That's really impressive Mike, and the detail on Ganymede is fantastic.
Attached is what the JPL simulator showed Ganymede like and you have defenitely captured one of the polar regions and some features(Hope you don't mind me attaching the JPL image to your post)
Thanks guys, appreciate your comments. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the avi's
Not enough time in the day, not a fast enough computer I'm hoping the animation will be a cracker, though.
Scott, I believe there was about 0.5-1deg different. It was a fairly mild night, 19deg when I got out there at 3am. It dropped a little before dawn, but there was also a lot of dew and it settled on the mirror when Jupiter got higher, resulting in loss of light. I started at 1/30s exposures and had to drop to 1/15s exposures by the end of the session - and even then it only filled 2/3 of the histogram at full gain.
With my 10", I used to be able to leave the fan on to prevent dew while imaging, and I didn't suffer any vibrations - but with the 12", the fan is bolted to the mirror cell and causes horrible vibrations if I try and image with the fan on. So I have to turn it off, and then i'm prone to dew. I need an alternative!
Mike I am so impressed by your work and that of Matt's. Sorry to be so late in offerring you my congratualtions .. I showed my Son he now has developed a real interest in astronomy way past anything I could get him motivated with..thanks for that as well
alex
Stunning image, Mike with amazing detail on Ganymede. Can I ask about your Registax processing? Do you do separate processing for the moons or use a MAP point for each moon and one for the centre of the planet, or several other MAP points on various details on the planet surface as well?