Jupiter & Io Transit
Object Type: Planet & Monn
Scope: 10" Newtonian
Exposure 81 minutes
On September 30 between 8:16PM PT and 11PM PT I took 81 one minute videos containing over 480,000 frames of Jupiter. This captured the rotation of the planet as Jupiter’s giant red spot moved from one edge of the planet to the other and at the same time Io, Jupiter’s highly volcanic moon, transited across the disc of the planet followed by its shadow. The video compresses the 2 hours and 44 minutes to a mere 32 seconds.
This is the first time I have tried doing a session like this, at 8:16 PM Jupiter was only at 18 degrees altitude which is why the video’s first few seconds are blurry. This is also my first time using Registax that really helped bring out the planet details.
The last image was processed in WinJUPOS, using 7 images to see if I could use the derotate featured to improve surface details. However, the process smeared the moon shadow and removed the moon itself altogether. Still learning 😊
Technical Information:
Scope: 10” Orion Newtonian
Mount: Orion Atlas
Camera: Orion Mini 6.3 MP
Exposure: 81 minutes of video, 480,000 frames
Processing: Stacking in AutoStakkert, Processing in Registax using Wavelets, contrast improved in Photoshop.