Jupiter and moons

[Ian]

We are blessed with fairly clear skies tonight here in Hemel Hempstead and I noticed that Jupter was bright next to the near full moon. So I got the big Zuiko Digital 300 f/2.8 with a 1.4 converter (making it equivalent to an 850mm full frame telephoto) and bolted it on to my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and took it outside with a tripod to see if it was worth photographing. I was very surprised to find that I could also see four of the moons



This was exposed to show the moons - ISO 3200, f/6.3, 1/200th.



This was an attempt to show some detail on Jupiter but it's very faint - maybe a couple of bands. The moon to the right has disappeared because of the lower exposure: ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/200th.

Both shots are reproduced at 2 image pixels to one displayed pixel.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

This is 1 image pixel to 1 display pixel and exposed at ISO 200 to show as much detail as possible:



The two faint bands are more discernable this time

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Of course the experts like Dave (devilgas) can do this:



Not jealous at all...much!

Ian

[Barr1e]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Of course the experts like Dave (devilgas) can do this:



Not jealous at all...much!

Ian

Mmm, I also was out in the cool evening air taking pix of same. I found the moon too bright to get as much detail as normal. Mind I have been under the weather for a few days so perhaps the brain wasn't alert as usual.

Regards. Barr1e

[crimbo]

Okay Ian....now take several of Jupiter and use Registax to up the detail. The blend with the image with the moons....

[Pops]

Re: Jupiter and moons

From attempts to photograph jupiter I have seen elsewhere these are superb.

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

I might try again tonight with the 2x converter. This will make it equivalent to a 1200mm full frame lens.

If (and it's a very big if!) there is any extra detail, I'll try stacking several shots.

Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Of course the experts like Dave (devilgas) can do this

ha! if only!

i had thought about getting out last night, but black ops 2 was calling louder

pretty much the only way to get decent detail from planets is to shoot video through a webcam attached to a telescope and stack in registax. shooting with stills cameras isn't impossible, but the optics required to get much more than a dot are daunting, so webcam's are the generally accepted solution for planetary imaging. any glass between the photons from your target and the sensor degrade quality aswell. with my webcam setup, there are 2 pieces of glass (excluding the mirrors in the reflector scope) between jupiter and the sensor - the IR blocking filter and the barlow lens. even those 2 bits of glass degrade the IQ, so registax processing is very much required

as crimbo says, using registax and stacking a number of images (50+) will tease out a bit more detail but getting decent scale is difficult.

[ekkl]

Re: Jupiter and moons

I have tried but not very good at shots like this.

Am looking forward to seeing your pictures with the x2 converter later Ian

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Not looking good tonight - have had blue skies all day but it's cloudy now

Ian

[andym]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Saw the conjunction last night.I didn't think of trying any pics.Might have to get the 500mm and teleconverter out later if its clear.

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

The skies cleared

Not tried any stacking yet (not sure there is enough quality anyway) but here is tonight's shot:



This time I used the EC-20 2x converter. Below is yesterday's shot with the EC-14 1.4x converter:



Both are 1:1 (1 image pixel to 1 display pixel).

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Jupiter and moons

Okay Ian....now take several of Jupiter and use Registax to up the detail. The blend with the image with the moons....

I'm sure Registax is powerful but it sure has a rubbish UI!

Anyone care to point me in the right direction? I have ten TIFFs to align and stack...

Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Jupiter and moons

I'm sure Registax is powerful but it sure has a rubbish UI!

Anyone care to point me in the right direction? I have ten TIFFs to align and stack...

Ian

how far have you got with it?

it's set into multiple stages. the first is to get the images in and aligned. depending which version you downloaded (a lot of folks prefer the v5 over v6). the most important step is the last one where you apply the wavelet sharpening. this is where you tease out the detail.

i've just re-worked through a jupiter video and my workflow was this...
1 - open file
2 - [align stage] click on jupiter to set the align point
3 - click ALIGN
4 - click LIMIT
5 - [optimize stage] click OPTIMIZE & STACK
6 - [wavelet stage] play about with the sliders to see what effect each has. it's difficult to describe what each does, however i use the following as a starting point


7 - click DO ALL, then save the image

i then get something like this....

however this was from 500 frames in an AVI file.

if anything, machine gun in JPG as the number of images is more important than the file type. the compression in the jpg file will be largely negated by the stacking process, so shooting high quality files isn't strictly necessary.

hth.

[devilgas]

Re: Jupiter and moons

did you have much joy with the above hints in registax ian?

it's my intention to get out this evening and do some more webcam captures of jupiter. might even get up early tomorrow and try some of saturn as well, but that depends how late a night it'll be on black ops 2

and just checked the times & elevations for saturn, and i think it may be a bit too low in the sky for my particular viewing location