TheSkySearchers

After 5 weeks of clouds and extreme cold, this is my first test of Jupiter after upgrading equipment and learning more about how to image planets (from Christopher Go and D Peach videos).

The big deal was taking 30 second videos at 192 fps and 370 fps tonight. Crazy! But necessary I think. Anyway, the image isn't great but not bad either since I was freezing in 37 degree F temps. I'll be trying again on Saturday.

Telescope: Celestron 8SE / AVX CGEM mount
Camera: ASI585 MC with 1.5x Dakin magic barlow
Image source: 20,000 frame AVI videos (30% used)
De-rotated with Winjupos
Date: 01/31/2024

Apparent Diameter = Planet: 39.68 arc-seconds

Jupiter - January 31, 2024 by Greg Cisko, on Flickr

For a first go, that's an excellent image Greg.

What software did you use to stack the frames?

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 5:21 am For a first go, that's an excellent image Greg.

What software did you use to stack the frames?

Graeme

Thanks! I used Autostakkert, then sent the stack to registax and adjusted the waveletts, saved as TIFF for four 5800+ frame videos (2 minutes total integration time as each video was 30 seconds long). Yes quick math shows 195+ frames per second. Then finally, I took the four tiff files and loaded them into Winjupos to de-rotate with final minor color adjustments in Photoshop.

The soft focus is either due to the "seeing" conditions (85% humidity in the middle of winter) or my refusal to fiddle with and check collimation on my 8SE OTA each and every time I focus. I suspect collimation is a red herring for the 8SE because I cannot lock my main mirror, so any adjustment in focus moves the mirror and may cause the collimation to go out. I heard the EdgeHD can lock the mirror. Does anyone know if this is true for the 8" Edge HD? I heard the 9.25" EdgeHD can lock it's mirror as can the larger EdgeHD scopes. If the 8" Edge HD will lock the mirror, I'll probably go that route.

I tried googling to search to see if the 8" EdgeHD can look the mirror but the results were inconclusive.

Very nice Greg!

Glad the grey skies passed!

That’s a beautiful image!

Juno16 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:27 pm That’s a beautiful image!

Thanks! At first I worried there was something wrong with the image because of the darker left side of the disk. But I realized that it is probably due to the orbital positions of Earth & Jupiter relative to each other, and the left side is near the night side shadow. According to Stellarium Jupiter is 99% illuminated.

gcisko wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 8:42 pm I tried googling to search to see if the 8" EdgeHD can lock the mirror but the results were inconclusive.

It would seem so:

https://www.celestron.com/products/edge ... e-dovetail

Mechanical Features
In addition to EdgeHD’s optimized optical design, the telescope tube has been redesigned to make sure you get the most from your optics each and every night.

Mirror clutches - Flexible tension clutches hold the mirror in place and reduce image shift when taking long exposure astro-images. Once focused, the flexible rods allow the mirror to be held in place without putting any force or pressure on the mirror assembly, keeping the image centered in the eyepiece (or on the sensor).

Graeme

Great image Greg, knocks the he'll out of any of my attempts when I had an SCT.

Greenman wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 10:17 am Great image Greg, knocks the he'll out of any of my attempts when I had an SCT.

Thanks! I have since replaced this image with one which is sharpened a bit. I'll start a separate thread about that one.

Wow I guess I was so excited about this image I forgot to add a proper subject line! So I fixed that. Sheesh!

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 6:30 am

gcisko wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 8:42 pm I tried googling to search to see if the 8" EdgeHD can lock the mirror but the results were inconclusive.

It would seem so:

https://www.celestron.com/products/edge ... e-dovetail

Mechanical Features
In addition to EdgeHD’s optimized optical design, the telescope tube has been redesigned to make sure you get the most from your optics each and every night.

Mirror clutches - Flexible tension clutches hold the mirror in place and reduce image shift when taking long exposure astro-images. Once focused, the flexible rods allow the mirror to be held in place without putting any force or pressure on the mirror assembly, keeping the image centered in the eyepiece (or on the sensor).

Graeme

Yes it does seem like it will. So I guess that's my next purchase. Of course this means my 8SE will be on the market.

Thanks!

fine shot , thx .