Crosshairs on Jupiter

[SS427]

With Jupiter in opposition this month and closer than normal I took out my binoculars and could indeed spot four of the moons. Next logical step would be to pull out the spotting scope, but since I don’t have a really good one I pulled out a couple rifles with my best scopes on them.

I have a hard time telling the difference between high end glass. To me they all look great at the range. I was surprised to discover that my Sightron SIII 10-50x scope showed better detail of Jupiter than my NF 15-55x competition scope and my Golden Eagle scope. All I could figure was the larger objective might be the difference. Probably not overly important since I don’t hunt or shoot at Jupiter, but it certainly came as a surprise.

 

[pirate ammo]

you could with a Creedmoor.

 

[Kermit in Va.]

Don't see a problem with it "IF" you
have a "necklace"...

 

[Comrade Terry]

All I could figure was the larger objective might be the difference.

Larger objectives gather more light.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Don't forget you're looking through the earth's atmosphere, and conditions can and do change on a second by second basis, so any observation with glass quality being the issue should consider this factor.

FWIW, my Leupold fixed 25X spotter can pick out the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. Once visually locked in, you can see faint light/heat waves on the subject; it's always active.

 

[hpshooter]

"you could with a Creedmoor."

From your back yard!

 

[johnfred1965]

Jupiter is like 80,000 miles in diameter and say about 500 million miles away, anyone figured out the MOA on that?

 

[group therapy]

Jupiter is like 80,000 miles in diameter and say about 500 million miles away, anyone figured out the MOA on that?

if no-one figures it by the time I get home (7:30ish) ill try

 

[Mike Casselton]

If it's directly above you, zero the rifle at 156 yards and fire away.
Once the bullet leaves earth's atmosphere, space had no effect on it.

 

[dolek]

 

[Gun Smith]

Try aiming for one of Jupiters moons! Might try a .50 BMG? Perhaps a 10 gauge with goose loads?

I used to have a pretty nice telescope, and on a clear night looking at Jupiter, I was amazed to see these little round buggers floating next to it!
I think there are 12 Moons if I recall, but I only saw 4 or 5 of them one time if memory serves me.

 

[group therapy]

I think it's a little under 1 MOA, 50 seconds of arc

Thanks, I really didn’t want to do the math

 

[mike a]

Larger objectives gather more light.

I understand this just enough to be dangerous. I give credits to contributing members Mikey_P and dstoenner. ( The human eye iris is pretty much 7mm in total darkness. In bright lite it stops at 1mm. So in bright lite any exit pupil over 1 mm does nothing for preceived brightness. The excess does help get the eye behind the scope to see the reticle.) see the math in the picture. I may have started to learn something. Interesting that at nite your pupil would be big, say 7mm so an objective of 350mm at 50 power. Or I'm just full of it.

 

[T-shooter]

I shot Jupiter but had to use a camera. With a 600mm lens on an 18.1MP DSLR I could see the bands. 3 of the moons can be seen in the bottom picture. Years ago with younger eyes I could see 4 of the moons with 7x35 binoculars braced against a post.

 

[jimbo88mm]

I shot Jupiter but had to use a camera. With a 600mm lens on an 18.1MP DSLR I could see the bands. 3 of the moons can be seen in the bottom picture. Years ago with younger eyes I could see 4 of the moons with 7x35 binoculars braced against a post.

View attachment 1110351

View attachment 1110352

Nice shots!


I've always wanted to take a picture of the moon or one of the planets through a rifle scope.. one of these days I'll have to do it. I had my telescope (70mm refactor with a FL 336mm) out a few nights ago and grabbed this.

 

[ebb]

Jupiter is just about 20 miles up the road. No place to shoot hat I know of. There is a piece of ground north of the main hwy and east of the interstate that Ive seen hogs on, up by the Loxahatchee river.

 

[rogn]

Jupiter is just about 20 miles up the road. No place to shoot hat I know of. There is a piece of ground north of the main hwy and east of the interstate that Ive seen hogs on, up by the Loxahatchee river.

Indiantown is a good bet.

 

[T-shooter]

Nice shots!


I've always wanted to take a picture of the moon or one of the planets through a rifle scope.. one of these days I'll have to do it. I had my telescope (70mm refactor with a FL 336mm) out a few nights ago and grabbed this.

Did you get that in one shot? I have to set the shutter to 1/5 second to capture the moons because they are so dim but the planet is too bright. To get any surface details I have to use a 1/30 second shutter speed. At 1/30th, the moons can't be seen.

 

[jimbo88mm]

Did you get that in one shot? I have to set the shutter to 1/5 second to capture the moons because they are so dim but the planet is too bright. To get any surface details I have to use a 1/30 second shutter speed. At 1/30th, the moons can't be seen.

Nope, mine is a stack of frames taken from a video recording. There is free software out there that will analyze video, then stack the best % of frames into a single image. In my case since I was using a mono camera with filters, I took three 24 second videos (one for each RGB filter). Stacked the best 50% for each filter. Then combined them in editing software to make the rgb image.

There is free software that will do this. I used a program called AutoStakkert. An other one is called registax. They both stack video. Then you would use a photo editing program for post processing.. like sharpening, boosting saturation, pulling out faint details, etc. For stacking single exposures, DeepSkyStacker is another free program that I've used for deep sky objects (Nebuals, Galaxies, etc).

You could do the same with your camera.. except you just need one video file. Jupiter's rotation is pretty fast so you'll want to keep the recording under 2 mins.

The moons are probably there in the 1/30th image. With editing software you can mask Jupiter to protect it, then boost the brightness by stretching the histogram to pull the moons out.

When I'm not pulling the trigger I'm out taking pictures of the night sky

Some of my stuff can be seen here: https://www.astrobin.com/users/JamesR/

 

[Zero333]

Larger objectives gather more light.

When shooting (with a camera) celestial bodies, light gathering is never a problem. Stability is the problem when using big telephoto lenses.