What Does Jupiter Look Like Through 7 Different Telescopes? — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Jupiter is at opposition right now and I
2. 0:02thought it would be fun to look at
3. 0:04images of the Jupiter that I've taken
4. 0:05over the years with a handful of
5. 0:07telescopes including the ZWO Sea Star
6. 0:10S30, the small smart telescope. The
7. 0:12scopes that we'll be looking at today
8. 0:14are the Sea Star S30, the ASCAR 71F, the
9. 0:18METX90,
10. 0:20the ASCAR 91F, the Celestron Nextstar
11. 0:236SE, the Celestron Edge HD8, and the ME
12. 0:26LX 2000, a 16in SCT. We'll first take a
13. 0:30look at the Sea Star S30. I've had this
14. 0:32for a while. I love this thing. This has
15. 0:34been going to almost every star party
16. 0:37with me. And up until the S30 Pro got
17. 0:40into my hands, I actually had this ready
18. 0:42to go at any time on a tripod. I could
19. 0:45just grab and go. And wait, wait. This
20. 0:48is the S30 Pro.
21. 0:51Neither the S30 or the S30 Pro are
22. 0:53planetary telescopes. They are excellent
23. 0:56lunar, solar, and deep sky imaging
24. 0:59telescopes. But when it comes to
25. 1:00planets, the 30 millimeter aperture, 150
26. 1:04mm focal length, F5 ratio is not
27. 1:08optimal. But you can play with the
28. 1:10settings and try and get something
29. 1:11decent, especially on Jupiter, and try
30. 1:14and see if you can see some of the
31. 1:15surface details, but this picture is not
32. 1:18it. But it is really cool that you can
33. 1:20see the Galilean moons. And Jupiter and
34. 1:22Saturn are going to be the two planets
35. 1:23that you have the best chances with of
36. 1:25seeing something. And with Saturn,
37. 1:26you'll be able to see the rings. Don't
38. 1:28know if you'll be able to see the gap
39. 1:30between the rings, especially now when
40. 1:31the rings are edge on. But when it comes
41. 1:34to Mars, Venus, any of the other
42. 1:36planets, they're just going to look like
43. 1:37tiny dots. But if the S30 or the S50 is
44. 1:40all you have, definitely point them at
45. 1:43planets and see what you can get. I do
46. 1:45have videos on the S30 on this channel,
47. 1:47so check those out. And a video on the
48. 1:49S30 Pro is coming out really soon.
49. 1:52Moving on to the ASCAR 71F. I've had
50. 1:55this for a little while and this is
51. 1:56another favorite of mine. This has a
52. 1:5971mm aperture with a 490
53. 2:04mm focal length making it an f6.9. And
54. 2:06this image of Jupiter was taken without
55. 2:08any kind of barlo or powermate. And this
56. 2:11was taken with the ICAM 464C that I have
57. 2:15on long-term loan from IOPron. This is a
58. 2:19really nice planetary camera. Although
59. 2:21the sensor is a IMX 464, it's getting a
60. 2:25little bit outdated with all the modern
61. 2:26ones that are coming out, but this is
62. 2:28still an excellent camera. Has great
63. 2:30pixel size for planetary imaging, and I
64. 2:33really do like it. And when we do some
65. 2:34little bit of processing on this image
66. 2:36of Jupiter, it's honestly more
67. 2:37impressive than I expected it to be.
68. 2:39Jupiter looks way better visually and
69. 2:43with more powerful eyepieces. You can
70. 2:44get really great views of Jupiter and
71. 2:46his Galilean moons through the ASCAR
72. 2:4971F. Small refractors may not be perfect
73. 2:52for planetary, but they're pretty good.
74. 2:53Moving on to the next telescope. You see
75. 2:55this in almost all my videos. It is my
76. 2:58mex90
77. 3:00right here. This is behind me. I've had
78. 3:03this for a long time. This has served me
79. 3:06really well. It is a 90mm f13.8
80. 3:12Moxtov cassig grain telescope. It has a
81. 3:14focal length of 1250 mm. You can see it
82. 3:18has beautiful optics and it is
83. 3:20impressively sharp. And throughout the
84. 3:22years this has gone to star parties with
85. 3:24me. And this is super lightweight and
86. 3:26it's actually become one of my really
87. 3:29quick go-to visual telescopes if I just
88. 3:31need to go to the backyard and look at
89. 3:33the moon or Jupiter or something else
90. 3:35because I have this William Optics
91. 3:37dovetail plate here which has both Vixen
92. 3:40and Arca-Swiss. So I just flip it
93. 3:42around, screw bolt it back in and I can
94. 3:45just put on a regular tripod and it
95. 3:46works really well. Jupiter looks clear
96. 3:49and with a little bit of processing it
97. 3:51is really impressive visually. Jupiter
98. 3:53is very crispy,
99. 3:55especially when the weather cooperates.
