Planet Jupiter, 70-300 + 2.0x teleconverter

[tymevest]

Last night was clear and Jupiter was very bright. I shot these almost directly overhead. Couldn't have done it without the vari-angle screen on the T3i. Also used a Tamron 70-300VC and Kenko MC4 2.0x DGX teleconverter. The 1st shot is underexposed enough to see some surface details. In the second shot, you can see 4 of the moons. One is almost in front of the planet at the 8 o'clock position.





--
Tymevest

 

[Bruce Miller]

Pretty impressive!

--
Bruce

 

[tonyjr]

nice shots
--
1st it's a hobby
7D gripped XTI gripped
Canon - efs 10-22 , 17-55 , ef 18-55 IS
EF 28-90 , 28 @ 2.8 , 50 @1.8 , 28-135 IS
L's 35-350 , 70-200 MK II IS
Quantaray lens 70-300 macro
Sigma 135 - 400 , 180 MACRO
2X III , Life Size converter
KSM filters for all
kenko auto tubes , EF 25

 

[Lee Jay]

You did well.

This is about the best I was able to do with my 70-200/2.8L IS using much more sophisticated techniques. That's a slightly larger lens but it shows just how well you did for a single shot.



There's really no substitute for aperture. This is what one of the best does with a 14" telescope:



From: http://damianpeach.com/jup_10.htm

--
Lee Jay
(see profile for equipment)

 

[AnthonyL]

You did well.

This is about the best I was able to do with my 70-200/2.8L IS using much more sophisticated techniques. That's a slightly larger lens but it shows just how well you did for a single shot.

Would you mind elaborating how you do that with a max focal length of 200mm?

 

[Lee Jay]

You did well.

This is about the best I was able to do with my 70-200/2.8L IS using much more sophisticated techniques. That's a slightly larger lens but it shows just how well you did for a single shot.

Would you mind elaborating how you do that with a max focal length of 200mm?

I used telescope barlows and TCs with a total magnification of 8.4x, plus the T2i's 7x video crop mode. This is a stack of hundreds of video frames.

--
Lee Jay
(see profile for equipment)

 

[tymevest]

You did well.

This is about the best I was able to do with my 70-200/2.8L IS using much more sophisticated techniques. That's a slightly larger lens but it shows just how well you did for a single shot.

There's really no substitute for aperture. This is what one of the best does with a 14" telescope:

--
Lee Jay
(see profile for equipment)

That is fantastic. Looks like a picture from the Hubble telescope. Surprised you could get it that clear shooting through the atmosphere.

It would be nice to have a tracking mount. Even with a simple lens and TC, at 10x on the LCD when manual focusing, the planet moves out of the frame in just a few seconds. I never knew for sure if I was close on the focus until I looked at them in the computer. Even a tripod head with a simple left/right and up/down fine screw adjustment would be a blessing if anyone makes one. Readjusting with a ball head isn't that easy to try and keep it near the center of the frame.
--
Tymevest

 

[Lee Jay]

That is fantastic. Looks like a picture from the Hubble telescope. Surprised you could get it that clear shooting through the atmosphere.

It's called the "lucky imaging technique".

It would be nice to have a tracking mount. Even with a simple lens and TC, at 10x on the LCD when manual focusing, the planet moves out of the frame in just a few seconds. I never knew for sure if I was close on the focus until I looked at them in the computer. Even a tripod head with a simple left/right and up/down fine screw adjustment would be a blessing if anyone makes one.

http://www.telescope.com/Mounts-Tripods/Equatorial-Mounts-Tripods/pc/2/34.uts?&sortByColumnName=SortByPriceAscending

--
Lee Jay
(see profile for equipment)

 

[liquidstone]

--
Romy



PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 260 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
http://www.romyocon.net

Long Lens Imaging (1000 mm and beyond)
http://www.longlens.net

 

[Steve Balcombe]

Even a tripod head with a simple left/right and up/down fine screw adjustment would be a blessing if anyone makes one.

Absolutely they do - I have this one:

http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/product/410?gclid=CKWklqmEhqwCFRRc4Qodd1CG8w

Although it's described as "junior", it's plenty big enough for my 300/4L IS and 7D. It's a great piece of kit.

I was out for a meal with friends yesterday evening, but I knew Jupiter was in opposition and we had a beautifully clear, moonless night so I'd been anticipating a good opportunity to take some shots when I got home. I even pointed out Jupiter to my friends and told them what I was planning to do. By the time I got home... we had fog. :-(

 

[tymevest]

Even a tripod head with a simple left/right and up/down fine screw adjustment would be a blessing if anyone makes one.

Absolutely they do - I have this one:

http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/product/410?gclid=CKWklqmEhqwCFRRc4Qodd1CG8w

Although it's described as "junior", it's plenty big enough for my 300/4L IS and 7D. It's a great piece of kit.

