My best Jupiter ever - 20/05/2005

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey guys.

This image was taken on Friday night, 20th May 2005, in very good seeing.

It's my best Jupiter image ever, i'm really happy with it! I think the combination of fixing the pinched secondary mirror and refining collimation has helped wonders.. and the good seeing just topped it all off. There's much more fine detail in this image than I've ever captured before, including brown and white spots in the SSTZ and NNTZ, a small amount of detail in the GRS and the disturbance following the GRS.

Details:

- 10" dob (no tracking) with ToUcam Pro 840K
- Capture settings: 5fps, 1/33s exp., no gain, 0 gamma
- Seeing: 7.5/10, Transparency: 8.5/10
- FL approx 3100mm, with 2.4x barlow pulled out and ToUcam pulled out.

Processing:
- Approx 100 frames (out of 253) stacked in registax
- The top row processed in registax and photoshop (unsharp mask)
- The bottom row processed in registax, AstraImage and photoshop
- The left column is at original FL, the middle column is 1.3x upsized in registax (Mitchell method), and the right column is the middle image at 70% of the size.

Here it is, comments and feedback always welcomed.

[vindictive666 (John)]

i like the bottom middle and bottom right

[ving (David)]

you know mike,there are people with tracking that cant do that good!

those are great shots!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

They are pearlers Mike. And you should be happy with them. Wow talk about the master of perserverance.

Favourite, Hmmmm, top row (on the lower ones the limbs look a bit to "sharp" for me), They all look great but I think the first one by just a smidge. Good balance of clarity and size and colour. Mind you the smaller one seems to show detail better because of it's sharpness. But that's just spitting hairs. Definately worth printing out and putting up on the wall. Or sending the whole lot to one of the mags to show them the quality that can be done with a dob.

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Nice one Mike

Top right is my favourite - I prefer the softer colour tones....gives it a more "natural" look. Nice work for a doba!

[beren]

Originally posted by ving
you know mike,there are people with tracking that cant do that good!

those are great shots!

.......... Thats just awesome , well done .

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Well done Mike. I like the more sublte tones of the top row, probably top left is my favourite. They all give a good sense of the slightly squashed disk that is our beloved Jupiter.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Amazing results mike, wish I could see Jupiter like that, do you get that sort of detail visually??

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks very much for all the nice comments. I'm really pleased with these images, as I didn't think i'd be able to get that fine detail without tracking.

I have to thank Louie, George and John again too, because I think fixing the secondary astigmatism helped greatly too.

[h0ughy (David)]

with shots like those you can send back your tracking mount

[Sounder]

Stunning!

[atalas]

Talk about a quick learner! yep top row for
me.


Louie

[Comet Hunter]

Hmmm I'd say either top right or bottom right for me.

Well done Ice amazing stuff!!!. As they say.... collimation, collimation, collimation. It only takes a slight change and the improvements (both visually and imaging wise) are HUGE.... as you've shown. If only I could get mine sorted out... lol

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Ice .. you are the Dob imagemaster

I look forward to getting the camera mount, so I can have a better go at imaging too !

[robin]

Hey Ice, are you using an IR blocking filter on the Toucam?

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys!

Robin, yep I am using an IR blocking filter - it's a Edmund Scientific one. I'm still not convinced that it makes a difference on Jupiter, but i'll be trying some comparisons on other targets like Mars once I get the tracking platform.

[videoguy]

nice work mike