100. 3:58I know meat is out of business, but that
101. 4:00doesn't mean that these just stop
102. 4:01working. There's no software updates
103. 4:03that we have to wait for these. And it
104. 4:05doesn't mean that you can't find these
105. 4:07online on used marketplaces such as
106. 4:09Facebook Marketplace and on Cloudy
107. 4:11Nights. And I do kind of want a bigger
108. 4:13Moxtop telescope for planetary visuals
109. 4:16and imaging. So, if you have
110. 4:18recommendations or suggestions that you
111. 4:20like, let me know. All right, the next
112. 4:22telescope is the ASCAR 91F. It's a
113. 4:25little bit bigger. It has a 91
114. 4:26millimeter aperture with a 609 mm focal
115. 4:30length, making it an F6.7. It is the
116. 4:32bigger brother to the ASCAR 71F. It has
117. 4:36become my main imaging rig, imaging
118. 4:39telescope lately, and I didn't feel like
119. 4:41unhooking everything for this segment of
120. 4:43the video. It's much heavier, and with
121. 4:46the increased aperture and the longer
122. 4:48focal length, Jupiter looks much better
123. 4:50through this. And this image was taken
124. 4:52without a Barlo or Powermate, but I used
125. 4:54the IMX 571 camera instead of the Ice
126. 4:58Cam 464C. So, the pixel scales aren't
127. 5:01perfect with the 71F, but it still gives
128. 5:04you a really nice idea of what Jupiter
129. 5:05should look like through this. And
130. 5:07visually, Jupiter looks better through
131. 5:09the 91F than the 71F because of the
132. 5:11increased aperture, giving you better
133. 5:13resolution and the increased focal
134. 5:15length, letting you get a little bit
135. 5:16closer to Jupiter. But I think the ETX90
136. 5:20behind me right there is still better
137. 5:24for planets. It gives the much sharper
138. 5:26details and the difference of aperture
139. 5:27is only a millimeter. Although that does
140. 5:29have a central obstruction, so that's
141. 5:31something to keep in mind. But either
142. 5:32way, the 91F,
143. 5:35I like it for planets, but I really love
144. 5:37it for deep space. The next scope on the
145. 5:39list is my orange tube, the Nexar 6SE.
146. 5:42I've had this scope for 14 years now. It
147. 5:45has treated me really well. It's a 6
148. 5:48inch aperture or 150 millimeter aperture
149. 5:50and a 1500 millimeter focal length
150. 5:52making it an f10 telescope. This is
151. 5:55great for planets and I take this to
152. 5:57just about every star party with me
153. 5:58because it's great around the moon,
154. 6:00Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn, double
155. 6:03stars, some clusters, just great
156. 6:05overall. And it's really light that I
157. 6:07can actually in install this on most of
158. 6:10my lightweight mounts. So that makes it
159. 6:12really really handy. It is slightly
160. 6:14faster than the ATX90, but the bigger
161. 6:16aperture gives it much better
162. 6:19resolution, and the slightly more focal
163. 6:21length lets us get a little bit closer
164. 6:23to the our objects. Now, when I usually
165. 6:27image Jupiter, I usually use a Barlo or
166. 6:30a Powermate. In this case, here is my
167. 6:32Tel Avie 2.5x Powermate. This is
168. 6:35excellent. But I also have a Tel Avie 3X
169. 6:38Barlo that I've used for a long time as
170. 6:40well as this Celestron Omni 2X Barlo
171. 6:43that I actually bought when I bought
172. 6:45this thing about 14 years ago and it
173. 6:46works really well. And when we look at
174. 6:48these images of Jupiter, we can see that
175. 6:51Jupiter looks really nice. And just a
176. 6:54little bit processing, we can see some
177. 6:55really nice details. And when I actually
178. 6:57do some full processing, it looks
179. 7:00really, really nice. Visually, when I
180. 7:02take this to star parties and I show
181. 7:03people Saturn, Jupiter, the moon, their
182. 7:05minds are usually blown just because of
183. 7:07how good it looks. If you're in the
184. 7:10Cambridge or Boston area and you attend
185. 7:12a star party, there's a chance that I'm
186. 7:14there with my orange tube. Next up is my
187. 7:17Celestron Edge HD8. It's a 8 in SCT with
188. 7:20just over 2,000 mm focal length, also
189. 7:23f10, and it's much heavier, so it
190. 7:25doesn't really go to star parties with
191. 7:26me. And it's an excellent planetary
192. 7:28telescope. As I mentioned earlier, the
193. 7:30weather and seaing conditions have been
194. 7:32really bad here. But luckily, I have
195. 7:34some images from November 2025, just
196. 7:36after the Saturn's opposition. And
197. 7:38again, from January 2025, just after the
198. 7:41December 2024
199. 7:43Jupiter opposition. And when we look at
200. 7:45those images, Jupiter looks pretty cool.
