Jupiter - my first sightings (with a scope)

peterako

My first time looking at Jupiter through a telescope was on 9th August night.

Stayed up late last night to get my first Astro Shots If I'd waited another hour (to about 3am :eek:) I might have got the Red Spot too...

Still struggling with focusing.



Both shots with:
Celestron G-8N (8" Reflector)
CG5 Mount with RA motorised drive
Philips spc900nc webcam
UV filter
1st shot with 2.5 barlow, 2nd with 2x barlow.

Also viewed the Ring Nebula in Lyra 9th and 10th August (but cannot get my camera to detect it ) Looks good.

Looked at Andromeda for the first time too

Gloriously clear night last night.
Milky Way was awe inspiring!
And could see Andromeda with teh naked eye using averted vision.

Peter

dlofnep

Got a lovely viewing of Jupiter last night. Could see the clouds clearly. Didn't get pictures though. Using an 8" reflector also.

djhaxman

Good work.

My 6" Meade Newtonian will not show any detail on Jupiter at all, just a bright disk, with the 4 moons. I was hoping for a bit more out of it tbh, as i can see that with my binoculars.

dlofnep

You should be able to see a little detail with a 6". Are you using it in the right setting? Make sure you catch it at night 2am+ when it's high in the sky. Try get out of the city, away from lights - so you can train your eyes to be sensitive to detail.

djhaxman

dlofnep wrote: »

You should be able to see a little detail with a 6". Are you using it in the right setting? Make sure you catch it at night 2am+ when it's high in the sky. Try get out of the city, away from lights - so you can train your eyes to be sensitive to detail.

Yeah I thought that too, and tried it with a 2x barlow with no real improvement. Will try collimating the optics, see will that improve it. Light pollution isn't really a problem, the scope is up in the home place in the sticks in Monaghan.

Cheers for the info.

dlofnep

Ah ok - well, make sure to not let your eyes view any sort of light for half an hour before viewing. Otherwise, the glare off the planet will throw your eyes off from viewing any sort of detail. Sit out in the back garden for half an hour and have a cup of tea or something. Then have a look and you should be able to see a bit more. I saw a bit of detail on jupiter with a 5" reflector, so I'm sure you should be able to see something with a 6"/.

peterako

dlofnep wrote: »

Got a lovely viewing of Jupiter last night. Could see the clouds clearly. Didn't get pictures though. Using an 8" reflector also.

What level of detail could you see cloud wise?

I could only make out (some of) the bands, though the light from Jupiter itself probably reduced my eye's sensitivity

Peter

WalterMitty

i had never looked at sky with any telescope or binoculars untill last night. Amazing to see the moons around jupiter and how much more stars are visable with optical enchancement. I felt like the people who turned hubble on a patch of dark space only to reveal its teeming with structures.

dlofnep

peterako wrote: »

What level of detail could you see cloud wise?

I could only make out (some of) the bands, though the light from Jupiter itself probably reduced my eye's sensitivity

Peter

It was clearer than the images you posted - althoguh viewing conditions weren't ideal, due to an extremely bright lamp The detail wasn't much better, just sharper really..

dlofnep

I ran your picture through photoshop to brighten it up a little, and try correct the colours. Here ya go. If I had more time, I'd try fix it a bit more for you.

FISMA

Very nice.

Now watch the moons and see what you get for the speed of light - that is, recreate Rømer's results.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2005-06-24-jupiter-moon_x.htm

ManFromAtlantis

nice one fisma. thanks. wonder how he guess/measured the diameter of earths 'orbit?

peterako

Some more, from 25th August 2010 (11.30 ish pm).

Jupiter is climbing fast in the sky and I can't wait for the really dark nights

Jupiter and 3 moons:



Focusing getting better, not there yet, but getting better :



Believe it of not I did spend most of my time observing. Wonderful to see Io appearing from Jupiter's glow.

Peter

Gaz

I bought a Meade ETX 90 a few years back and never use it

As far as I can tell (from google) its a Maksutov-Cassegrain with a 96mm diameter mirror, would I be able to see Jupiter as clearly as the above ?

Also , eh ... how do you find it ?

thanks

dlofnep

Very nice Peter! Supposed to have clear skies from tomorrow night onwards, so I hope to get a glimpse through the barlow. Love the detail. Good work mate!

dlofnep

Gaz wrote: »

I bought a Meade ETX 90 a few years back and never use it

As far as I can tell (from google) its a Maksutov-Cassegrain with a 96mm diameter mirror, would I be able to see Jupiter as clearly as the above ?

Also , eh ... how do you find it ?

thanks

You can't miss Jupiter - it's that bright. Comes up at about 10:30PM at the moment.

