Let's observe Jupiter and its moons for a few nights.

Looks like Io and Europa were a little too close to bright Jupiter to be visible at only 300mm.
Other than that, just as expected.

http://i.imgur.com/35w2kOo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cfc4GZq.png

Looks like Io and Europa were a little too close to bright Jupiter to be visible at only 300mm.
Other than that, just as expected.

Yep, I got the same thing.  Camera used is an old 4mp point and shoot with 10x optical zoom.
There's no manual focus.  Left image was iso100 1/10" looks like I may have captured some bands barely.  Lack of focus control makes it questionable though.  Middle image was iso200 8".  Right was zoomed back out slightly so I could open the aperture a tad more with iso100 16" and managed to get Europa in there.

I should have tried my video camera too just for the heck of it.  It has 30x optical zoom.

Quote from: Jet Fission on December 02, 2014, 05:51:21 AM

http://i.imgur.com/35w2kOo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cfc4GZq.png

Looks like Io and Europa were a little too close to bright Jupiter to be visible at only 300mm.
Other than that, just as expected.

Yep, I got the same thing.  Camera used is an old 4mp point and shoot with 10x optical zoom.
There's no manual focus.  Left image was iso100 1/10" looks like I may have captured some bands barely.  Lack of focus control makes it questionable though.  Middle image was iso200 8".  Right was zoomed back out slightly so I could open the aperture a tad more with iso100 16" and managed to get Europa in there.

I should have tried my video camera too just for the heck of it.  It has 30x optical zoom.

Jesus... you must have been half pressing the shutter button like a madman in order to get it to focus right.

I applaud you for your hard work, and for getting Europa in there when I couldn't with a DSLR. Your photos don't look bad at all for a point and shoot. Awesome

Jesus... you must have been half pressing the shutter button like a madman in order to get it to focus right.

Lol, nope, just once per shot.  I did try setting it to landscape, but that was about it.

I applaud you for your hard work, and for getting Europa in there when I couldn't with a DSLR. Your photos don't look bad at all for a point and shoot. Awesome

Thanks.  I do see a tiny bump at the top of Jupiter in your last picture.  You may have barely caught it after all.  Perhaps if you lower your ISO a step and/or slightly less exposure time.  Balance of enough light to capture the moons, but not so much that Jupiter blocks them out I guess.

Next time I'll go with the lower zoom and bigger aperture I used for that right side shot and mess with ISO and exposure time from there.  It seemed to get the best focus.

Quote from: Jet Fission on December 02, 2014, 10:06:14 AM

Jesus... you must have been half pressing the shutter button like a madman in order to get it to focus right.

Lol, nope, just once per shot.  I did try setting it to landscape, but that was about it.

Quote

I applaud you for your hard work, and for getting Europa in there when I couldn't with a DSLR. Your photos don't look bad at all for a point and shoot. Awesome

Thanks.  I do see a tiny bump at the top of Jupiter in your last picture.  You may have barely caught it after all.  Perhaps if you lower your ISO a step and/or slightly less exposure time.  Balance of enough light to capture the moons, but not so much that Jupiter blocks them out I guess.

Next time I'll go with the lower zoom and bigger aperture I used for that right side shot and mess with ISO and exposure time from there.  It seemed to get the best focus.

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

  Thanks.  Actually I was using the self-timer and a tripod, but the longer exposures, even if only up to 16 seconds, were still enough to result in trails just from Earth's rotation. 

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 11:20:28 AM

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

  Thanks.  Actually I was using the self-timer and a tripod, but the longer exposures, even if only up to 16 seconds, were still enough to result in trails just from Earth's rotation.

But in the case of Jet Fission's images the trainiling is on both sides, camera wobble rather than star trailing due to exposure length.

Quote from: 29silhouette on December 02, 2014, 11:47:11 AM

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 11:20:28 AM

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

  Thanks.  Actually I was using the self-timer and a tripod, but the longer exposures, even if only up to 16 seconds, were still enough to result in trails just from Earth's rotation.

