Jupiter and Four Moons

I had given up on my Meade ETX 125 telescope a long time ago. But after getting my new Orion SkyView Pro mount, I removed the ETX tube from the Meade forked mount, and attached a dovetail rail on it to see what it would do on a decent mount. It was still too shaky with it mounted on just the plastic mount pad on the bottom of the OTA, so I added a cradle to hold the front of the scope, and tied it down with a strap. I was also nervous about that plastic mounting pad. Plastic is supposed to get brittle and break eventually, so I didn't trust it. I like it now! I tried it out on Jupiter tonight, and this is the result of the scope on the new mount.

We're supposed to be back to cloudy skies and rain for the next few days, so this might be the only chance I get for a while.

Exposure info: Nikon D5500 - Meade ETX 125, 127mm x 1900mm Telescope gives a focal ratio of f:15 - 1/8 Second - ISO 100 - Cropped and reduced.
(Ignore the lens data from the EXIF. I had to insert something to include it in my gallery, so I told POTN it was my Tamron lens. I guess that's cheating, but they give us no choice.)

Nice picture Roy

jgoetz4 wrote in post #18331878
Nice picture Roy

Thanks! After my previous efforts with the telescope in it's original forked mount, it surprised me that it turned out as well as it did.

This is cropped to 100%, which leaves Callisto out of the picture - it's too far away from Jupiter to show up in this cropped image. I decreased the amount of green, darkened slightly, and increased the saturation to enhance the colors a bit.

(And again, ignore the lens listed in the EXIF info. Telescopes aren't listed, so I substituted my Tamron to get it included in my gallery. Cheating again!!!)

I wondered how different photos, taken with different focal lengths would compare, so I compiled a group of four shots. The first was taken with my Tamron 150 - 600mm lens plus the Kenko 1.4x TC. The rest were taken with my telescope, starting with the camera mounted on the adapter, which provided a 1900mm focal length. Then, I added an extender between the adapter and the camera, to lengthen the focal length to 2310mm. And for the last image, I added the Kenko 1.4 TC to further lengthen the focal length to 3234mm. With the crop factor of my sensor the 35mm equivalent focal length of the last image is stretched out to 4851mm! And my new Orion SkyView Pro mount handled it just fine. There was a slight amount of jiggle when I focused it, but it stopped immediately after I stopped touching it. Otherwise, it is perfectly rigid and tracks just fine.

And I used to think I was getting up close with my Tamron lens with the TC, which gives me a focal length of 840mm. Gotta try it on the moon and Saturn next.

These are all full-frame vertically. Just cropped horizontally to squeeze them into this composite.

Now I am getting jealous Roy!

Wonderful shots! When you shoot the moon with your cope be sure to find the flags!

I read somewhere by now the flags will be withering away to nothin

Inspeqtor wrote in post #18332666
Now I am getting jealous Roy!

Wonderful shots! When you shoot the moon with your cope be sure to find the flags!

I read somewhere by now the flags will be withering away to nothin

Thanks. I'm getting ready to go out and try for Saturn - maybe the moon, too.

The largest land-based telescopes on Earth can't resolve the flags, nor can the Hubble Space Telescope. I don't think I'll have much luck, either. I can download some taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that show all the landing sites, with footprints, rover tracks, modules, and even a flag or two.

Roy A. Rust wrote in post #18332670

Inspeqtor wrote in post #18332666
Now I am getting jealous Roy!

Wonderful shots! When you shoot the moon with your cope be sure to find the flags!

I read somewhere by now the flags will be withering away to nothin

Thanks. I'm getting ready to go out and try for Saturn - maybe the moon, too.

The largest land-based telescopes on Earth can't resolve the flags, nor can the Hubble Space Telescope. I don't think I'll have much luck, either. I can download some taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that show all the landing sites, with footprints, rover tracks, modules, and even a flag or two.

I was being silly about getting pictures of the flag. I know it is impossible to get.

Post a link for me (and others!) of where to download the photos you mention above.

Thank you!

