Simac

By Simac

Jupiter and Io

On the basis of various weather app predictions I spent the best part of 30 minutes setting up my gear under total cloud cover. Jupiter appeared briefly through a small gap allowing me to centre the planet and do a quick focus. Then it vanished. Lots of tantalising clear-ish patches but they all missed the planet. After a further half an hour or so I managed to get a few seconds of usable imaging, then it clouded over fully. Another 30 minutes to pack everything away; such is an amateur astronomer's lot!
This image is a stack of the sharpest 300 video frames that I obtained. Known as lucky imaging, software is able to combine the frames that have been least affected by the atmospheric instability and allows for a clearer result than could ever be had with a single exposure. 

Io is an interesting Moon, slightly bigger than our Moon it is the most active volcanic body in the solar system. The vulcanism outpaces the cratering caused by asteroid and meteor strikes, constantly resurfacing Io. 

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