Collateral Software
A blog by fschuindt

Jupiter and the Galilean moons with the Kugelblitz handmade telescope and Saturn on a Meade ETX90

The wet season is still bringing lots of rain to my region, but once in a while there’s a good night sky and good opportunity to perform observations and also to take some pictures. As both Jupiter and Saturn are close to the zenith around midnight on a moonless night I thought I’d go for them.

I could say this is my first real planetary image using the ZWO ASI462MC color camera. I’ve performed the following experiments:

  • Jupiter, no barlow, ETX90
  • Jupiter, no barlow, Kugelblitz
  • Jupiter, 2x barlow, ETX90
  • Jupiter, 2x barlow, Kugelblitz
  • Saturn, no barlow, ETX90

I was focusing my attention over Jupiter, so the Saturn picture is really a bonus. The next time I’ll try Saturn, and I’ll also experiment using the ZWO 850nm IR-pass filter.

Even so the ETX90 was taking advantage of a LX85 equatorial mount against a Dobsonian mount of the Kugelblitz, the Kugelblitz images turned a lot more clear. I think that was mainly due to the f/6.62 of the Kugelblitz against the f/13.88 of the ETX90.

I’m also planning to build a Bahtinov mask to aid in focusing, as I was using manual/visual focusing, which makes it pretty hard to achieve good focus.

Author: Fernando Schuindt
License: CC BY 4.0
Camera: ZWO ASI462MC (Color)
Other Gear: Redlab x86 homemade weather-resistant astronomy computer
Location Name: Aracaju - Sergipe, Brazil
Location Aprox. Coordinates: 10°58’31.0”S 37°04’26.0”W
Full Resolution Images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZzZtCWdpbauMmmZz9

Theme: Jupiter and the Galilean moons with notes
Distance: 4.039 AU
Magnitude: -2.85
Lens/Telescope: Kugelblitz handmade telescope (210mm aperture, 1390mm focal length, f/6.62, Newtonian)
Composition: 2698 frames captured (16.7GB .avi file), 700 frames stacked
Processing: AutoStakkert for stacking, RegiStax 6 for stretching and Photoshop for processing
Timestamp (Local Time): 06-08-2021 22:19:21
Timestamp (UTC): 07-08-2021 01:19:21

Jupiter with notes (Click to open full resolution)

Theme: Jupiter and the Galilean moons without notes
Distance: 4.039 AU
Magnitude: -2.85
Lens/Telescope: Kugelblitz handmade telescope (210mm aperture, 1390mm focal length, f/6.62, Newtonian)
Composition: 2698 frames captured (16.7GB .avi file), 700 frames stacked
Processing: AutoStakkert for stacking, RegiStax 6 for stretching and Photoshop for processing
Timestamp (Local Time): 06-08-2021 22:19:21
Timestamp (UTC): 07-08-2021 01:19:21

Jupiter without notes (Click to open full resolution)

Theme: Saturn
Distance: 8.938 AU
Magnitude: 0.19
Lens/Telescope: Meade ETX90 (OTA-only) (90mm aperture, 1250mm focal length, f/13.88, Maksutov-Cassegrain)
Other Gear: Meade LX85 GEM (unguided, two-star alignment)
Composition: 1002 frames captured (5.94GB .avi file), 500 frames stacked
Processing: AutoStakkert for stacking, RegiStax 6 for stretching and Photoshop for processing
Timestamp (Local Time): 06-08-2021 23:06:00
Timestamp (UTC): 07-08-2021 02:06:00

Saturn (Click to open full resolution)

Gear

ETX90, LX85, 462MC and the redlab. (And Zig on the background) ETX90, LX85, 462MC and the redlab

Kugelblitz, 462MC and the redlab. Kugelblitz, 462MC and the redlab.

Inside the redlab. Inside the redlab

Setup pictures. Setup picture 1

Setup picture 2

Zig is always around s2. Setup picture 3

Camera Settings

Jupiter:

[ZWO ASI462MC]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)
Binning=1
Capture Area=1936x1096
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=36
High Speed Mode=On
Turbo USB=100(Auto)
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=114
Exposure=0.003776
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=63(Auto)
White Bal (R)=53
Brightness=102
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=130
Mono Bin=Off
Banding Threshold=35
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.521367521367521
#White Point
Display White Point=1
Notes=
TimeStamp=2021-08-06T01:19:21.7457571Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.6482.0

Saturn:

[ZWO ASI462MC]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)
Binning=1
Capture Area=1936x1096
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=31.1
High Speed Mode=On
Turbo USB=100(Auto)
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=264
Exposure=0.015104
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=57(Auto)
White Bal (R)=58
Brightness=152
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=130
Mono Bin=Off
Banding Threshold=35
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.521367521367521
#White Point
Display White Point=1
Notes=
TimeStamp=2021-08-06T02:06:00.7942288Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.6482.0