Jupiter

My very first photo ever processed. I know it’s over-processed and I think it has a few stacking artefacts (please be kind 😂)

After having dreamed of owning a Celestron nexstar telescope as a teenager (now 26) I decided to purchase a 6SE off Facebook marketplace as a Christmas present to myself. Here in Waikato, New Zealand we have had some below average seeing, but this gave me time for some extra purchases (camera and 2x Barlow) to arrive. This was the first time I was able to get out under the stars and begin imaging.

Having never used a telescope to being able to produce an image of a far away planet in less than two weeks has been a fun and enjoyable experience (except for the weather 😂).

Unfortunately Jupiter doesn’t get that high in the sky at the moment for us, so this was shot at about 20 degrees. I’m hoping that once I have some more clear skies I’ll be able to wait till it peaks around 30 degrees to shoot through a bit less atmosphere.

Overall I learnt a lot in my first imaging session and can’t wait to get back out and try and capture all those amazing details that I wasn’t able to get this time.

Gear used: Celestron nexstar 6SE Telescope and Mount Celestron 2x Barlow lens Player Once Neptune C II planetary Camera Captured using my Thinkpad T490s in SharpCap

Processing: Centred / resized in PIPP 10,000 frames stacked in Autostakkert (Top 80%) Wavelets in Registaxx 6 Exposure and final touches in GIMP