trip worthwhile - and I hope you get a lot more of that seeing! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[Troy]

Nice image Bird, the colour looks a little off. :)

[bird]

argh, doing this on a laptop is so annoying... how about this, I've added more red... better or worse?

cheers,
Bird

[mswhin63]

Blimey, perfect seeing alright, what wonderful detail, still wondering if you have bought a house there yet :)

[asimov]

The first one looked perfectly fine to me:shrug:

[DavidU]

The repro is the best Jupiter image to date !:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thu mbsup:

[saturnino]

Something really fantastic.
Congratulations from all over Italy.
I dare not imagine a more mirrors' great, we'll shudder.

I'd like to see a piece of movie.

And 'possible?:P:P:P:P:D:D:D:D:D:D

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, me too Asi. But everyone's monitor is slightly different.

Bird, you have excelled.
The detail is superb without looking forced. A very natural image.

Lovely work.

[Troy]

Yeah that looks better, I hate processing on the laptop the final image never turns out right for me. Great detail Anthony :D

[StephenM]

That's unbelievable Anthony!!! Brilliant stuff! Looking forward to seeing more from that session.

Cheers,
Stephen

[[1ponders]]

Jumpin' Gee Willikers Anthony. What a follow up. Stunning.

[astronobob]

Hi Bird, Thats is one fantastic Image , , simply awesome. . .

[bloodhound31]

That's it! I'm moving to Exmouth!!;)

You certainly do put a lot of work into your passion there mate. Kudos.

Baz.

Oh...good pic too.:P

[alexch]

Stunning, awesome, jaw-dropping... Words can't describe how good this image is!

I wonder what would it look like through an eyepiece in that seeing... Anthony, what visual magnification do you reckon the atmosphere would allow during that hour? I am thinking about a holiday with a telescope in Exmouth or nearby :)

Cheers,
Alex

[Quark]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bird, I know I said it already about your effort from yesterday but this, FOR SURE, has to be the best Jupiter image ever taken from Earth.

Congratulation mate on such a outstanding effort and just reward for the effort you have put into this trip. Reckon Damian might give Barbados away and be with you at Exmouth next year,

Regards
Trevor

[bird]

Thanks again for the comments... and this image will be significantly better after more careful processing...

Alex, at 2am in the best of the seeing there were no atmospheric effects at all as far as I could tell. I reckon any magnification would have worked, limited only by aperture.

cheers, Bird

[Alchemy]

Just cruising though the latest posts ..... And I see a perfect seeing, I'm used to good seeing, so my interest was raised.........
Absolutely stunning!!!!!!

[cookie8]

Congrats... tons of detail right down to the edges. An eye-opener.:eyepop:

[kinetic]

Anthony Wesley you are incredible......words fail...

[SkyViking]

I too thought your last image was excellent - but this one just blows everything away! I've never seen anything like it.
Congratulations on such a beautiful result, I like how there's even detail inside the small dark storms on the edge of the missing SEB :eyepop:

[Matt Wastell]

Holy cow!

[TheAstroGuy]

I had to add this to the thread as this just cracked me up and had to share as it shows the quality of your image.

I just showed my partner your image and she knows nothing of Planetary imaging her words exactly: "What am i looking at, some hubble image or something?"

My thoughts exactly, pass-able as a hubble to the untrained eye and even the trained eye :)

[DavidU]

Ok, how much will it cost to get Anthony a new Suchting 16" mirror and a ticket to Mauna Kea?????
Start passing the hat around !

[bird]

David, part of that is already underway - Mark will be working on a 16" mirror for me as soon as we get the blank from Newport... that's taking some time to sort out (long story).

cheers, Bird

[Bassnut]

OK, hohum for you :), cant you capture this in say 4000*4000 pixel res or so for a change? :P ;).

[acropolite]

So much subtle detail; top notch Bird :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Wow! That's great. So many details on the surface. You can see every wisp. Almost could touch it. Inspiring stuff. :thumbsup:

[DavidU]

Excellent ! I have been chatting to mark about a 16" myself.

[batema]

Congratulations on an incredible image. It is the best image I have ever seen and would love to see what a perfect raw video looks like. Well done.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Superb image Anthony, certainly the best image taken from Australia ever. Without seeing a comparison of image scale to Damians fine work I am not prepared to say it total equals his work. However, I am guessing that it is very close indeed and may well be better than barbados. Incredible detail and superb processing. Seeing is everything as we talked about the other day. Looks like you found a good spot. If I don't make it this year I am definitely in next year. I would love my C14 to be imaging in those conditions.

