Wesley's Tool-Box

While waiting for Apple to announce new products (the event took place on 2AM in Korea Standard Time) for 2013 holiday season, I tried another shot at taking photos of Jupiter with SX50 HS while its Great Red Spot was facing Earth. It's still not very discernible even after post-processing, but I think the wrinkle at the right-hand edge is likely to be it.

Incidentally, Io and Europa were visually close together, but the camera was able to distinguish between the two. Maybe I should try to take the photos while Jupiter is higher up in the sky - it should have less atmospheric disturbance. You can see the stacked photos of the planet and the satellites before composition if you keep reading.

Two weeks ago, I bought a Baader Moon & Skyglow filter that supposedly cuts light pollution and enhances contrast of the planets. This was attached to my Canon SX50 HS camera using a 58mm-28mm step-down ring. You can see how this looks like on the left. The filter is relatively inexpensive as far as telescope filters go, but it's still quite a bit of money, so I got a 1.25" one (fits like 28.5mm) instead of getting a 2" one (fits like 48mm) which cost almost twice as much. The 0.5mm difference between the step-down ring and the filter meant that it would not screw on completely, but it works okay.

At dawn today, I tested out its performance by taking the photos of the Jovian system. While it did noticeably cut the background light pollution, the contrast of Jupiter received a modest boost, as compared to my previous non-filtered shots. One thing to note is that, by CalSky's calculations, the Great Red Spot was supposed to be facing the Earth, so I would be able to see it on the lower right area of Jupiter's surface. But apparently, SX50 HS isn't quite powerful enough to bring that detail out clearly at the current distance. A couple of folks suggest that it might be the darker area at the right edge of the lower band - further sessions are needed to verify this. Jupiter should look bigger every day until when it's about 30% bigger on January next year, so that's my best hope for now.

Jupiter: 1200mm (w/ 2x DTC*) - ISO 80 - 1/80s - 22 photos stacked
Moons: 1200mm (w/ 2x DTC) - ISO 1250 - 1/10s - 117 photos stacked
*DTC = Digital Teleconverter. Stacked using RegiStax 6.1.0.8.

Time: 2013-09-04 04:30 KST
Location: Suwon, Korea

Jupiter is on the top of the list of the stuff I wanted to photograph with Canon SX50 HS because it's relatively big and bright. However, light pollution makes it hard when it's not separated far from the Sun. Luckily, spending vacation in the southeastern coast let me have the opportunity.

I made two series of photographs, first taking fast shots of Jupiter. Then taking longer exposure shots to capture the Galilean moons. Each of the series were stacked using RegiStax 6.1.0.8, and then ultimately put together to form the picture you see above.

Jupiter: 1200mm - ISO 250 - 1/125s, 25 photos stacked
Moons: 1200mm - ISO 3200 - 1/10s, 5 photos stacked
Time: 2013-08-17 04:00 KST
Location: Ulsan, Korea

The photos below are samples of the cropped originals of Jupiter and Galilean moon shots.

The superzoom SX50 HS was looking out the window again to shoot Saturn. This time, my three-year old daughter wanted in on the action, so she looked at the viewfinder and took a few shots with my help. She was amazed at how a tiny star in the sky is actually that planet with rings she saw in a book.

The setup was identical to the previous post yesterday except that the shutter speed was slowed down to 1/10s. This made for brighter photos. You can see a hint of Saturn's own shadow on the rings just behind the left side of the planet.

UPDATE: The photos I took tonight shows the shadow that Saturn is casting upon its rings much clearer.

I'm getting better results thanks to finding a more stable tripod configuration, leading to sharper images and less frames thrown away due to blurring.

This seems to be about as good as this camera gets, unless some more optical equipment is thrown in. Cassini division on the rings would not be visible unless much more significantly advanced optics come into play.

UPDATE 2015-04-12: Nearly two years later, I now have that "more optical equipment" and for the first time, I was able to resolve the Cassini Division.

These are untouched photographs of Saturn taken by my new Canon SX50 HS digital camera on a tripod without any additional equipment. The 50x optical zoom seemed to be just at the edge of producing some interesting photographs of the planets, which was the motivation for the camera's purchase. Saturn was the first candidate to test this out. One, it is up in the night sky for several hours these days, unlike the other planets which go down the horizon after early evening. Two, its rings made it easy to identify.