I was out for a meal with friends yesterday evening, but I knew Jupiter was in opposition and we had a beautifully clear, moonless night so I'd been anticipating a good opportunity to take some shots when I got home. I even pointed out Jupiter to my friends and told them what I was planning to do. By the time I got home... we had fog. :-(

Thanks, I'll check out the geared head.
--
Tymevest

 

[dhuffjr]

Nice! I've been eying the big gas bag myself and have not had a nice clear night when I've had time. Its a lot more fun to do this now vs when it is 20 degrees outside.

 

[Steve Balcombe]

At last a fairly clear night - just a hint of haze and I had to do this in town through the light pollution. I honestly don't know how much difference that makes, maybe not much with such a bright object.

7D, 300/4L IS plus two Kenko 1.4x TCs. Composite of two exposures, one for Jupiter and one for the moons.

 

[tymevest]

At last a fairly clear night - just a hint of haze and I had to do this in town through the light pollution. I honestly don't know how much difference that makes, maybe not much with such a bright object.

7D, 300/4L IS plus two Kenko 1.4x TCs. Composite of two exposures, one for Jupiter and one for the moons.

Nice, a little sharper than mine. Will this combination autofocus? I tried stacking several pictures together that I took the same night and doubled the size here.



--
Tymevest

 

[fred vachss]

Figured I'd celebrate Jupiter's opposition by driving up to a local mountain at 8500 ft. Used a 500/4 + 2x on a 7D, but still didn't get particularly good resolution (what looks like detail is, I suspect, largely noise):



While there I tried the 135/2 on a 5D2 for some wide field astrophotography of Andromeda. Really light limited on this one as even a 4s exposure (wide open at ISO 6400) was at the edge of star trailing, but at least the nebula is visible (gonna have to pick up a tracking mount one of these days):

 

[Steve Balcombe]

At last a fairly clear night - just a hint of haze and I had to do this in town through the light pollution. I honestly don't know how much difference that makes, maybe not much with such a bright object.

7D, 300/4L IS plus two Kenko 1.4x TCs. Composite of two exposures, one for Jupiter and one for the moons.

Nice, a little sharper than mine.

I don't think I can take much of the credit for that, it's mainly the difference between the 300/4 and the Tamron zoom.

Will this combination autofocus?

It does autofocus using Live Mode AF on the moon for example. I didn't try it on Jupiter but I suspect the answer would be no, because the target is just too small.

I tried stacking several pictures together that I took the same night and doubled the size here.

That's pretty good isn't it? I really must give stacking a try sometime. Which software did you use?

 

[Steve Balcombe]

Figured I'd celebrate Jupiter's opposition by driving up to a local mountain at 8500 ft. Used a 500/4 + 2x on a 7D, but still didn't get particularly good resolution (what looks like detail is, I suspect, largely noise):

Unfortunately I think you may be right . Nice shot, nonetheless - I think it's amazing that we can do this with equipment designed for a completely different purpose.

 

[tymevest]

At last a fairly clear night - just a hint of haze and I had to do this in town through the light pollution. I honestly don't know how much difference that makes, maybe not much with such a bright object.

7D, 300/4L IS plus two Kenko 1.4x TCs. Composite of two exposures, one for Jupiter and one for the moons.

Nice, a little sharper than mine.

I don't think I can take much of the credit for that, it's mainly the difference between the 300/4 and the Tamron zoom.

Will this combination autofocus?

It does autofocus using Live Mode AF on the moon for example. I didn't try it on Jupiter but I suspect the answer would be no, because the target is just too small.

I tried stacking several pictures together that I took the same night and doubled the size here.

That's pretty good isn't it? I really must give stacking a try sometime. Which software did you use?

Photoshop CS5

--
Tymevest

 

[tymevest]

Figured I'd celebrate Jupiter's opposition by driving up to a local mountain at 8500 ft. Used a 500/4 + 2x on a 7D, but still didn't get particularly good resolution (what looks like detail is, I suspect, largely noise):

While there I tried the 135/2 on a 5D2 for some wide field astrophotography of Andromeda. Really light limited on this one as even a 4s exposure (wide open at ISO 6400) was at the edge of star trailing, but at least the nebula is visible (gonna have to pick up a tracking mount one of these days):

I haven't tried , or had much luck, with stars. With this lens and teleconverters (unless I use it bare) the shutter speed gets to be too long and I get star trails. When I get another clear night I'll try it again. Nice shot to capture Andromeda. I'm at about 900 feet above sea level and have a prison farm about 5 miles away which lights up the horizon to the east. To get any decent shots, I have to shoot from 45 degrees to almost straight up.
--
Tymevest

 

[Steve Balcombe]

I tried stacking several pictures together that I took the same night and doubled the size here.

That's pretty good isn't it? I really must give stacking a try sometime. Which software did you use?

Photoshop CS5

Want to give us a quick run-though of the technique you used?