Jupiter Attempt

This is my first Jupiter attempt. I took many pictures at different exposures and was happy with what I got. C&C always welcome.

1.

Your Jupiter moons are GINORMOUS. But great effort!

jwcdds wrote in post #10904688
Your Jupiter moons are GINORMOUS. But great effort!

See at first all I thought was how cool it was. After looking at them for a while I realized that there was no way the moons could be 1/10 the size of the planet.

I'm guessing this is all just light making them appear large due to shutter speed? If it is so, kinda sucks since the moons can't be seen in the faster shutter speeds.

To get the moons and jupiter you take 2 exposures, one for jupiter and one for the planets then combine them in photoshp...

The moons in the first image are just out of focus I think, which is what's making them look larger and spherical. It's quite effective!

Once your exposures are too fast to catch the moons, crop the hell out of the picture to see what you can get from just jupiter. I'll bet you can see at least some of the color banding; I can by the time I'm cropped down to around 300x300 pixels with my 300mm.

ok, i have to ask... how the hell do you guys find Jupiter out there?

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10907545
ok, i have to ask... how the hell do you guys find Jupiter out there?

Usually, look for the 2nd-brightest star-like object in the sky. Venus is generally the brightest. Or you can go online (don't recall the web site at the moment), and it will tell you where to look.

Adrena1in wrote in post #10905853
The moons in the first image are just out of focus I think, which is what's making them look larger and spherical. It's quite effective!

This does sound possible, maybe they are all OOF. I get to try again tonight and I hope I do better on round 2! I did use infinity focus on both lenses, it's really kinda of hard to tell with these things due to XTi not having live preview.

archer1960 wrote in post #10907135
Once your exposures are too fast to catch the moons, crop the hell out of the picture to see what you can get from just jupiter. I'll bet you can see at least some of the color banding; I can by the time I'm cropped down to around 300x300 pixels with my 300mm.

These are 100% crops from the full images. I think I just need to experiment more and hopefully get it right.

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10907545
ok, i have to ask... how the hell do you guys find Jupiter out there?

For me in Northern Canada Jupiter IS the brightest star, it's also 2-3 times the size of every other star. Here it rises to the E-SE and travels from there, its just visible before sundown here which is around 9pm right now.

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10907545
ok, i have to ask... how the hell do you guys find Jupiter out there?

Download a free piece of software called Stellarium. If you take the time to plumb in your home location when setting it up, it will tell you what you can see in the night sky in real time. Makes finding things a lot easier if you don't know your way around the heavens.

Sorarse wrote in post #10908912
Download a free piece of software called Stellarium. If you take the time to plumb in your home location when setting it up, it will tell you what you can see in the night sky in real time. Makes finding things a lot easier if you don't know your way around the heavens.

yea just did that and wow... it is a fun program... spent an hour just looking at the "skies"... lol!

Here in Canada jupiter rises above the horizon in the east just about when it gets dark. You can't miss it. Since venus isn't in the sky at this time jupiter is the brightest thing in the sky other than the moon...

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10907545
ok, i have to ask... how the hell do you guys find Jupiter out there?

If you have the Iphone there is an app called starmap. I like that and it follow the compass when you move around.
There are probably a lot of those apps. I know there is at least one for Android phones also.

Another IPhone app that is really nice is StarWalk. It does cost money, but you can hold it up to the sky you are viewing, and it will not only name the constellation, but also some of the larger stars, planets, and clusters, galaxies, etc.... Worth the money in my book.

cool apps! thanks! sure beats lugging a 17" lappy out there...
but the Stellarium is also cool!