Accidental Jupiter.

[DavidEccleston]

Jupiter and moons by Dave E, on Flickr


I wasn't even aware I was shooting a planet at first. I was just trying to see if the manual focus assists worked on a star. The triangles, surprisingly did work, but the color tint did not.


Reviewing the image I thought the MF assist did a poor job at first... it was a bright blob (Auto ISO 25600), not the sharp point I was expecting. I did an AF shot to compare to, and also had a bright blob, but that's when I noticed there were moons. I was shooting a planet, not a star. I ran inside to grab the extender.

I applied an exposure drop over Jupiter so that both the planet and moons were visible at once. Seems that I lost Ganymede in this shot. A stop or two brighter and Ganymede is there, but I can't recover any detail on Jupiter.

Apparently you can get similarly sized shots of Saturn too. If anyone has an R7, the 800mm and a 2X extender, I figure you should be able to get about 5X the detail. (2*800/700) squared.

[Kayaker72]

Remarkable. I can see some bands. This is better than my attempts.


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[DavidEccleston]

This was handheld too, at 1/125s. If you had any doubts about Canon's lens IS, or their new IBIS, forget them. They work fine.

[neuroanatomist]

Apparently you can get similarly sized shots of Saturn too. If anyone has an R7, the 800mm and a 2X extender, I figure you should be able to get about 5X the detail. (2*800/700) squared.

Very cool! I may have a go with the 600/4 and two extenders stacked behind it.

[DavidEccleston]

Can now confirm, Saturn is possible, though it's about 1/4 the brightness of Jupiter... needed to drop 2 EV in Lightroom, but AF couldn't see it at ISO 6400, so there is a need to overexpose... though I guess I can switch to MF once it's focussed, then drop the ISO.


Saturn by Dave E, on Flickr

[Busted Knuckles]

I find it humbling that we can image them at all. The distance, etc, just humbles me.