Focusing

When I took my photos of Jupiter, I was not entirely happy with how they turned out.  I took the advice from a few in the email group about photographing the moon and getting good at that.  I think I learned a few things, and although they arent totally perfect, the photos are becoming quite respectable.  I have been experimenting with "How close can ya get", by playing with camera resolutions, zoom functions, etc.  I have learned that the higher resolutions still work VERY well.  I've taken a few really nice close up shots using 640X480 resolution.  Take this photo for example:

The trick was indeed focusing as one of my readers commented in an earlier post.  I had been somewhat hurried in focusing the telescope, and I have found that even with the higher resolutions, it will indeed focus, although because the image is magnified substantially on the screen, the focusing gets trickier.  I might still not have the focus perfect in this image, it is not bad, as you can see some mighty small craters in this picture.

The one drawback however, and you might notice it on this image, is that any tiny dust particles on the optics becomes very irritating.  The dust that I had on some pictures I took at this resolution was actually on the barlow, which I have since cleaned.

Now I need clear skies again so I can try again using the high resolution settings.