To get a really decent photo of Jupiter showing the bands of the planet requires some specialist equipment including a decent telescope. However you can take a recognizable photo of Jupiter and its four main moons with much more modest equipment. With a basic SLR camera and a telephoto consumer zoom lens (e.g a 100-300mm zoom from Tamron or Sigma or your favorite camera manufacturer will do). I had a crack at it with a Samsung Schneider SA 50-200mm zoom lens (this is the same lens as the Pentax DA 50-200mm).

The photo below is taken with a Pentax K100D digital SLR camera with a Samsung Schneider SA 50-200mm zoom lens. You can just make out the four moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Samsung SA 50-200mm photo of Jupiter - not exactly telescope quality but you can make out 4 moons. K100D - 1s, f8, iso 1600 - cropped heavily but no other pp.

Camera Make: PENTAX Corporation
Camera Model: PENTAX K100D
Focal Length: 200.0mm (35mm equivalent: 300mm)
Exposure Time: 1.000 s
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO equiv: 1600
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Center Weight
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Identifying the Moons of Jupiter

The first challenge is to figure out where Jupiter is in the sky . check out www.xxxx
A tripod (and preferably a cable release) is required for a shot like this. Focus the lens manually on the stars and get Jupiter i the viewfinder. For the shot below I had the lens at full zoom (200mm) with shutter speed of, aperture f8 and ISO xxx.

In order to confirm that the white dots on your photo is an image of the moons of Jupiter, you can look up the moon positions for that date and time on the internet at www.hjk.xxx. Here is