Jupiter again

[pmrid (Peter)]

My success with imaging Jupiter has been pretty patchey to date. Of course I blame seeing before myself. But last night I had a bonus night of reasonably good seeing here in the SE Qld coast - only decent seeing for the past 6 months or so really. So I trundled out some gear to take advantage.
This time, I used my:
ED127 (North Group) F/7.5 refractor
Powermate x2 2 inch
ASI290MC (with 2.9 micron pixels)
EQ6 mount.
SharpCap for capture and PiPP, AS3 and RS6 for processing.

I did 60 second sequences using a ROI of 400x400 which gave me about 140 fps which wasn't bad and I stacked 15 to 20 percent. Here are a couple of examples.

There is quite a bit more detail in the result than I have managed before. I will be the first to admit that others have done better and will contiinue to do so. But I am my own benchmark these days. I find it kinder to the ego to only compete with myself.

[multiweb (Marc)]

I like the first one. Nice details and colors.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Peter, looks like you got your technique down pat, don’t you have a bigger scope

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Great results, it is interesting to see someone using much the same gear as mine and what the resulting images look like.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Peter, looks like you got your technique down pat, don’t you have a bigger scope

Yes, but there was a kind of logic in this choice. I was working on the suggestion that you should try to achieve a F/ratio of about pixel size x 5. And since the ED127 is a native F/7.5, and my ASI290MC has pixels of 2.9 microns, using a x2 Powermate got me close to the mark. I have an 8 inch RC at F/8 and the Powermate/ASI290 combo would work with that as well. And an 8 inch newt at F/5 that would need a x3 Barlow to get there. Nest time for those.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

Yes, but there was a kind of logic in this choice. I was working on the suggestion that you should try to achieve a F/ratio of about pixel size x 5. And since the ED127 is a native F/7.5, and my ASI290MC has pixels of 2.9 microns, using a x2 Powermate got me close to the mark. I have an 8 inch RC at F/8 and the Powermate/ASI290 combo would work with that as well. And an 8 inch newt at F/5 that would need a x3 Barlow to get there. Nest time for those.

Should have kept that 10" conical you had Peter. That was a planet killer.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Should have kept that 10" conical you had Peter. That was a planet killer.

Yes but for reasons I could never fathom, I could not get it to hold collimation even passably. At f3.8 that was always going to be a problem but I could never get it right.

If I see a passable 10 inch dob I might grab it and modify it for mounting and imaging. I do miss the darned thing but it became the first casualty in the “too many scopes” discussions over the dinner table.

[ozstronomer (Geoff)]

Both great shots Peter

Looks like you have a process that will produce some nice results

Cheers Geoff

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

Yes but for reasons I could never fathom, I could not get it to hold collimation even passably. At f3.8 that was always going to be a problem but I could never get it right.

If I see a passable 10 inch dob I might grab it and modify it for mounting and imaging. I do miss the darned thing but it became the first casualty in the “too many scopes” discussions over the dinner table.

Fair enough. Such a fast scope would be a challenge to collimate.

[Derek Klepp]

That’s an impressive result with that aperture.Well done.