Holy Jupiter Batman...

I have to get a longer lens...

Jupiter was bright tonight so I thought I'd try a couple of shots at
800mm. It's OK and you can see Io, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa - but
no detail on Jupiter itself.

Shame.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simesandnicky/

 

Impressive! What does 800mm equate to in x magnification? I've just had
a look with my 16x Tascos & can see two of the moons.

 

I'm not sure - about 18X I guess on a full frame sensor. I was using a
fairly high ISO too - it might be you need to increase the exposure or
ISO as the moons are dim.

 

Just realised - that you might struggle to increase the ISO on your
eyes...

 

Heh. A tripod might help too - they're very wobbly[1].

[1] The moons, not my eyes.

 

Nice.

 

About 1/2 second seemed best.

 

All day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simesandnicky/3816016900/sizes/o/

 

Happy days.

 

It relates to a Full Frame 'normal' lens as a rule of thumb.
Starting from there, if 50mm is normal, divide 800 by 50 and 16x is
approx it.
Stick a doubler on and you're talking 32x but a bit dim in the eyepiece.

I have a Novoflex 800mm lens head which I use with a Novoflex doubler
for astro stuff when icba and it provides 1600mm of moon view goodness.
It fills the frame nicely on a crop dSLR, on which the equivalent focal
length is ~2400mm. A decent sturdy tripod is an absolute must, so I make
do with what I have, which is ok, but not great for this.

 

Perfectly clear with an old Sigma 600mm f8 mirror lens and an eyepiece adapter,
which turns any old 35mm SLR lens into a telescope.

 

Canon 2x adapter - sounds like that's just what I need.

 

Have you seen the price of them?

 

err anything from 80->250 quid - seems a bargain compared to a 400mm or
higher lens. Not sure my Sigma is fast enough to keep the AF though,
will have to check.

 

If you buy one I'd suggest you don't buy the Canon one, buy the Kenko
Pro 300. It works with more lenses and is optically as good.

 

Thought they were a coffee company?

 

Oooh, well done sir. I noticed it burning brightly last night, but hadn't
considered the possibility that a zoom would pick up the moons. If it's
clear, I'll have a go tonight.

 

<waves> - I could use that, esp. if it's the 3x

 

Bloke at work has just bought one of these

http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=11&ProdID=62

Then he had to buy another 1500 euros worth of bits to drive it from
the comfort of his armchair. Now he has to read the manual to work
out how the hell it works, Apparently, after the black, light, grey
setup, checking it was flat and a lot of other gubbins, it still
doen't quite track right. He can however, see the *weather* on Jupiter!