Ohh, this is beautiful. You know, i've been going to meetups where I can look through a giant telescope at night to see stars and planets, and I don't think I've seen anything as clearly and closely as this. Do you do this often? Would you be able to recommend something that is affordable that would be able to help me look into the sky? I'm really interested in this sort of thing. You ought to be proud for that photo; Jupiter is beautiful *_*

Oh gosh, thank you! Well, this is actually my very first serious astrophotography image besides pointing the smartphone's camera lens into the eyepiece and I've only had this telescope since fall. Before that I was using a rickety old flea market refractor. Good for the moon, if that. I think is generally agreed that reflector telescopes have the best aperture/dollar ratio. I got mine from Orion Telescopes although I almost wish I got the next size up so I could use an OIII filter. They seem a little expensive but then you look at other dealers who's scopes start around a few thousand dollars! According to my research a longer focal length is preferable for planetary observation because you can easily boost magnification, so if you don't mind lugging a "cannon" around you might want to look at some dobsonian telescopes. The thing with those is they can only be azimuth mounted so it might be a little tricky finding and tracking objects as they meander their way across the sky. Unless you get a computerized mount which might be the way to go if you eventually want to image galaxies... I'll need to read up on that! My telescope has a short focal length of 750mm and an equatorial mount to be a little more portable.

Keep in mind though, those three cloud bands are all I can really see on Jupiter on a really great night and the disk is much brighter. (I might invest in a planetary filter.) Besides the Galilen moons! Through the magic of Registax I was able to tease the details out, dispite my extremely discouraging raw video frames.

I hope I answered all your questions without gushing too much. For more information I've found this site to be an incredible reference for astro imaging: http://starizona.com/acb/ Sky and Telescope magazine's website has a few good articles too. Good luck! :D

Whoah.

Wowow, check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHJE6-EA1B8
And apparently that smaller cloud band is in the Northern hemisphere? I'm such a dumbass!

From there I started listening to other planet->sound clips. They're rather...addictive. Kind of mesmerizing.

I should listen to these while working on a painting. I wonder what kind of interesting effects it would have.