December 3, 2024

Jupiter – 8/22/2021 0h51m to 1h20mEDT

Jupiter – 8/22/2021 0h51m to 1h20mEDT

Telescope: Celestron C11 @ f/25, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI462MC, 2.5x Powermate

Filter: Meade IR cut filter

Seeing: poor, 2/5

Exposure 3x(6x(3min x 20ms)), gain 250, saved as SER

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: SharpCap Pro, AutoStakkert, Registax, WinJUPOS, Nebulosity, Photoshop

I’m starting to settle into a routine for imaging Jupiter while we have a bright moon in the sky. As the sky darkens I get my gear uncovered, powered up, and connected and I’ll leave it tracking low in the northeast before going to bed. I’ll get up about an hour before Jupiter reaches the meridian, slew to Jupiter, set the focus using a Bahtinov mask with one of the moons, and then take a series of 3 minute videos until the planet reaches the meridian. I’ll the park my scope, power down, unplug, and cover my gear, hand off the videos to Autostakkert for stacking, and head back to bed. The next day I will process the source images in groups of 6 as these seme to de-rotate very well in WinJUPOS. The sequence shown here were taken this morning just as the Great Red Spot was rotating out of view to the lower right and oval BA was rotating into view to the lower left, with a string of white ovals in between.