Below are photos of Jupiter and Saturn taken through the Celestron CG-11 scope. The photos were taken using the afocal method, the camera was an Olympus C3030 zoom (digital camera, images taken at 2048x1536 pixels). The scope had a 24mm Brandon eyepiece and a Daken 2.4x barlow in line (magnification = 280x). The camera's optical zoom was also set to maximum. The camera was mounted to the scope using a homebrew mount; the camera's remote control was used to trigger the shutter. These two photos are the best of about 140 taken! The trick to good planetary images is catching the image at a moment of good seeing. Such moments are usually brief and fleeting, so the method is simply to take a huge number of photos (this is easy with the digital camera). The work is to then sort through all the images and find the best ones. Both photos taken from Oakdale CT. Images processed using PhotoShop. Photos taken 12 January 2001.
Jupiter through the CG-11 scope using Afocal method as described above. Note the Great Red Spot.
Saturn through the CG-11 scope using Afocal method as described above.