If you're in doubt, download stellarium and it will show you what's in the sky.

dlofnep

Peter btw, is that a tracking mount, or just a standard motorized mount?

Roomic Cube

what are you takin pics with peter?

dlofnep

A webcam. He's recording footage over a period of time, and then stacking the frames.

dlofnep

Touched it up a little with photoshop for you Peter.

Roomic Cube

yeah tryin to dodgy up a webcam myself, but cant find a right sized piece of tubing! also wanna get a t-ring and adaptor so i can use my canon 30d through it

peterako

Gaz wrote: »

I bought a Meade ETX 90 a few years back and never use it

As far as I can tell (from google) its a Maksutov-Cassegrain with a 96mm diameter mirror, would I be able to see Jupiter as clearly as the above ?

Also , eh ... how do you find it ?

thanks

Should be pretty good through the ETX Gaz.

It's hard to miss in the sky.

It rises towards the East and moved up toward (then down) towards the West.

It's the brightest thing in the night sky at the moment (besides teh Moon) and tonight will be slightly below and to the left of teh Moon.

Even with binoculars you'll see a number of Jupiter's moons.

Jupiter is bright so you may want to reduce teh amount of light going through your 'scope.

Also.....Stellarium....if you don't have it....download it now: www.stellarium.org.

dlofnep wrote: »

Peter btw, is that a tracking mount, or just a standard motorized mount?

An old CG-5 mount that I got free with a 'scope.

I've dismantled it and serviced it and got an RA motor from eBay for it recently


So...partially motorised.

I roughly align it to polaris before viewing.

Thanks for the touchups!

Roomic Cube wrote: »

what are you takin pics with peter?

Yep, as dlofnep says, a web camera and then stacking the images.
A Philips SPC900NC CCD webcamera.

Scope: Celestron G8N (8" Reflector)
Mount: CG-5 (old one) with RA Motor
Camera: Philips SPC900NC
Barlow: No barlow for the first and 2.5x GSO for the other
Capture Software: WxAstroCapture
Camera Control: WcCtrl
Image processing: Registax

I want to try and take some pictures with my DSLR through the 'scope at some stage.

Peter

dlofnep

No probs.

How long footage did you get with each shot and at what FPS?

peterako

About 1 minute each. I think I was at 10pfs.

I downloaded wxAstroCapture yesterday as I was not happy with the way VLounge was working...so last night I was just playing with wxAstroCapture to get familiar with it.

I did do some captures at 5fps (about a minute also) but have not really looked at them yet.

dlofnep

I use AMCap for my captures. Haven't tried anything else. It's the stock software that comes with the Neximage cam.

The_B_Man

How much would a telescope cost that could see jupiter that clearly anyway? I wouldnt be interested in photographing just yet, but I'd love to see planets etc with my own eyes!

dlofnep

The_B_Man wrote: »

How much would a telescope cost that could see jupiter that clearly anyway? I wouldnt be interested in photographing just yet, but I'd love to see planets etc with my own eyes!

You never see Jupiter as clear as the stacked images with our telescopes. The sky is wonderful. There's always something new to see. If you really want to see Jupiter very clear - you're looking at big money.

I'd say - depending on your budget - start off with an 8" reflector on a dobsonian mount if you're not so interested in photography. More bang for your buck in terms of viewing.

peterako

While I agree (in theory) to dlofnep's comment above, my (very limited) experience so far is that I have been getting clearer/more detailed...albeit smaller .....views of the heavens through my scopes with visual observation than with the webcam stacked images.

I put that down to the fact that I still seem to be struggling with focusing when using the webcam.

So you should be able to see at least the detail I have been posting in my pics with a fairly modest, but good quality scope.

My shots of Saturn for example do not show the 'bands' on the planet as well as I can see them with the eye on my 130mm (5 and a bit inch) Reflector...and certainly not as well as I see then through the 8".

There are other, better pictures posted on this forum that back up dlofnep's comments.

Good advice from dlofnep on a scope.

The_B_Man

Would you get a decent view with any of these:
http://astronomy.ie/astromasterseries.html

Was watching the ISS go over tonight (10x50 Bresser Binoculars) and had a look at Jupiter. Could see 2 very faint little dots beside it, assuming they're moons?

peterako

Hi The_B_Man,

I can see 3 (maybe 4) moons with my binoculars....the ultra expensive (€14.99) Lidl ones

Where are you viewing from? Is there much light and other polution?

I've PMed you about the Astromasters.

In short....you should get very good views with any of these.

Peter

The_B_Man

hey I replied to your PM there.

Theres a big lamp post right beside my house, and it happens to be right in the direction of Jupiter so I'll have to go out tonight and walk over passed the lamp post. The only problem then is trying to keep my hands steady enough to make anything out!