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As Seen From Our Gardens 2026

Also managed to get some photos of Jupiter and all 4 of its Galilean satellites in the last few weeks. Photographing Jupiter is a bit of a dark art (these are taken with a camera and very big lens, not through a telescope) - you have to wait for a moonless, cloudless night otherwise you loose the surface markings, or satellites, or both. Then some post-processing is required as the moons and Jupiter require vastly different exposures and you have to combine 2 or more images to get the final shot:-
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Best one I've took for Jupiter surface detail recently is this one - 3 moons only visible (4th is behind Jupiter probably):-
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Earth and Jupiter are currently at the closest point they will be for the next 10 years - so ideal time for photography. Add a crystal clear night just before midnight yesterday and I managed to get this one:-
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All 4 Galilean satellites and excellent cloud detail. Moons from the left - Ganymede, Europa, Io and Callisto
 
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For the first time in about a fortnight we had a relatively clear night last night. Had the opportunity to photograph Jupiter at approx. 9pm, 10pm and 11.30pm - so you can see the movement of the Galilean moons over a shorter period of time - from the left Ganymede, Europa, Io, Callisto:-
9pm:- 1769594372429.png

10pm:-
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11.30pm:-
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Also got some nice moon shots last night:-
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Thanks Mark for yourr photos. Such a reminder of when I was into photography,
but now in old age unable to take
photos without shaking. What equipment do you use and what exposure timess for such photos.
 
Hi Johnny; these were taken with a Canon EOS750D DSLR camera, and a Tamron 150-600 4.5-6.3 Superzoom at full zoom. All but the latest Jupiter shot were handheld, but only because I could not be bothered to get a tripod out. The more megapixels in the camera chip the better - the 750D has 24.1MP. Keep image stabilisation on the lens on if it has it, and remove the UV filter if you have one on (which normally you should to protect the lens) - otherwise you may get flare off the filter as the moon is so bright. Do not add a teleconverter - loss of image quality outweighs the extra magnification - you can zoom in on your editing tool, and 100ASA on a 24.1MP chip gives you a LOT of zooming.....

Moon - exposure will vary from night to night depending on phase, position in sky, time of day, etc. I always use shutter priority at 100ASA, ignore the camera exposure meter and shoot a range of exposures from 1/500 sec down to 1/25 sec. Then look for the best ones afterwards in your edit tool (bigger the moon phase, shorter the exposure). I find the best ones are under exposed by about 2-3 stops - this allows the smaller craters away from the terminator to be seen. Put this into any editing tool, tweak the brightness and contrast up a bit (not a lot), zoom in and you get a nice result. Trial and error. Full moon - under expose by around 3 stops (you may need to go to 1/1000 sec) - then push contrast up a lot.

Jupiter - these are composite shots - one of the planet, one of the satellites - you cannot get both the cloud bands and the satellites in the same shot - well not with this level of kit anyway! Shoot in shutter priority mode at 600mm zoom..
Planet - range of exposures from 1/400 to 1/60 second at 100ASA. Increase brightness and contrast a bit in edit tool.
Satellites - range of exposures from 1/100 to 1/20 second at 800ASA. Increase brightness a lot in edit tool.
Use https://theskylive.com/galilean-moons to work out which moon is which - you can set this to local time, and it will also show the red spot position, although it is just beyond my kit.
Edit - first find best shot of the moons - match it to what is on the website above to work out which is which. Copy this image somewhere (I use powerpoint) - note the magnification, then find your best image of Jupiter (exposures can vary night by night - see moon above) - screenshot just the planet at same magnification, then copy it over the white blob in the moons image to create your composite image. Works so long as one of the moons is not right next to the planet:-
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These methods work for me - other folk may be able to suggest better ways (yes please!!!).
Finally - if it is even slightly cloudy or hazy - don't bother that night - you will loose all the fine detail on the moon and Jupiter will be a featureless blob.
And - don't forget to let camera and lens de-condense when you take them back indoors otherwise you are in for a cleaning job before you can use the kit again.

If you do not have a big lens you can still indulge - near full moon, Jupiter and Orion taken 3 nights ago (I forgot to take UV filter off 30mm prime lens and you can see the flare on the moon as a result):-
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Finally - YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD!!!! Add a tripod and a wired cable release into the mix if you cannot hold the camera - all of these were taken from our back yard in Sutton Coldfield so travelling not required. Nearly all my kit is second hand - the camera body was only £150, but the lens was more expensive (£480 - but still a snip at that price). Good dealers like Park Cameras, Wex or CeX have a good selection online and will not scam you. Avoid Ebay like the plague!!!!!
 
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