I'm getting better Jupiter images:
Improvements in focusing and image processing have lead to markedly better planetary images. The Nikon's autofocus does not lock on to the planet's image, so focusing was done manually and the camera's best shot selector was used.
Processing was done in several steps. First each channel was de-speckled with the smart blur function of Photoshop. Then, each of the levels were adjusted for stretched grayscale, and the blue channels is sharpened with strong unsharp masking. Finally the channels are recombined and the whole image is sharpened with a mild unsharp mask, resulting in the image above.
Seeing was rather poor as there was considerable turbulance inthe air, but the sky was clear and dark. A 7 inch f/16 Maksutov telescope was used with a 25 mm modified acromat eyepiece and a 1.8x barlow multiplier. The image was further enlarged on the computer screen, and is about 300X as shown here. The camera exposure was 1/15 sec at f/4 (ISO 80). The lens was zoomed to the fullest (51mm) and 2.5X digital zoom was applied.
