First tracked jupiter images 12-7-08..

[AlexN]

Well how epic is that... I didnt have to nudge nudge nudge the dob for this one... had jupiter on the CCD for over 45 minutes with nothing more than press of a button... pretty exciting stuff considering my best attempt with the dob was just over 20 seconds at the same focal length....

There will be a few images posted in this thread within the next few hours, heres the first image from the night... Dont ask me about the onion rings, as soon as I applied any wavelets in registax they started popping their heads up..

[h0ughy (David)]

well done - far better than i have ever done - congratulations

[AlexN]

ok... I've processed 3 more... one of them shows signs of onion rings, not as bad as the first however. The other two show no onion rings at all, and the recorded AVI is much brighter than the onion ringed one... Unfortunately, the two "non-onion" ones were taken while jupiter was around 50°... Every video after that is very dark in comparison.. perhaps there was a layer of high altitude mist or something that degraded the image that I couldnt see.. anyways, heres the other 3, in order of capture.

[AlexN]

one more...

I think the onion rings were caused when I raised the shutter speed somewhere during the night...

Weather permitting I'll have another go tomorrow.

[Dennis]

Those captures are a very nice series of Jupiter images Alex – well done, you seem to have mastered the various technical difficulties very quickly! Generally, onion rings are the result of under exposure so yes, a longer shutter speed would help minimise them.

Are you using K3CCDTools? I can’t remember if it has a Histogram display – if it has, make it active to get some feedback on what tonal range is being recorded.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P (Matt)]

Excellent work Alex! A very nice set of Jupiter images. Nice detail and focus looks very good.

The two images without onion rings are awesome, definitely the pick of the bunch.

I started a thread awhile back on what causes "onion rings". Have a look. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ht=onion+rings

[leinad (Dan)]

Nice work Alex.
How were you set up(preparations) for these images? autoguiding with refractor?
Did you need to drift align?
hope to be on my way to capturing similar soon as I have a few more pennies.

There were two moons close each on opposites sides of the edge of Jup last night. Would have been an intersting snap.

[AlexN]

Thanks guys, Appreciate the comments..

Daniel: Set-up? umm, I've got the newt on the eq6, no guiding, just standard solar tracking rate. I didn't drift align, I have pretty precisely polar alligned the mount... not perfect, but good enough.

Ive then got a camping table set up with my laptop etc...

I've got another 6 AVI's to process so I guess I should get to it..

[renormalised (Carl)]

Great shots, Alex...even with the onion rings the piccies are clear and well focused.

[matt]

A good start, Alex

Looking forward to seeing more from you.

Make sure you're keeping a close eye on jetstream maps and other weather resources if you're planning on doing more planetary imaging.

It's also a good idea to keep records of local conditions to get a better idea of when everything's working in your favour.

Good luck!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Wow, you must be happy with that!