Problem viewing Jupiter bands and details using Neximage

[aleetk]

Hi fellow stargazers! After waiting for such a long time for a relatively clear night which happens to be today, I wanted to try imaging jupiter using my Powerseeker 80eq and a Neximage webcam. I set my telescope's sights on jupiter using the agaration method. Once jupiter was centred on my eyepiece, I adjusted focus till it looks sharp then took out the eyepiece and inserted the neximage webcam into the telescope. The capturing software I am using is the amcap software that came along as a package when I bought the webcam. I could see jupiter on the screen and was excited to get started so I did a couple of setting as mentioned below before starting image capture.

Frame rate: 10 fps
Time limit: 120s (but I could have stopped capturing a little earlier.)
Shutter speed: Somehow I could not find any indication of what shutter speed it's set to. It's just a slider and I had to set it to the lowest possible in order to see jupiter appear properly.
Gain: Set it to as low as I could. Again in order to see jupiter properly.
Video output size: 640x480

The problem I experienced is that no matter what I did whether it was before the settings or even after, Jupiter still appeared as one large white blob on my screen. I could not see the bands or any other details on jupiter. What did I do wrong? Can anyone help me please so that I can try the next time round and hopefully get my 1st Jupiter image after such a long long wait.


Regards
Alex

[cloud_cover]

Is your eyepiece parfocal with Jupiter, that is to say, when Jupiter is focused in your eyepiece, will it also be focused in your Neximage? If not, you'll have to re-focus it for Neximage. I'm not familiar with your software but there should be a preview page where you can focus. Another method is to use the moons as a focusing aid: Focus your scope until the moons are as small as possible.

[aleetk]

hi cloud_cover. Thanks for the reply. The part about re-adjusting focus makes sense to me but somehow it did not come to my mind at that point of time. It's just like when I change to different eyepieces, I got to re-focus. Guess I was too excited or something to try focusing again when I attached the webcam. Can't wait to go out and try it again. Thanks again cloud_cover!