Inspeqtor wrote in post #18332801
I was being silly about getting pictures of the flag. I know it is impossible to get.

Post a link for me (and others!) of where to download the photos you mention above.

Thank you!

I was pretty sure you were kidding. I was, too!

Rather than try to list all the sites that allow you to check the Apollo Landing Sites, just "Google" it, and it will give you a LONG list of links. Here's a cropped list of what I got when I did it... The one that's titled "New Images Offer Sharper Views...." is better than older images. The Lunar Orbiter took them from a lower altitude that provides sharper images of the landing sites.

Good hunting!

Roy A. Rust wrote in post #18332670
Thanks. I'm getting ready to go out and try for Saturn - maybe the moon, too.

The largest land-based telescopes on Earth can't resolve the flags, nor can the Hubble Space Telescope. I don't think I'll have much luck, either. I can download some taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that show all the landing sites, with footprints, rover tracks, modules, and even a flag or two.

When we do public outreach with the telescopes we get that question a lot (Can we see the flag?)

I did the math on that once. I didn't calculate the flag -- someone once asked me about seeing the lunar rover. It's just fractionally over 3 meters long. I think I worked out that the telescope would need to have a diameter of roughly 25 meters (about 82') to have resolve a detail as small as 3 meters long at a distance of 384,000 km (about 240,000 miles).

The largest telescopes in the world are only just slightly over 10 meters (and those are huge).

You can use Dawes' Limit to work that out. https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/Dawes%27_limit

The pictures that started this thread were taken on April 18th, but I went out again the next night, April 19th, to get some more shots of Jupiter. As I was checking them again tonight, I realized that I managed to get the Great Red Spot in the shots from last night. Of course, there are no longer 4 moons showing in this picture - just Io and Europa, but with the red spot, I don't miss them. I'm feeling a lot better about the Meade ETX 125 telescope now. I never thought getting a better mount would make this much difference in the images I can get with it.

(And again, since telescopes aren't on the list, I used my Tamron lens to post this to my gallery.)

Roy A. Rust wrote in post #18333697
The pictures that started this thread were taken on April 18th, but I went out again the next night, April 19th, to get some more shots of Jupiter. As I was checking them again tonight, I realized that I managed to get the Great Red Spot in the shots from last night. Of course, there are no longer 4 moons showing in this picture - just Io and Europa, but with the red spot, I don't miss them. I'm feeling a lot better about the Meade ETX 125 telescope now. I never thought getting a better mount would make this much difference in the images I can get with it.

(And again, since telescopes aren't on the list, I used my Tamron lens to post this to my gallery.)

Hosted photo: posted by Roy A. Rust in
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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Amazing work roy - just amazing makes my humble gear seem like a toy, yet you inspire me to keep trying with what I have


P.

Pagman wrote in post #18344017
Amazing work roy - just amazing makes my humble gear seem like a toy, yet you inspire me to keep trying with what I have

P.

Thank you! The pictures that others post on here are what continues to inspire me to keep trying to improve, too. Being able to (FINALLY) use my Meade telescope was the result of ditching the Meade mount and putting the telescope on a decent mount. Being able to use long lenses or telescopes is more about stable mounts than the camera and lens. It's tough to focus when the subject wiggles all over the place every time you touch the focus ring.

I've noticed a major improvement in what you've posted since you started using the D7100, too. Keep shooting and figuring out what's the next thing that will make a difference - like the rest of us! Maybe pour a concrete pillar for a really stable mount - like Martin did.

This is my first attempt at stacking images of Jupiter, or anything else, with RegiStax 6. It's a stack of 33 images, followed by a bit of post-processing to enhance the colors. I tried stacking some pictures of the moon a few days later, and it turned out very blurred. It didn't seem to register the images, just combined them all over the place. I need more experience with RegiStax, I suppose. It's not as straight-forward as Deep Sky Stacker.

I used my Meade ETX 125 with the extender and the 1.4x TC, which gives a focal length of 3234mm.

Do you have a budget at about $200? can you increase it up to nearly $300 or even $600 if possible?