Jupiter afocal shot

[pneuman (Leigh)]

I'm still pretty new to all of this, but with Jupiter so large in the sky I just had to take a stab at imaging it. I've just picked up a 900NC and I've got an adapter on order for it, but in the meantime I had a go shooting afocally with my 400D. It was definitely a pain getting the camera and tripod lined up without vignetting, but I think it was worth it in the end.

I took about five shots as it moved through the camera's field of view, and then I took the best three and combined them manually in The GIMP.

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Leigh, not bad for a start. It's kind of inspiring. I have similar gears: 400D and 12" Dob but I've never tried afocal. Now you make me want to try.
What settings did you use?

[pneuman (Leigh)]

Cheers I used my GSO 9mm Plossl and GSO 2" Barlow in the 'scope, and I had my 18-55 lens on the camera. For the image settings, I set the camera to manual mode in RAW at ISO 1600 with a 1/15th second shutter. I didn't tweak any other settings, so I guess they were at whatever the defaults were.

If it's clear tonight I might have another go at it -- I think some of the blurryness is just due to the focusing. I focused the telescope visually, but without my glasses on, so it might not have been quite right for the camera.

[Matty P (Matt)]

That is a great afocal shot Leigh, well done.

Nice colour and good detail. Looking forward for more.

[Chippy (Nick)]

Nice first up effort Leigh. Well done!!!

[Jen]

Nice pic

[pneuman (Leigh)]

Thanks guys! I had another crack at it tonight with the GRS in view, and while I'm still not getting fine detail (I guess I'll never get the focus quite right when the camera's mounted separately on a tripod -- can't wait till my 900NC adapter arrives!), I think it's a bit clearer than my first effort. There are two pics here -- my best single pic, and a manual stacking of the three best pics. The single pic does look a bit sharper I think, but it could just be noise