Having a hard time with jupiterPosted By Joe Bruessow |
I would say that collimation, focus and more importantly seeing need to be at thier best.
First, have you collimated with a star test... ever so slightly defocusing a star to the point of seeing the central obstruction... then tweaking to make the difraction rings concentric lke a bulls-eye? Second, have you focused critically.. perhaps using a crayford if your telescope has a lot of mirror flop. Third... have you imaged over many nights around 1:00 am or later local time when Jupiter is very high in the sky. The closer it is to the meridian the better the seeing is more often than not. You need excellent seeing. If I can't get a sharp image at around 300x or more I don't even bother with trying to image with my webcam... which in the upper Midwest is not very often.
These are a few things that come to mind off of the top of my head... I am no expert but have had a little success the few times I have attempted it.
Good luck...
First, have you collimated with a star test... ever so slightly defocusing a star to the point of seeing the central obstruction... then tweaking to make the difraction rings concentric lke a bulls-eye? Second, have you focused critically.. perhaps using a crayford if your telescope has a lot of mirror flop. Third... have you imaged over many nights around 1:00 am or later local time when Jupiter is very high in the sky. The closer it is to the meridian the better the seeing is more often than not. You need excellent seeing. If I can't get a sharp image at around 300x or more I don't even bother with trying to image with my webcam... which in the upper Midwest is not very often.
These are a few things that come to mind off of the top of my head... I am no expert but have had a little success the few times I have attempted it.
Good luck...