Jupiter on Sergey's Astrophotography

Jupiter: Late-Apparition Detail

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 21:05:00 +0000

Captured near the end of Jupiter’s 2024-2025 apparition as the planet climbs lower and shrinks in apparent size, this image still resolves fine turbulent structure in the equatorial belts, along with a couple of small dark polar spots. The Great Red Spot is not in view this rotation.

Captured as RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: Turbulent Festoons and a Bright Oval

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 20:56:00 +0000

This capture shows Jupiter’s cloud bands in a particularly turbulent mood: fine, wave-like festoons stretch across the North and South Equatorial Belts, and a small bright white oval sits within the southern belt. No major storm systems are in view this rotation, but the fine-scale turbulence gives the disk a busy, dynamic texture.

The video above shows the raw derotated capture from the same night, before final stacking and color balancing — a rare look at the process behind the finished image, which appears further down the page.

Jupiter: The Great Red Spot Near the Limb

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 21:29:00 +0000

Here the Great Red Spot has rotated close to Jupiter’s western limb, still showing clear turbulent structure in the surrounding South Equatorial Belt. The planet’s characteristic banding remains sharply resolved, with a low-noise background typical of a steady night of seeing.

Captured as RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: The Great Red Spot at Central Meridian

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 23:31:00 +0000

The Great Red Spot sits almost exactly on Jupiter’s central meridian in this capture, compact and sharply defined against the surrounding cream-and-rust equatorial belts. Fine structure is visible throughout the cloud bands despite the planet’s modest apparent size this late in the apparition.

Captured as RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: The Great Red Spot in Sharp Detail

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 23:28:00 +0000

This is one of the sharpest Jupiter captures in the collection: the Great Red Spot appears in vivid orange with a turbulent, churning structure trailing behind it, set against finely detailed, braided cloud bands. Three of the Galilean moons are visible in the same frame as small points near the disk.

Captured as RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: Scalloped Cloud Bands

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 23:51:00 +0000

Jupiter’s cloud bands take on a strongly scalloped, wave-like form in this capture, especially along the boundary between the South Equatorial Belt and the Equatorial Zone. Rich rust and cream coloring contrasts against the pale polar regions, with no major storms in view this rotation.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: Fine Detail in the Equatorial Belts

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 02:02:00 +0000

This capture resolves Jupiter’s belts in fine detail: a braided, wave-like boundary runs along the North Equatorial Belt, several small white ovals sit in the temperate latitudes, and a faint dark barge threads through the South Equatorial Belt. Multiple captures spanning about three minutes were derotated in WinJUPOS to counteract Jupiter’s fast rotation before stacking, preserving sharp detail despite the longer total integration.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter: The Great Red Spot's Turbulent Wake

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 03:49:00 +0000

The Great Red Spot appears here trailed by a bright, turbulent wake of white ovals and swirling cloud structure in the South Equatorial Belt, a common sight where the anticyclone’s rotation disturbs the surrounding jet stream. Belt colors are rendered with strong contrast between the rusty brown bands and pale zones.

Captured as a single video and stacked in AutoStakkert!3, then processed in PixInsight.

Jupiter Through an Antique 1875 Refractor

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:29:00 +0000

This capture used a very different instrument from the rest of the collection: a 162mm f/15 refractor built in 1875 by the Merz-Dallmeyer optical workshop, paired with a 2x Barlow lens. The long, slow optical path and 19th-century glass render Jupiter’s belts with a distinct soft, warm character quite unlike the modern views elsewhere in this gallery, though the same equatorial banding and pale hollow near the South Equatorial Belt are still clearly resolved.

Jupiter with Ganymede, Europa and Io

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 19:56:00 +0000

Recorded on 26 October 2022, this video captures Jupiter alongside three of its Galilean moons — Ganymede, Europa and Io — through the original Meade Maksutov 127/1900 and ASI224MC setup with a 2x Barlow lens. Like the other October clip, it is shown centered and cropped for framing, ahead of any stacking or color processing.

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot, Callisto and Io

Sun, 16 Oct 2022 21:00:00 +0000

This rotation video from October 2022 captures Jupiter alongside two of its Galilean moons, Callisto and Io, with the Great Red Spot visible as a small orange oval near the disk’s southern edge. It was recorded through the original Meade Maksutov 127/1900 and ASI224MC setup with a 2x Barlow lens, the rig used for planetary imaging before it was replaced by the current Meade 8" ACF and mono camera combination.