Quote:
Originally Posted by Spidy
I'm curious. I've had my telescope home since last Friday and the only clear night we had in Melbourne was Saturday night, which I couldn't use because of prior engagements (i.e the missus).
So, I'm still to see first light with it. My question is, those images you posted Nick, are they actual size, that is, is that what you see in Sharpcap or Firecapture or AutoStakkert!2 or whatever it is you use?
I have a 23mm, 8.8mm eyepieces and an ASI017 and ASI174 MM mini cameras, so I'm guessing for planetary, I use the 8.8mm eyepiece and the 174 mono camera for capture?
Some details of how you captured those awesome images would be great Nick.
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Hi Phil, welcome to the rabbit hole
As Nick says (nice images by the way
), no eyepiece required, just connect your favourite camera (I'd start with the colour camera myself) to the end of the OTA (with a Barlow if you have it) and away you go. Not sure what equipment you have, but the best way to capture the planets is to track them for a few minutes at a time, capturing video frames as fast as you can (within reason of course) using something FireCapture (my personal favourite), stack them in AS!3, sharpen them in Registax, post process in Photoshop (or your favourite editing software) and away you go.
For best results, you should try to capture at a focal length around 5x the pixel size of your camera in pixels, so for your ASI071MC you should aim for f/24 with your Barlow. Capture Jupiter for 3 minutes, Saturn and Mars for 5, and aim for 100+fps. This should give you a good set of frames to choose from when stacking.
According to my weather apps, it looks like the next best time for imaging in Melbourne is Monday night (although we may get a chance on Sunday also), so lots of time to brush up on your technique
Watch these videos, they will help a lot.
http://planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
Andrew
P.S. Last time I got out there, I was able to bag a few myself, this is the best time to be imaging the planets!@
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=184973