But in the case of Jet Fission's images the trainiling is on both sides, camera wobble rather than star trailing due to exposure length.

It was on a tripod with a remote shutter, definitely not wobbling. It is in fact due to exposure length of 0"4 I believe. That is the best I could get to expose the moons and have Jupiter not be too bright.

I won't be taking any tonight; overcast.

Some cameras/lenses will "lock" on infinity okay, whilst some will overrun, and need to be manually set at infinity.  Also the settings used should be for "daylight" or "sunny" on any auto or programmed point and shoot.  (I've known some folks to incorrectly set theirs to "night" for astrophotography.)

I won't be taking any tonight; overcast.

Yep, mostly overcast and windy here too.

Some cameras/lenses will "lock" on infinity okay, whilst some will overrun, and need to be manually set at infinity.  Also the settings used should be for "daylight" or "sunny" on any auto or programmed point and shoot.  (I've known some folks to incorrectly set theirs to "night" for astrophotography.)

I'll have to check the manual I found online for the camera I used, but I'm pretty certain there is no manual focus control.  I paid $10 for it at a thrift shop to use for my IR conversion, but then decided it does too much my other old point and shoot doesn't, so the other camera got the mod instead.

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 12:02:53 PM

Quote from: 29silhouette on December 02, 2014, 11:47:11 AM

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 11:20:28 AM

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

  Thanks.  Actually I was using the self-timer and a tripod, but the longer exposures, even if only up to 16 seconds, were still enough to result in trails just from Earth's rotation.

But in the case of Jet Fission's images the trainiling is on both sides, camera wobble rather than star trailing due to exposure length.

It was on a tripod with a remote shutter, definitely not wobbling. It is in fact due to exposure length of 0"4 I believe. That is the best I could get to expose the moons and have Jupiter not be too bright.

I won't be taking any tonight; overcast.

If you're using the remote shutter and a tripod, then it must be mirror slap that is causing the problem. It's definitely not exposure related as it is visible on both sides of the moons. Exposure trailing would give even brightness across the whole of the trail.

Unfortunately the only answer to mirror slap is to enable mirror pickup which, on the Rebel, can only be accessed via a hacked firmware update.

If you're using the remote shutter and a tripod, then it must be mirror slap that is causing the problem. It's definitely not exposure related as it is visible on both sides of the moons. Exposure trailing would give even brightness across the whole of the trail.

Unfortunately the only answer to mirror slap is to enable mirror pickup which, on the Rebel, can only be accessed via a hacked firmware update.

I'm doubtful that mirror slap would cause any issues with long exposures such as 16 seconds.  It normally only affects the sub one second speeds.

Quote from: dephelis on December 03, 2014, 12:35:55 AM

If you're using the remote shutter and a tripod, then it must be mirror slap that is causing the problem. It's definitely not exposure related as it is visible on both sides of the moons. Exposure trailing would give even brightness across the whole of the trail.

Unfortunately the only answer to mirror slap is to enable mirror pickup which, on the Rebel, can only be accessed via a hacked firmware update.

I'm doubtful that mirror slap would cause any issues with long exposures such as 16 seconds.  It normally only affects the sub one second speeds.

It's not in reference to 29silhouette's images, but rather Jet Fission's.

It was on a tripod with a remote shutter, definitely not wobbling. It is in fact due to exposure length of 0"4 I believe. That is the best I could get to expose the moons and have Jupiter not be too bright.

I won't be taking any tonight; overcast.

I took this last year (none taken during the current apparition of Jupiter yet due to overcast weather and anti-social rise time) double moon transit and a shadow transit ... all exactly as predicted for October 30, 2013 at 4 minutes past midnight(UT).   

https://flic.kr/p/h7H4Vo

I took this last year (none taken during the current apparition of Jupiter yet due to overcast weather and anti-social rise time) double moon transit and a shadow transit ... all exactly as predicted for October 30, 2013 at 4 minutes past midnight(UT).

Fantastic imagery!  (And as a side note, it certainly lays to rest any of the flat earthers' denials of other stationary, "flat" planets in our solar system.)

