Jupiter with the new
Orion 10" f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph
With resolution of Ganymede and Europa
February 20, 2016
Uploaded 2/22/16

 

            
Seeing this night
            was like a big atmospheric scramble in a frying pan. But here
            I was able to still get sub arcsecond resolution by taking many
            frames (1600) and selecting the best 50 for stacking. Also, I
            used my IR pass filter which the seeing is considerably better!
            So much so that not only did I resolve the disks of the Galilean
            moons, you can see surface markings on Ganymede which is 1.5
            arc seconds in size. It looks like the new 10" is a fine
            planetary scope as well. The Televue 5x powermate barlow was
            used here.

            
The second image
            here is also with the 10 inch but at prime focus without the
            barlow. The Methane band filter from the same Orion Planetary
            imaging set was used. It is a VERY dark filter and required 1/4
            second exposure and the gain set very high! But look how different
            Jupiter looks in this band.



            
Jupiter in NIR

Select image size for the larger
view:

1290 x 960




            
Jupiter in CH4

Select image size for the larger
view:

1290 x 960


Processing:
            50/1600 best frames, alignment in Autostakkert, Wavelets in Registax,
            Levels and Contrast Masking In Photoshop CS2, Deconvolution Pix
            Insight
Instrument:  Orion (GSO) 10" f/3.9 with 5x Barlow
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
CCD Camera:  Image Source DMK 51AU03.AS
Filter:  Orion IR Pass
Exposure:  1/30 sec  12fps
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 3/5, Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature:  35F