201. 7:47Again, they were taken with my ICAM
202. 7:49464C.
203. 7:50Visually speaking, that telescope is an
204. 7:52excellent telescope. Jupiter always
205. 7:54looks good, even when the scene
206. 7:55conditions aren't great. And whenever I
207. 7:58take that scope out, I make sure that I
208. 8:00look through it as much as I can before
209. 8:02I start imaging through it. And the last
210. 8:04time I took it out, it was no different.
211. 8:05And Jupiter again looked great. I do
212. 8:07have some clear skies coming up and I'm
213. 8:09hoping to redo Jupiter if I can. This
214. 8:12time I'm going to experiment with my
215. 8:13DSLR. It's kind of going back to my
216. 8:16heyday. Like I mentioned, I feel like
217. 8:18I'm getting worse at planetary imaging
218. 8:20and processing. And I used to do a lot
219. 8:22of planetary imaging with a DSLR. and I
220. 8:25think I'm going to go back to it and see
221. 8:26what I can do. Lastly, we're going to
222. 8:28talk about the Meat LX 200, a 16inch
223. 8:31observatory grade SCT. These photos are
224. 8:34actually from late 2024 from the
225. 8:37observatory at the Amateur Telescope
226. 8:39Makers of Boston, which is my local
227. 8:41astronomy club. And this video of
228. 8:43Jupiter is from late 2024, early 2025.
229. 8:47And I planned on going back this year to
230. 8:49take more images through that telescope.
231. 8:50But unfortunately, some rats or mice got
232. 8:53into the observatory and chewed through
233. 8:55some of the cables and as we know me is
234. 8:58out of business. So that telescope has
235. 9:00been out of commission for a while. But
236. 9:02luckily, I very recently heard that some
237. 9:04of the members were able to source some
238. 9:06cables and the telescope may be
239. 9:08operational. But due to weather and
240. 9:10timing, I don't know when I'll be able
241. 9:12to go back and use this. So, for now, I
242. 9:15am just saying that this planet season
243. 9:17is not going to see any use of that
244. 9:20telescope. Sad, but I'm hoping next year
245. 9:23it's up and running still and I can go
246. 9:26and take some images of Saturn, Jupiter,
247. 9:28and maybe some other planets. With an
248. 9:30aperture of 16 in and a focal length of
249. 9:33over 4,000 mm without a barlo or power
250. 9:36mate, you get really close to the
251. 9:38planets and you get amazing resolution.
252. 9:41And then this final image was again
253. 9:42taken with the ICAM 464C.
254. 9:45So, an honorary mention to my 10-in DOB
255. 9:48that I acquired last year. I co-own it
256. 9:51with my friend Nathan, who's actually
257. 9:52working on acquiring a new base for it,
258. 9:55which it needs. So, it's currently out
259. 9:57of commission, but I'm hoping that
260. 9:58within the next month or so, while
261. 10:00Jupiter is still big and bright in the
262. 10:02sky, we have a new base. I can go over
263. 10:04to his house, put a camera in there, and
264. 10:06take some images of Jupiter. It won't be
265. 10:08tracked, so it'll be lucky imaging as we
266. 10:10see Jupiter go across the sky, but it'll
267. 10:12be fun. I'd love to hear about the
268. 10:14telescopes you have. If you do any kind
269. 10:15of planetary imaging or planetary
270. 10:17viewing, or if you want to get into it,
271. 10:20if you have tips to share with other
272. 10:21people, tips to share with me who's
273. 10:24reverting back to not knowing how to
274. 10:27image and process planets. I would love
275. 10:29to hear from you. And a huge thanks to
276. 10:31all my patrons on Patreon, my supporters
277. 10:34on Buy Me a Coffee, and YouTube members
278. 10:35for supporting me and my ventures. If
279. 10:38you'd like to join this list of
280. 10:39wonderful people, please check the links
281. 10:41in the description and the pinned
282. 10:42comments below. And I don't need another
283. 10:44telescope, but I am going to go looking
284. 10:47for an idea of what other Moxtop gaster
285. 10:51grains are out there on Cloudy Nights
286. 10:53classifies.
287. 10:55If you have a suggestion, I'd love to
288. 10:57hear it. And until next time, happy
289. 10:59planet gazing, happy stargazing, happy
290. 11:01new year, and clear skies.