Thanks for posting.

Quote from: Jet Fission on December 02, 2014, 07:32:14 PM

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 12:02:53 PM

Quote from: 29silhouette on December 02, 2014, 11:47:11 AM

Quote from: dephelis on December 02, 2014, 11:20:28 AM

You're right about the bump. It's a combination of too much exposure and camera shake that is obscuring Io and Europa. If you look at Ganymede and Callisto, you'll see there is side to side trailing. A tripod and use of the shutter timer should minimise that.

Nice pics both.

  Thanks.  Actually I was using the self-timer and a tripod, but the longer exposures, even if only up to 16 seconds, were still enough to result in trails just from Earth's rotation.

But in the case of Jet Fission's images the trainiling is on both sides, camera wobble rather than star trailing due to exposure length.

It was on a tripod with a remote shutter, definitely not wobbling. It is in fact due to exposure length of 0"4 I believe. That is the best I could get to expose the moons and have Jupiter not be too bright.

I won't be taking any tonight; overcast.

If you're using the remote shutter and a tripod, then it must be mirror slap that is causing the problem. It's definitely not exposure related as it is visible on both sides of the moons. Exposure trailing would give even brightness across the whole of the trail.

Unfortunately the only answer to mirror slap is to enable mirror pickup which, on the Rebel, can only be accessed via a hacked firmware update.

Oh wow, I see what you mean now looking at the photos. I didn't realize the mirror actions could cause that much vibration, sucks that I would have to flash the firmware to do that.

But forget my pictures, that Europa transit is amazing. Obviously better than what I had in mind...
Have you ever showed it to a FE'er? It feels right now that the effort we're putting in is pointless; there is a strange silence in the flat Earth side. I wonder what they have to say about your timelapse?

Thanks.

You might be able to access the mirror lockup setting if you have the Rebel T3i, as that seems to have it enabled without need to reflash.

http://kbsupport.cusa.canon.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1011&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=38492

Not sure if I've ever posted that video on here, I would imagine that the accusation of 'it's photoshopped' would be bandied about. Each frame of the video is generated by using a planetary imaging camera that takes video. You then stack a portion of the frames of the video (those that have been less affected by the seeing) in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in a clearer and more detailed image than any of the original individual frames.

You should definitely keep taking your images though, they're coming along nicely and FE'ers tend to argue less about conventional single shot DSLR images. 

Thanks.

You might be able to access the mirror lockup setting if you have the Rebel T3i, as that seems to have it enabled without need to reflash.

http://kbsupport.cusa.canon.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1011&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=38492

Not sure if I've ever posted that video on here, I would imagine that the accusation of 'it's photoshopped' would be bandied about. Each frame of the video is generated by using a planetary imaging camera that takes video. You then stack a portion of the frames of the video (those that have been less affected by the seeing) in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in a clearer and more detailed image than any of the original individual frames.

You should definitely keep taking your images though, they're coming along nicely and FE'ers tend to argue less about conventional single shot DSLR images. 

Wow dephelis. Simply stunning stuff. I'd like to hear scepti's thoughts on your animation.

Probably much the same as he has said about other images. 

Well, I ordered a Sirius Plossl eyepiece and a laser collimator for my telescope.  I discovered there's actual math and stuff involved with deciding on the correct eyepieces, so I went with a mid-power 12.5mm for now.  If the results are good, I'll go ahead and maybe get a 7.5 (once I double check the math) and a 20ish for a low-power eyepiece.  The two it came with (.96") and the two I'm using now (1.25" after my "conversion") that came with another cheapo compact telescope, are not very good (hr12.5 and sr4 I think).

Well, I ordered a Sirius Plossl eyepiece and a laser collimator for my telescope.  I discovered there's actual math and stuff involved with deciding on the correct eyepieces, so I went with a mid-power 12.5mm for now.  If the results are good, I'll go ahead and maybe get a 7.5 (once I double check the math) and a 20ish for a low-power eyepiece.  The two it came with (.96") and the two I'm using now (1.25" after my "conversion") that came with another cheapo compact telescope, are not very good (hr12.5 and sr4 I think).

