[hnikesch]

Nice job guys, very impressive moon shots, one more thing to add to my list

Hans

[ivoire]

Are you sure its not Jupiter with its four largest moons? (I really have no idea, I'm just guessing.)

Thanks for the clarification. I first thought it was Jupiter but it was so bright that I couldn't believe it. There was another "star/moon" in line with the lower 2 in the pic, closer to Jupiter. it was less visible to the eye and didn't show up in the pics. The Tokina atx-sd 400mm for canon fd is permanently set at about f5.6 due to the conversion and is difficult to focus accurately so it may be 'operator error.

Nice! Yours was obviously shot a bit later than mine (20:09 EST); the terminator has advanced noticeably, so I assume this is from the same 01:30 session where you shot Jupiter.

It was taken around 12:50a.m. The cold had numbed my fingers on the moon attempt and I went in to thaw out. Then Adams star shot idea came to mind and I went out once more

I'm planning on another Saturn attempt tonite if it doesn't dip into the single digit temps

[baro-nite]

Inspired by ivoire's shot, and with a close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter happening tomorrow, I had a go at Jupiter tonight. I can't believe this worked this well.


Jupiter
DA* 300 on stacked generic TCs (1.4x and 2x), stopped down 1 stop, on the Q, ISO 1600, 1/60. 50% crop.

Then tried some moon shots on the same rig. It's enough magnification that motion blur became a problem below 1/160 or so.


Mountains of the moon. (Same rig as previous shot, ISO 800, 1/160; 25% crop.) The large crater at upper left is Plato, from which the Montes Alpes swing down and right, to the Montes Caucasus (bordering Mare Serenitatis, at right) with the Montes Appeninus continuing down and leftward, pointing toward Copernicus -- the large crater just visible on the Terminator at lower left.

I need to have a go again when the Great Red Spot is in view and see if I can catch it.

[ivoire]

Those are great shots! It's been -5 at 5a.m. and cloudy here so my saturn attempts are on hold

[post_eos]

Inspired by ivoire's shot, and with a close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter happening tomorrow, I had a go at Jupiter tonight. I can't believe this worked this well.

How did you even find it and how long did it take? However you did it, I'm impressed!

[baro-nite]

How did you even find it and how long did it take?

Finding it was indeed the hardest part. I have the Pentax RD10 reflex sight on the Q as a finder, but even with that it wasn't easy to get Jupiter in the lens. I have a pretty good lightweight gimbal-type setup, and it's pretty smooth, but even so making tiny adjustments is hard. I've been contemplating a geared head anyway, and I wonder how well it might work as an equatorial mount. Would have to rig up some kind of counterbalance...

[crewl1]

Inspired by ivoire's shot, and with a close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter happening tomorrow, I had a go at Jupiter tonight. I can't believe this worked this well.

Wow! How much do you estimate the effective focal length is on this setup?

[baro-nite]

Wow! How much do you estimate the effective focal length is on this setup?

Actual FL of 300 magnified by 2.8x makes this combination equivalent to an 840mm lens. On the Q that's a diagonal angle of view of about half a degree, which happens to be about the same as the diameter of the Moon seen from Earth, so you can't get the entire Moon in the frame. One could say this is this equivalent to about 4640mm on full 135 format, but I've come to realize that "crop factor" is the wrong way to think about the advantage of the Q for ultra-tele work. My ballpark estimate is that you'd need something like 1600 to 2000mm on the K-5 to get similar resolution. So now I'd like to see what Clinton can do with the A* 1200 on a TC.

[ivoire]

for those that are Qurious, I thought I'd point to a couple websites for those wishing more info on what planets are currently visible. So dig out your long lenses and TCs' and have some fun

Planets To See In The Sky Tonight | Astronomy Central

http://earthsky.org/tonight

[crewl1]

for those that are Qurious,

Need to add this to the Q-ism list!

[panoguy]

I had a go at Jupiter tonight. I can't believe this worked this well.

Wow! Just amazing detail (you can see the turbulent bands) from a tiny-sensored, earthbound camera, no less.

[ivoire]

The moon and jupiter are paired tonite and won't be this close again until 2026. So I went out and only managed 1 moon shot and 2 jupiter shots before my fingers were so numb i couldn't tell what buttons i was pressing. Once the fingers stopped burning i combined 2 of the images. here is the resultant image. Once again with the Tokina 400mm iso125, i/80th. The moon and jupiter will appear to almost be touching later but i'm not going out again

[baro-nite]

Well done!

Continuing my baby steps in planetary photography, this time I tried image stacking. Just 4 shots (stacked in Lynkeos), and I don't think they were as good as last night's, but stacking does reveal a bit more.


DA* 300, wide open, on el-cheapo 2x and 1.4x TCs, ISO 800, 1/80.

I think the little white dot is Europa; that's where it should be. It is actually just about right over the Great Red Spot when this is taken, so I've got some work to do to get that to show up.

Actually, tonight's more significant advance was a rudimentary equatorial mount, making it much easier to acquire and track Jupiter.

[ivoire]

Amazing detail you are getting with that setup. I've got a cheap tokina 2xtc on the way. Am hoping to get closer with it while jupiter is close. I found a local astronomy group and will be visiting their observatory some time in April. May join the group based on that visit.

[baro-nite]

My makeshift eQtorial Qnfiguration:



Superclamp to the rescue as a counterbalance! Tonight I'm going to try video capture and see if I can get better images for stacking that way. Oops, just noticed I need to put the TCs back on.