Camera Labs

The seeing finally cleared late last Sat. night, and I was able to get some pics of Jupiter with my H5.
Here they are:

Full zoom
ISO-80
F/3.7
1/100 sec. exposure
WB - Tungsten

Extreme crop:

(Seems like I actually got one of the bands )

The problem was, I couldn't get the moons without altering my settings:

Full zoom
ISO-80
F/3.7
0.77 sec. exposure
WB - Tungsten

Extreme crop:


I got the Galilean moons (nicely lined up, I must add ), but I lost all detail on Jupiter itself.

Is there any trick to being able to get both the planetary detail plus its satellites in the same shot? Or do I need to do some combining with Photoshop, Iris, etc., to get what I'm looking for?

Floyd.

It's because Jupiter is much brighter than its moons. I would say your best bet is to combine 2 exposures, one for Jupiter and one for the moons into a single shot.

In your Jupiter crop, the closest moon is faintly visible just off to its right if you look closely. It might be possible that you can faintly see the others as well in that crop...

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Flickr

Just take 2 shots and combine them both. You have a black background, so it's pretty easy to do. Perhaps take an even longer exposure of the stars for extra effect

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Thanks - I'll give it a go
I'll probably wait until I get the Pentax K - 4/3 adapter for my Oly, though - that way I can use the big honkin' 400mm prime lens (which should equate to an 800mm due to the crop factor, IIRC). The longest I have now only goes up to 150mm.
It'll also offset the Sony's biggest shortfall - it can't shoot RAW

Floyd.

Update-
I think I've found my H5's limit...
Tried getting Saturn and Mars this past weekend - let's say the results were... lacking
Saturn ended up as a yellowish-green spot, with no evidence of rings, while Mars appeared as what could best be described as a "zit".

Such is life, I guess. It'll give me something to try later.

Floyd.

Is there a RAW function on the Sony? I dont think, but maybe...

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

how did you know it is jupiter?

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Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6
http://cameralensreviewssecrets.com/

Jupiter's on the sky the last months, other bright planets arent out there right now.

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Some really good attempts there. Keep plugging away at it.

I found when I took a photo of Saturn (through my scope) I need a shutter speed of around 1/40th to capture any kind of detail on the surface. As others have said to capture the moons as well a composite of two shots is the way forward.

Looking forward to what develops.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

Had a run-in with a middle-ear infection that sort of... impeded my looking up for any length of time
By the time I got over it, the nights had gotten way too cold for me.
Once the night temps. get back into the 40's (F), I'll start back up again.
Hopefully, I'll have my adapter for the Oly and also have my main PC back up and running by then....

Floyd.