[Lester]

Good on ya Anthony, well deserved for all the hours of dedication. Thanks for the views. I hope to be comming up that way next year. Looks like planetary imagers heaven.

[jjjnettie]

LOL I'm getting eyestrain from having my eyes jammed up against the monitor, trying to absorb more detail.
Amazing Anthony, here's to more nights like that.

[CometGuy]

Amazing Bird.

It's interesting comparing your shot with the old colour photographs made with the Palomar 200" scope back in 1960's. Amazing how superior this image is with less than 10% of the aperture!

Terry

[DavidTrap]

Very, very special.

I agree with Shane's suggestion - how about a simpleton's supplement to the idiot's guide for capturing eyepopping shots of Jupiter!

DT

[Paul Haese]

Well I just did a fairly in depth comparison and upscaled Anthony's image and compared it to some of Damian's best. I am gonna retract my previous statement. This work is the best image produced by an amateur of the planet Jupiter. I don't say that lightly either. The processing is better (the planet looks like a planet from orbit) and the seeing must have been better. Congrats Anthony. This is not just an IOTW, it is an image of the month, year, etc.

[bird]

Thanks again for all the comments... this stuff is addictive - you'd think I'd be happy now, but all I can think of is how soon the clouds will b****r off so I can go hunting for more :-)

cheers, Bird

[h0ughy]

pretty ordinary effort Anthony:D - there is no BIRD strike in any of those hubble images ;):thumbsup::thumbsup::)

well maybe a DM or other award for this one.....next year

[michaellxv]

Wow what a stunning image. And yesterdays was pretty good too:D

Definitely the work of a master craftsman.

[troypiggo]

Absolutely incredible. There's nothing I can say that adds to that already said here by others far more experienced than I.

[Virgs]

We are fortunate to have you share this masterpiece with us...

[Octane]

:prey2:

H

[circumpolar]

Thats fantastic!
Must be the best I've seen.
Well done.

[Logieberra]

Well done Anthony :)

A fitting reward for your patience and contribution to this hobby.

Logan.

[allan gould]

Just come across this thread and I was just mesmerise by the detail in your image.
Not only was the image extraordinary but so is your perserverance to obtain the best position, camera, seeing etc.
Ill wait with baited breath to see what you can deliver with a 16" mirror.

[bird]

Ok, here is a short segment of video from August 30, although it's not from the processed image at the start of this thread...actually I think this video segment is from a better capture run :-)

There are two versions to choose from, low and high resolution. The low res is about 5Mb and the highres about 15Mb. Each video runs for about 10 or 15 seconds...

I've chosen the settings to preserve as much of the detail as possible, although the low res version is clearly a big degraded. Othewise these look pretty much exactly as I saw it. You can also see the image move around as the tracking software tries to combat the movement from the light breeze.

This video should play back fro you at 60fps. This is pretty important for you to see the video as it should be.

Let me know if these don't work, or look wrong. Here's the directory with both videos:

http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/jupiter/20100830-174829/


cheers, Bird

[Quark]

That sure is a pretty impressive B channel Bird, I had no problems playing the large version, great stuff.

Regards
Trevor

[bird]

Thanks Trev, I create these under Linux, so it's good to see they play back under Windows ok.

cheers, Bird

[Paul Haese]

That is one nice blue channel. I have been getting less than that for the red channel. Blue is always the indicator for how good the seeing really is on any given occassion.

[Troy]

The detail is excellent in the raw video. Sent some of that seeing east :)

[Clayton]

Congratulations. Hard work paying off.

[veejo]

what scope and other set up details ?

[batema]

A simple question. Did you have some kind of barlow or teleview in the imaging train as well?

[bird]

veejo and batema... the basic scope is an f/5 14.5" newtonian, fl of 1.8m. I add a 5x powermate - working at 5.5x- for effective 10m fl.

The camera has a pixel size of 5.6 microns, works well on Jupiter - as you can see in the video grab above it takes up most of the available 480 pixel height on the ccd.

cheers, Bird

[RobF]

Wow, now if that's perfect seeing I understand what the fuss is about! So glad the trek for clear calm air has paid off so well Anthony! :thumbsup:

[malp]

Just seen this image on spaceweather.com, a real stunner with incredible detail. Seeing conditions I can only dream of, and beautifully processed, well done.

[COSMOPARADISE]

amazing image Anthony, is this the one in the July BBC Sky at Night program?:D

[bird]

Thanks guys, yes I think this is the image that they used - I won't know until my copy of the program arrives in the mail :-)

ps here's an image from about 10 minutes later than the original, I think this is a bit better :-) Also included here are the individual channels and a closeup of the GRS.

cheers, Bird

[John Hothersall]

Reminds me of the Voyager images, just can't stop staring at this one.

