Jupiter – 1st December 2012

Moving on from the moon – I have set my sites on Jupiter. For those trying to find Jupiter – if you look towards in the west sky, it is the ‘brightest looking star’ that is near to the moon.

I have to admit I have spent hours reading forum, upon forum on how to do this and a lot of trial and error. However I have found the below steps repeatedly provide a good/acceptable image – and with tweaks here and there I continue to learn and improve.

Quick Overview:

Generate .avi file / split into numerous image files / stack image files

Detailed Steps:

  • First steps was to use a XBOX Webcam (purchased for £5 via ebay) and then modded.
  • Once modded an old 35mm camera film ‘container case’ was glued onto the webcam which sits nicely in the 1.25″ eyepiece holder.
  • Once in position the webcam then provides a feed into SharpCap (which is saved out as an .avi file). The SharpCap settings for the .avi (46 seconds) which created the below image were as follows:

Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=640×480
Frame Rate (fps)=20.00
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure=-7
Brightness=98
Contrast=31
Hue=180
Saturation=54
Sharpness=63
Gamma=187
WhiteBalance=2920(Auto)
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=9

  • The next step was to run the .avi file through PIPP. This basically provided me with 933 individual frames (all with Jupiter nicely centered).
  • This allows the frames to then be stacked through RegiStax 6. Registax basically ‘stacks’ the 933 images to produce one final image (below). On this occasion I did not use any further image processing through GIMP etc.

As i am learning how to make best use of the above applications – I hope to take adept notes of the various settings which were used.

note .. If you look very closely at the image you can see 3 of Jupiter’s 67 moons.(left to right – Europa, Io, Ganymede)

…. the end result

Jupiter 1st December 2012

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