Jupiter - What am I getting wrong?

[storm grotto]

I think I should be able to get at least somewhat better shots than this... Trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it before this weekend (want to image Saturn Friday night)

Apertura 8inch Classical Cassegrain
1.5x Barlow
ZWO ASI5i5MC

Lucky imaging, capturing in Sharpcap, stacking in AutoStakkert, wavelets in Registax

Is my scope not collimated well? Is my gear just not good enough? Focus wrong? Something wrong in the processing phase? Or just poor seeing conditions?

example of what I get on the moon with the same setup

Mars with same setup

all of these are from the same setup, but I really think I should be able to get more clarity in the Jupiter pics. Are my expectations just too high?

A few frames of the GIF are fairly decent... maybe it's just a focus issue??

[frozen pilot]

to clarify;

you confirmed it is in some shape of collimation?
you imaged through video?
sharpened?

[storm grotto]

I tried my best on collimation lol. not sure I did it correctly, but the moon pic looks pretty decent to me so I thought it was okay on collimation.

I'll try to get the scope out this week and check stars

and yes took videos (I think like 3 or 5 minute videos, forget how many frames), stacked and sharpened in Autostakkert, then adjusted wavelets in Registax

[frozen pilot]

id guess bad collimation / bad focus, so nothing you cant fix!

as for seeing, do look at the planet or a bright star to see if it twinkles a lot

[red maple]

Could be nearly anything degrading the image. You just have to rule them out one-by-one.

[storm grotto]

oh sorry, it's 1.25x Barlow not 1.5x
yeah I'll check collimation but it's confusing to me lol

[timid tartan]

this too, you should be using something more powerful

[frozen pilot]

A 1.25x barlow or just a 1.25'' barlow?

i have personally never heard of a 1.25x barlow

[storm grotto]

1.25x Barlow
So shooting at 3,000mm focal length, F/15

based on my research I wanted to be around F/15 with my camera

[timid tartan]

I heard oversampling at f20-f25 is best

[red maple]

f/20 is about optimal for a 2.9 micron OSC camera

I've tested at f/25 and seen little benefit. If anything the image gets worse.

Anywhere between f/15 and f/20 is fine.

[storm grotto]

I was just going for 5x pixel size, which is right around F/15

[storm grotto]

Brandon 1.25" Magic Dakin Barlow with Standard 1.25" Thread - 1.25x Magnification # MDB125xCommon https://share.google/scY8oAacssVIIs6cV

this is the one I'm using

my other Barlows are cheap, low quality

I could try and get a decent 2x if that would possibly help... would put me at f/24 which seems a little slow

[frozen pilot]

pixel size x 7 / focal ratio

(for max useful barlow)

which in this case is 1.7x

[storm grotto]

huh

[frozen pilot]

or F/18.5

[storm grotto]

so maybe I need a stronger Barlow. but either way I think I have a bigger underlying issue based on the images I'm getting

[frozen pilot]

a weaker barlow shouldnt make your images like that

[storm grotto]

thanks, I thought over 1.25x I wouldn't get much benefit

[frozen pilot]

to note, replace the 7 with a 6 for good/average seeing and 5 for bad/below average seeing

the 7 assumes excellent seeing

[storm grotto]

yeah it's gotta be collimation or focus... I can't figure out focus on Jupiter lol, seems like a guessing game

[frozen pilot]

the proper way to get better images now is

confirm seeing is good
focus properly and carefully
make sure its collimated

[storm grotto]

thanks

is there a special trick to focusing on Jupiter? With Saturn I'll have the rings at least I guess (I haven't actually imaged Saturn before) but Jupiter I just guess based on the bands, which are very fuzzy in live view. Or I try to focus on moons

[red maple]

and an OSC camera*

[storm grotto]

now, I'm also basically maxing out my mount with this scope so things are fairly shaky. Jupiters moons bounce around a bit when trying to focus. I heard you don't need extreme stability for lucky imaging, but could that be hurting my image quality?

[red maple]

The pitch is slightly different on OSC cams if you consider how the bayer matrix is set up. It's 5x on a mono cam under excellent seeing for green light.

gets a bit messy with wavelength dependence too

[red maple]

Unlikely.

I use a fan that shakes my scope quite a bit. See no problem in images, as long as the exposure is sufficiently short.

[storm grotto]

alright thanks

thanks everyone for the answers. I'll try to nail collimation this week and hopefully try to get a shot of Saturn before Friday, though it doesn't get over the treetops here until pretty late so I'm probably not going to on a weeknight lol.

[waxen sleet]

Input from a Planetary legend also. Think Tom occupies half of our Hall of Fame currently 😁

[storm grotto]

oh yeah I've seen his YouTube videos 😮 space station shot was absolutely insane

[frozen pilot]

any further planetary questions should quickly be answered here https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1019937457095065731

[storm grotto]

ah alright, thanks. I'm not used to this layout on Discord with a focus on threads instead of separate channels so I missed that