John.

[SkyViking]

Don't know what to say Anthony - it's ridiculously good! I'm in awe :eyepop:

[DavidU]

Wow !

[AlexN]

I wouldn't have believed such detail was even possible to capture from earth...

That second round of data is utterly gobsmacking.

[RobF]

Thanks for linking to some raw video too Anthony - I've always wondered what your raw data feed might look like. Very educational for the dreamers looking on here with awe...:)

[Garyh]

Holey Cow! that second lot is even better than the first posted ones!
Absolutely awesome Anthony!
You must have held your breath when you captured this lot!
:eyepop:

[strongmanmike]

Yeh I agree with Houghy and Fred :zzz2:...where's the Bird strike :shrug:

Reeeeeally Fantastic Anthony :thumbsup:

12/10 huh? would love to be imgaing deep sky in that sort of seeing too :eyepop:

Mike

[MortonH]

Absolutely incredible!!!

[troypiggo]

Think we just solved the world's space exploration budget. Forget sending satellites into space, just throw more scopes and cameras at Anthony Wesley.

Thanks for posting the video. Amazing that's at around 10m focal length. Amazing.

[bird]

Thanks everyone. The jetstream has moved back in again, so no data from last night... but I'm still hopeful that I'll get some more good seeing before I come back at the end of the month.

cheers, Bird

[javier alves]

:eyepop: really excelent image anthony . you are a legend in my cauntry . yours work are ESPECTACULARES .:D
regards from argentina.

[iceman]

How could this image not be IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au)!?

Apologies to everyone for the length gap between IOTW's - I've been very busy and my mind has been on other things.

I'll do my best to get back into a regular routine from now on.

Congrats Anthony on a stunning image.

[bird]

Thanks Mike, good to see you back and around, I know you've been distracted on other real-world stuff lately...

cheers, Bird

[paulF]

Simply stunning!!!! This is not the work of an amateur but a Professional ! Keep them coming Bird!

[asimov]

It should be made IOTY IMO:D

[Zen Gazer]

Just to beautiful for words.
My eye just keep dancing across the image trying to take it all in.
Mike

[mswhin63]

Great to see it IOTW. Worth every bit of recognition for this outstanding image.

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: wow nice work Bird :thumbsup::thumbsup: keep em coming love your work ;)

[danielsun]

Wow Bird, That is stunning!! :thumbsup:Can't believe the detail. Just when I thought your last images couldn't get any better you then pull this out!!


Cheers Daniel.

[bird]

Thanks guys.

Here's something that will be of interest to other imagers - a fairly simple way to derotate the R,G,B channels so that they align better. If you have a close look at my images above you can see the misalignment from each channel being 1 minute apart... especially around the edge.

Anyhow, I discovered that you can load the individual channels into WinJupos and do an "Image Measurement" on each of them, setting the time that they were taken, and then use the "Image Computation" to combine these and WinJupos will rotate them to all line up correctly.

WinJupos got it close, but not exactly right, so I followed it up by loading the RGB image into Astra Image, splitting the channels out and then recombining them with a couple of small alignment changes.

So here's the result of trying this out... as you see, this image has good alignment between the channels both at the edge and the centre.

cheers, Bird

[asimov]

Will this mean you could image longer than normal Anthony?

[michaellxv]

That is amazing the difference it made all over the image. The best image just got better.

[DavidU]

Very clever thinking Anthony, The results are very crisp. Well done.
I enjoy following your journey. A+ work ethic !
thanks

[bird]

John, I think you're still limited to relatively short runs, otherwise the individual channels start to get blurred. I think 60 seconds is about right, but it's possible you could extend this to 90 seconds.

If you go too far then you'll start to get artifacts around the limb again due to the limitations of derotating.

cheers, Bird

[iceman]

Fantastic Anthony, that last one looks so much better around the limb.

[lcd1080]

Your image causes one wonder why we Americans spent all that money on Hubble; we could have contracted the job out to you and done just as well, at least in our own Solar System :)

Peter

[lacad01]

Incredible image Anthony, so clear with heaps of detail, well done :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[bird]

Yeah, for good images I think this extra step is worthwhile. I'll be going back over some of my old data to see if I can clean it up a bit with this help.

[Spanrz]

I did post a thing on FaceBook for the IOTW. It's called "AWSA"
(Anthony Wesley Space Agency):prey2:

Phenomenal shots like this are just so "AWSA"me (awesome) :rolleyes:

*edit* Sorry Anthony, I'm sick with a Head Cold, I just needed a good laugh!

[Outbackmanyep]

Top shelf Mr Bird!

