Webcam Pic of Jupiter

JUPITER!

Pics by Mike Banta and Doug Elick

Original stacked picture

 Brighter version

This photo of Jupiter started as approximately 1200 frames of video in AVI format captured by a cheap Philips 700 model webcam.  The webcam was disassembled and had the focusing lens and LED removed.  The lens was very easy... the LED was a not so easy.  The webcam had a 35mm film canister attached, which allows it mate with the telescope(see pic below).

Modified webcam

The video was captured and saved via free webcam software (Free 2x Webcam Recorder), and then processed (stacked) by another free piece of software called Registax 6.  The stacked process takes all frames from the video and uses the best still frames to make one complete and hopefully better picture.

This isn't the best picture but it was really cold outside and we had a really late start because of the webcam preparations.  You can clearly see the two main bands and it sure looks like the Great Red Spot is visible.  Here is a much better pic taken by someone much more capable for comparison:

The goal was just to get the webcam ready and do a test run.  Success.