I probably wouldn't go below an 8mm eyepiece myself as the higher power you go, the more noticeably the atmosphere messes with the view. Remember that you can also use a Barlow to double up the effective focal length of your scope and therefore the magnification you get from any one eyepiece.

Yeah, my first try at the math gave me 8, but I only saw 7.5 and 10.  I'll look some more.  I've got a cheap 3x barlow, but would like to get the short 2x I keep seeing.  That moon filter looks like a must too.

Got the eyepiece a few days ago.  Tried it out last night, and it is an improvement over the other 12.5mm.  Not much clearer, but field of view was better.

Collimator showed up today.  I put it in and the laser was about 3/8" off.  Did a quick adjustment of the primary, but I need to see if any secondary mirror adjustment is needed.  I might try making sure the mirrors are clean again too.

Now it's cloudy again, so again with the wait.

Got the eyepiece a few days ago.  Tried it out last night, and it is an improvement over the other 12.5mm.  Not much clearer, but field of view was better.

Collimator showed up today.  I put it in and the laser was about 3/8" off.  Did a quick adjustment of the primary, but I need to see if any secondary mirror adjustment is needed.  I might try making sure the mirrors are clean again too.

Now it's cloudy again, so again with the wait.

Cloudy evenings are a good time to make sure that your collimation is good.

You should definitely check the secondary is set correctly before tackling the primary though. Also make sure that your collimator is correctly collimated also. The can slip out occasionally. I prefer to use the old fashioned Cheshire collimator and just tweak with a star test before observing.

thread nominated for most tedious and dull circle jerk in the history of jerks in circles.

some plagiarized banal-isms and white dots on black, suitably dull innuendo for the finish, unhappy, of such an endeavor.

Cloudy evenings are a good time to make sure that your collimation is good.

You should definitely check the secondary is set correctly before tackling the primary though. Also make sure that your collimator is correctly collimated also. The can slip out occasionally. I prefer to use the old fashioned Cheshire collimator and just tweak with a star test before observing.

Yeah, I do still need to double check the secondary.  I drilled a small hole centered in one of the lens-caps, with some metallic tape on the inside, and used that to collimate it originally.  I'll have to read on the methods again, but I should be able to get it all pretty close using that for the secondary and the laser for the primary.  Looks like the 25th should be sort of clear, so I'll give it a try then.

Thread nominated for most tedious and dull circle jerk in the history of jerks in circles.

But apparently interesting enough for you to read through it and take the time to comment LOL.

In future, unless you've got something intelligent to say in a thread, may I suggest you keep your juvenile opinions to yourself, and let the adults get on with their meaningful discussions?

"Children should be seen but not heard".  Have you never been told that by your mommy?   

Maybe Jupiter and it's moons are just being displayed on a screen attached to the ice done by NASA conspirators to trick us 

Or maybe it's actually a planet.  Which explenation sounds more likely?

Maybe Jupiter and it's moons are just being displayed on a screen attached to the ice done by NASA conspirators to trick us 

Or maybe it's actually a planet.  Which explenation sounds more likely?

both sound preposterous.

Quote from: RuSpinningAround? on December 20, 2014, 05:53:16 PM

Thread nominated for most tedious and dull circle jerk in the history of jerks in circles.

But apparently interesting enough for you to read through it and take the time to comment LOL.

In future, unless you've got something intelligent to say in a thread, may I suggest you keep your juvenile opinions to yourself, and let the adults get on with their meaningful discussions?

"Children should be seen but not heard".  Have you never been told that by your mommy?   

juvenile accusations by an emoticon utilizing cretin extraordinaire, taking your own counsel would result in blessed silence by your own insight.

take my advice, and do not stray into childish familial references, or ill scoop your mothers cancerous eyeballs from her head, marinate them in her vile penguin, and feed them to you.

see what mommy has to say about that.