[tonybarry]

A great image, which shows off your hard work and dedication to your craft.

Well done.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[erick]

Can it get any better? Yes, it can! Nice reprocess, Anthony.

[sheeny]

Absolutely glorious work Anthony! Wow!

Al.

[h0ughy]

how good is your last image!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW i would even consider that better than any hubble shot - i am in awe once again

[Octane]

Holy moly. WOW! The reprocess is incredible!

H

[gregbradley]

Just amazing. The best Jupiter image I have seen.

Exmouth WA, is this the spot you were searching for that would have excellent seeing in
Australia?

I take it you found it.

Greg.

[Ric]

Wonderful images Bird, absolutely spectacular.

I can see Exmouth becoming the amateur astronomers mecca with that kind of seeing.

Cheers

[bird]

The jetstream seems to be the determining factor for this location - being on the end of a peninsular means that the lower level seeing is very good almost every night, it comes down to the upper air (jetstream).

The last couple of weeks I've been under the strongest part of the jet just like everyone else around here, but the forward predictions show it slowing down during the next week and there are some days when it's predicted to be absent, so I'm looking forward to some more good images before I leave on the 27th.

cheers, Bird

[asimov]

Having the same trouble here Anthony, only I think it's the mid & lower levels not being in 'sync' with the jetstream. What happens is, The jet is travelling east as per usual & generally so does the mid & lower levels however as soon as it strikes the coast both lower levels (but more often the case the lower) will suddenly divert north & travel up the coast line. I assume there is already a northerly low & mid stream present 'pushing' those 2 layers coming in from the west..It's all very interesting but for me, I seem to get my best seeing when these 2 layers coincide with the jet & head out to sea in an easterly direction. I've seen this happen on 3 occasions & that just happens to coincide with how many reasonable captures I've had this apparition - Funny about that..

Looking forward to your next lot of images from Exmouth!

[hotspur]

Magical image!well done-must have been amazing seeing conditions.

[edwardsdj]

Hi Bird,

This image of Jupiter has inspired me to get back into imaging the great planet.

You are truely the master.

Take care,
Doug

[janoskiss]

I do not log in very much on IIS any more. It's not because I don't love you guys!! but because there is so many other things keeping me very busy. But I had to log in and congratulate Anthony on what really is an unbelievable achievement. That someone can do this alone, with very modest equipment esp when you compare what the pros are using, the best of whom with ground-based equipment are getting lesser results (typically far lesser!) - this just blows me away. I'm awed and very inspired! This should be inspiration not only for (amateur) astronomers but anyone who has a dream of doing something grand, something that far outperforms the so-called pros or those with lots more $s to throw at the task.. We human beings are all very similar. We are all capable of great things yet most of us feel there must be someone smarter and/or better equipped. Often we are wrong in our assessment when thinking this way. Persist, insist, and just do it.

Thank you Anthony for your persistence, creativity and inspiration. I hope many follow your example whatever their field of endeavour.

[bird]

Hey, thanks Steve - the biggest challenge we face down this way is finding good seeing... I suspect that what we all generally consider to be "good" would be considered mediocre at best by FLoridians (or Barbadians)...

Hopefully I'll catch up with you at SV next time I get there... maybe this November, not sure yet.

cheers, Bird

[beren]

:thumbsup: can't add much that's already been written but awesome work :)

[coldlegs]

Here I was getting bored with the magnificent images in the magazines taken by astronomers with their gigapixel bignob cameras and their thirty inch ratchety crikey scopes on their potsandpandy mounts stuck on the back of a peruvian
peasants high in the andes mountains and then you come along and prove "we're just not trying hard enough. "
Well done Anthony. Your image and processing skills are superb!!!!
Question for you. What what would you estimate the distance to be from the end of the barlow to the image plane of the video sensor?
Regards
Coldlegs

[bird]

Hey Stephen, I don't have a ruler with me, but I reckon it's about 50mm or thereabouts from the top element of the 5x powermate to the ccd.

The 5x powermate is working as approx 5.5x, my filter wheel is in between the camera and the powermate.

I've unscrewed the visual top off the powermate, screwed on the T adapter, and then screwed this into the filter wheel. The video camera screws into the filter wheel from the other side with it's own T adapter.

cheers, Bird

[Jay-qu]

Hey Bird, haven't logged in to post in a while, but I regularly come back to check you latest work.

This shot compelled me to drop in and say well done! :) That is a fantastic shot. For all our sakes, keep up the great work :thumbsup:

[DavidU]

I had to have another look at this one.
Just incredible.

[BorisM]

Amazing picture Bird, well done.