Jupiter with 500 mm telephoto

[Roger Clark]

Imaging the planets is quite a challenge, especially without a good sized telescope. While this image is not a great image of Jupiter by many standards, it shows that a good telephoto lens can still pull out some detail on such a small object. The dark belts of Jupiter are clearly seen, as is the Great Red Spot to the lower left. This also shows that stacking teleconverters can still maintain high image quality. Image obtained October 14, 2010 from my driveway.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm f/4 L IS lens with two stacked 2x teleconverters giving 2000 mm focal length at f/16. Exposure was 1/60 second at ISO 400, f/16. Eight frames were obtained and the raw files converted in photoshop CS4, then enlarged 2 times in ImagesPlus (IP). The 8 images were graded for quality in IP, then combined. The stacked image was next run through Richardson-Lucy image deconvolution in IP. The image was opened in photoshop and duplicated in a layer. The two layers were combined with multiply to improve contrast. The seeing (atmospheric turbulence) was low (typical Colorado turbulence of air moving over the Rocky Mountains).

Roger

[Roger Clark]

To put the size of Jupiter in perspective for bird photographers, the angular size of Jupiter is about the size of the pupil of an eagle's eye at about 100 meters.

Roger

[Tom Rambaut]

What a neat image! I had never thought to use a camera this way.

Thanks for the image - on an historical note I had a ancestor that was an astronomer. Recorded a lot of stars and other things. His name was also Rambaut but his firat name escapes me at present - will have to look him up again. Oh - think it was Arthur.

Thanks Tom

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Roger, I think this is very impressive, even given the flaws of not using a telescope. I'm surprised that none of the moons are showing in your image. I used to watch Jupiter with a home-built telescope with less magnification that you used in this image, but always clearly saw the little dots circling the planet. Any ideas where they went? They may have been lost in PP.

[Roger Clark]

To put the size of Jupiter in perspective for bird photographers, the angular size of Jupiter is about the size of the pupil of an eagle's eye at about 100 meters.


I checked my calculation--it's 50 meters not 100.

Roger

[Roger Clark]

Hi Roger, I think this is very impressive, even given the flaws of not using a telescope. I'm surprised that none of the moons are showing in your image. I used to watch Jupiter with a home-built telescope with less magnification that you used in this image, but always clearly saw the little dots circling the planet. Any ideas where they went? They may have been lost in PP.

Jerry,
I agree; normally one would see the moons. Three out of the 4 moons are out of this frame. The moon Io is close to Jupiter in the frame and can be seen if the image is stretched. However, Io is not sharp. I has to use two tripods to keep the lens steady (Wimberly on a Gitzo 1328 CF for the lens, and a second CF with a ball head for the camera. Without the second tripod, I found that the shutter alone (with mirror locked up) created a bounce of about 2 arc-seconds, which at 1/60 second created blur. At these magnifications, it took some time to set up and then wait for Jupiter to drift into the center. So it took some time to obtain the 8 frames. As a result Io moved during the session so is not sharp in the assembled image.

From the thread on diffraction in the gear forum, I see now that two stacked TCs is not warranted and stacked 1.4 + 2c is all that is needed to get plenty of detail from the 500 f/4. Although I will stack two 2x TCs on a 300 f/2.8.

Roger

[Dave Mills]

Hi Roger, tiny indeed! Never saw Jupiter outside of published images. Great that you could capture that much detail without the use of a telescope...

[Richard Lovison]

Roger,

Great capture. I remember trying to do this years ago with a 2000mm Meade 2080LX3 at f11 using eyepiece projection and an Olympus OM1. It was not an easy procedure so I commend your efforts. Well done.

Richard

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Roger,
Now that is pushing the equipment! 2 Stacked 2x teleconverters!!!!......wow! I am impressed as how sharp this is! Might be time to dust off the 2x and put it on the Sigmonster! Stacking 2 will give me 3200mm......I can't even image how to keep that still! Thanks for sharing the software and workflow too!

[Morkel Erasmus]

indeed a very interesting image with an impressive workflow description! I'm not sure we have such a clear view of Jupiter in the Southern Hemisphere but I'm a total plank when it comes to detailed astronomy.

[Nick Palmieri]

Very cool. Now you went and gave Roman another idea...I feel trouble brewing in Jersey...

[Robert Amoruso]

Nice work Roger.