HIGH RESOLUTION WITH A VERY SMALL TELESCOPE

The Audine camera is sufficiently light and compact to be installed at the focus of small telescopes...

 
The Audine Camera at the focus of a Meade ETX telescope, on Pic du Midi.

Despite the short focal length of the ETX it is nevertheless quite possible to observe interesting detail in Jupiter's atmosphere, by attaching the camera at focus without any further means of magnification. The image below was obtained by operating the camera in half-frame mode, using the PISCO program. Considering the small mass of the telescope, it would probably be difficult to obtain the same result with a camera equipped with a mechanical shutter, because of the vibration they generate.

The planet Jupiter, observed on 20 September 1998 with an Audine and an ETX telescope. It is a composite of 5 images, in which contrast has been augmented by unsharp masking.