Astrophotography: Jupiter Personal Best

[ghi]

Wabbit, you must know a lot about photography, need an advice;
I'm about to go in vacation, and i was looking for 2-3 days to buy a new camera: i never had an SLR, i read about it, i understand the difference, but i don't want to spend more than 600-700$, and this guys from BestBuy and 2 other stores are telling me to get a high end digital vs low end SLR at that price.
What do you think?

[CptTrips]

Wabbit, you must know a lot about photography, need an advice;
I'm about to go in vacation, and i was looking for 2-3 days to buy a new camera: i never had an SLR, i read about it, i understand the difference, but i don't want to spend more than 600-700$, and this guys from BestBuy and 2 other stores are telling me to get a high end digital vs low end SLR at that price.
What do you think?

To be honest, my area of knowledge is pretty specialized to astrophotography.  There are some other terrestrial photographers on this board who would be better to ask.  Ripsnort and some other come to mind.

But if you want my quick, shoot from the hip advice...  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012YA85A/ref=asc_df_B0012YA85A882504?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=googlecom09c9-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B0012YA85A  Canon Rebel.  Digital SLR.  I prefer Canon over Nikon.  Better selection of 3rd party lenses I think.  YMMV.

Wab

[mechanic]

amazing picture, so what do you see when you view through the eyepiece with your own eye? More of the same but smaller and blurry or what? Thanks for posting, its awe inspiring.

[CptTrips]

amazing picture, so what do you see when you view through the eyepiece with your own eye? More of the same but smaller and blurry or what? Thanks for posting, its awe inspiring.

Thanks.  Hard to estimate from memory, but this is about what I remember it looking like at the eyepiece: (but imagine looking at it thru fluctuating seeing like looking through heat waves in the air...)



(opps I used a different image so it doesn't include the Great Red Spot, but you get the idea.)

Clear Skies,
Wab

[mechanic]

the distortion in real time must give some sense of the distance involved but still...its hard to visualise quite how far away it is. Thanks for the reply, i'm sure we'd all love to see more!

[mbailey]

  i'm sure we'd all love to see more!

 +1 (Not to sound selfish) But I agree completely. Your photos are remarkable Wab.