After stargazing and exploring the night sky and its planets countless times... Jupiter, our Solar System's largest planet, has peaked your interest and you've decided that you're ready to tackle the rewarding process of Planetary Imaging. We understand that the process may seem slightly confusing and tedious, but capturing Jupiter's vibrant bands, massive Red Spot, and its four bright moons makes it all worthwhile.

With many factors to consider such as location and equipment for the right approach to capturing a good-quality image you're probably thinking "Where do I start?". Follow this step-by-step guide on How To Image Jupiter and you will be well on your way to becoming an expert!

| WHEN AND WHERE | 

An important factor to consider when shooting Jupiter is its location in the sky. When it has just come up over the horizon, you will be observing it through a lot more of Earth's atmosphere than if it were up higher in the sky. So don't try to image Jupiter just after it has cleared the horizon, as it will result in blurry images. Being able to image through as little of the atmosphere as possible and on good stable days will greatly improve the quality of the videos, which in turn will lead to better images (see below for comparison)

The image on the left shows Jupiter after it has just cleared the horizon. The image on the right shows Jupiter when it has reached at least a 45-degree angle in the sky

| THE MOUNT |

Ideally, a German Equatorial Mount should be used so that Jupiter remains centered during the exposure, however, you could still effectively use an Alt-Azimuth Mount with tracking abilities.

| THE TELESCOPE & CAMERA |

The first thing you will need to photograph Jupiter effectively is a telescope with a relatively long focal length. The longer the focal length, the greater the magnification, resulting in a larger image on the camera's sensor.

Secondly, a good CCD Camera or CMOS Camera is crucial for high-resolution planetary imaging.

In order to achieve the best results for your images, you will need to ensure that your equipment is working in sync. The following formula is a great guide to follow when pairing a Telescope and Planetary Camera for Imaging:

The optimal focal ratio of your telescope = 5 x Camera's Pixel Size (in microns)

For example: If your camera’s pixel size is 3 microns then you should try for 5 x 3 or f/15. 

Of course, using the right camera is a crucial factor in producing a good image of Jupiter and you want to ensure that it is comprised of all the important properties needed for good images. CCD and CMOS Cameras offer high frame rates with no compression, and using the fastest frame rate possible will effectively yield desirable results.

| CAPTURING THE IMAGE |

By connecting your camera to a laptop, your target will display on the laptop, and you can use a special image-acquisition software on the laptop to shoot videos of your target.

Once you've set up your scope, connected the camera, and pointed at Jupiter you will now want to ensure that your focus is as accurate as possible. In order to avoid poor focus and the frustration of a blurry image, we recommend a dual-speed .

Now that you've gotten through the rather more frustrating part, it's time to start shooting some video. Video is ideal to capture a lot of detail and offers hundreds of frames per second, which you can then stack in a stacking program during post-processing. This method will produce a nicely detailed composite of your video frames and can be further edited in your preferred image-editing program.