Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

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EGRAY_OBSERVATORY
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Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Last night, the sky cleared albeit a little turbulent when using high magnification during imaging, but proving that the camera used is not good enough for capturing both Jupiter and Saturn etc., (which are both very bright in the night sky around midnight (August due to near opposition).

The new scope being trialled is the Sky-Watcher 'ESPRIT" 80ED Triplet and the camera is one of the Altair mono GPCAM's, that I have surplus now.

SharpCap was/is used successfully for the downloads to the main Win-7 Pro-computer and using two hi-resolution/large screens for ease of focusing, where one screen can be rotated close to the mount and scopes.

The temperature was around 18-degsC and the surface-wind was calm, with the seeing being very good, but with the use (eventually) of a
MEADE srs5000 5X TeleXtender, showing that in fact there was sufficient turbulence visible on the screens, making fine-focusing more difficult than the lower powers used.

The results of this session, clearly show that there will be a need to the purchase of a suitable camera (which I am currently trying to establish which will be the best for use with this telescope), so that will occur shortly.

Even though I have two new ZWO ASI-178MM cams (for use in the Ha and Cal-K scopes), these will not achieve a better performance than the Altair GPCAM's, according to:- https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ and https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability ...
In any case, when Solar-imaging with this Tri-Scope Assembly, I don't want to spend time changing those cameras around, with the subsequent hassle and re-focusing issues. rather than just getting-on with the job in hand. (Just to change one camera from WL to Planetary or Deep-sky will be enough extra)...

So these images are just a testing and nowhere good-enough for the purpose of Planetary Imaging - when the daytime seeing of our Sun doesn't/can't happen.

Even though I have a StarlightXpress HX916 Deep-Sky camera, still to be trialled when set-up on the Win-XP PC, that camera will also not be suitable for planetary purposes...

Enjoy (for what they are worth)..
Terry
Attachments
Capture_00028 S- Esprit+GPCAM+Meade 5X-PROCESSED.jpg
Capture_00028 S- Esprit+GPCAM+Meade 5X-PROCESSED.jpg (48.01 KiB) Viewed 681 times
23_06_13_AS_p100_g2_ap1_conv.jpg
23_06_13_AS_p100_g2_ap1_conv.jpg (75.21 KiB) Viewed 681 times
00_09_47_AS_f1000_g2_ap1_Drizzle15_conv.jpg
00_09_47_AS_f1000_g2_ap1_Drizzle15_conv.jpg (149.03 KiB) Viewed 681 times
Capture_00023 J- Esprit+GPCAM+Meade 5X.jpg
Capture_00023 J- Esprit+GPCAM+Meade 5X.jpg (39.77 KiB) Viewed 681 times
23_33_10_AS_p100_g2_ap1_conv.jpg
23_33_10_AS_p100_g2_ap1_conv.jpg (30.37 KiB) Viewed 681 times


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MapleRidge
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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by MapleRidge »

These came out well for for the smaller aperture Terry...nicely done !!!

Brian


Brian Colville

Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
C14 + Lunt 80ED
Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
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WL, G-Band & CaK Setup: Lunt Wedge & Lunt B1800CaK, Baader K-Line and Altair 2nm G-Band filter
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by JochenM »

That looks very good, Terry. Nice work!

Having a peek at our planetary neighbours is always fun. Although it's been ages since I've done it myself (mostly due to the weather not cooperating).


Jochen Maes
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EGRAY_OBSERVATORY
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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Thank you Brian and yes struggling with the 80, so maybe I might try the Meade 127 Apo-Triplet on a Vixen mount in the garden to see the difference..

Thanks Jochen, Yes you are right and with the Sun being a tad quiet at present, gives something different to occupy us...

Regards
Terry


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Ivan
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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by Ivan »

Hi Terry,

It turned out great. I especially liked Saturn. The day before yesterday, around midnight, I saw them in Megrez90. At high magnifications, the image was blurry, and I didn't see even a hint of Cassini splitting, let alone the shadow of the rings on the disc. In addition, atmospheric dispersion greatly interfered.
Your photos are free of these drawbacks.

Ivan


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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Thank you for your comments Ivan.

Certainly in high-magnification - 5X in the 80ED, it was quite turbulent, but even with 1000-frames, SharpCap was able to deal with that.

I tried Registax, but not used to using that and need to learn more about it to see if that can provide a better single-frame.

I believe even with the brand-new SW 'ESPRIT' that the limit was applied with that Altair GPCAM, so started to look at better planetary-imaging cameras, which seemingly are not expensive either (not that the price concerns me)...

I'm sure also that the Meade 127mm APO-TRIPLET would be a better scope too with tracking on one of my Vixen GP-DX mounts, but unlikely to try that for that the next few days due to weather...

Cheers
Terry


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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by Ivan »

Terry, you wrote that there were problems with focusing, are you using the Bakhtinov mask? It helps me a lot, and I almost always get into focus.

Ivan


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Re: Jupiter and Saturn - first light captures.

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Thanks Ivan.
The Bakhtinov mask wasn't required, primarily because one of my two hi-resolution screens swings out to the mount, where I can clearly adjust the focusing very accurately.

Also SharpCap has an excellent and useful facility of zooming-in on the target, so using say 400% or so was sufficient to make the fine-adjustment of the scope - which itself has a very nice fine-focusing and focus lock-system.

I know that even with the BH-mask it would not help in this case and take considerably longer to achieve fine-focus compared to having such a close-screen, which of course is showing exactly what the camera sees.

The focus problem whilst using the 2.5TV Powermate, was only slight due to a little turbulence, but when doubling to the Meade 5xTeleXtender then because of that turbulence (which can clearly be seen on the AVI-files) the focusing-issue was much more difficult. I'm sure that thanks to the close and large moveable computer-screen (not a laptop), which was designed specifically to deal with accurate-focusing etc. issues - makes life so much easier and is often and easily used for Solar accurate-focusing as well as night sky too...

I hope that makes sense Ivan.

Cheers
Terry


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