jupiter, or just my imagination?

[Lowner]

Is this very bright dot Jupiter or not? I could not make out any moons through the binoculars or the lens so I'm not sure.

It's in the right place according to a couple of web night sky guides and it was the second in brightest only to the moon.

I shot at 1/500s f/8 using ISO1600 with 400mm plus a 1.4x converter. If it is Jupiter, what do I need to do to get the moons apart from hiring a bigger magnifying glass?

[canonnoob]

looks to be jupiter... i assume this was taken last night? From what the astromical guides have been saying, jupiter is just to the lower right of the moon, which is in its waxing gibbous stage.

[Celestron]

It's possible but what did you take this pict with ? It's in the right spot for Jupiter or maybe a little too close . Hard to tell .

[Lowner]

Dave,

Thanks. Tonight its still possible to get them in frame together, just not at 560mm as here. They seem to be moving apart slowly (as you can tell I know nothing about the night sky). I assumed it was a planet by its shape.

[Bernoulli]

That is Jupiter for sure. I tried to make a cool shot last night of both of them, and the problems I ran into might answer your question about the moons.

The plan was to get both of them in the same frame at 300 mm (on a 50D, so not full-frame). I was going to cleverly set the exposure to give both detail on the lunar disk and to show the moons of Jupiter. The plan was to get an image that would show the relative size of Jupiter, the span of its moons, and features on our moon all in one shot. And I was pretty excited about doing this. Result: FAIL.

For my setup and 100 ISO, I got a complete blowout of the moon (ours) at shutter speeds slower than about 1/5 sec, but I had to expose at least 2 seconds to see just the two brightest moons of Jupiter, and 4 seconds to see all four. So there was no way to record features on the moon and Jupiter's moons in the same shot.

I could have exposed them differently then added them separatly to the image, but that's cheating.

Well, it was a good idea.

[Celestron]

Check out this APOD image . It's by Russell Crowman , an expert in the field . It will blow your mind .

[Bernoulli]

Brilliant indeed! It makes sense to use the Earth-lit side of the moon to balance the exposure. It may be a while since we get the necessary alignment again, tho'.

[gcflora]

I am confused. I thought that Jupiter was a planet ??

[gcflora]

Oh wait. I have to scroll across to the right! Hehehe

[stewinyvr]

Originally Posted by Lowner

Dave,

Thanks. Tonight its still possible to get them in frame together, just not at 560mm as here. They seem to be moving apart slowly (as you can tell I know nothing about the night sky). I assumed it was a planet by its shape.

I was out taken the same shots last night...only had 280mm to play with..here is what the same shot looked like from west coast of canadaMoon_09-09-29_0009x.jpg

btw you should download stellarium(?) it is a great piece of free software that is great for identifying what you are looking at..
cheers
Stewart

[Adrena1in]

I took some photos a couple of nights ago, when Jupiter was just below and to the left of the moon. Could just about fit them on my 450D sensor through my WOZS70 440mm APO, with the camera turned 45-degrees. As usual though, exposing for the moon meant Jupiter was very dim, exposing for Jupiter and it's moons completely blew out the moon. If I was a competent compositer I'd edit them together.

[Lowner]

Adrena!in,

What exposure did you use to get Jupiters moons? If the sky clears I'd like to give it a try tonight.

And you got colour! My image is in full RGB but you'd never know it!

[Adrena1in]

I think I got the moons in my 1/5, 1" and 2" exposures. The one above is my 1" exposure I think, as the clouds around the moon looked better than in the 2" exposure.

[Lowner]

This is the best I've managed. Nowhere near as good as yours I'm afraid. I can just make out a third moon on the RHS.

0.8s and f/8 at ISO1600 with some serious noise reduction on the background. Most of the rest suffered from camera movement, even with MLU, subject movement when I tried longer exposures or no subject when I went shorter or lower ISO!

[Celestron]

Richard , are you hand holding the camera ? try lowering the ISO or your shutter time .i shot at .3" for my shots , course the scope is a fixed f/10 2302mm (8") .