Quote:
Originally Posted by Outcast
Are you trying to capture single shot exposures or video?
I assume you already have a bhatinov mask that you use for focus on deep space imaging? If so, good news.. you can use it for planetary too... just focus on a bright star the same way you do for deep space shots, achieve focus & then slew to your planet of choice.. or the moon...
For imaging planets, video is the only way to go... when you try to capture single frames you are subject to luck of the draw on seeing conditions. If you look at the moon visually, you will see it flutter in and out of focus... that's just a factor of seeing and atmospherics.. to try & capture single exposures you just have to be dead lucky on firing off the image at the exact moment it flutters into focus.. Good Luck... 
If you capture around 30 seconds of video however, then you capture a thousand or more frames.. you then use Autostakkert (free) to separate & stack the individual frames... Autostakkert has a number of settings which allow you to analyse the quality of the frames you've captured & decide on a percentage to stack.. hence, you get the best frames & this will generally result in a much clearer image...
However, we're not quite done yet... from Autostakkert, take your result across to Registax (another free program) & use the wavelet functions to sharpen your result... go easy though... to aggressive & the result isn't overly pleasing... but, you can just play with the sliders until you are happy.. I think there are six layers of wavelet adjustment... just tweak each one at a time & observe what happens.. you'll get a feel for how it works...
Final step, take the resultant image across to your image processing software of choice (ie: Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Gimp - Gimp is free by the way) & give it a final colour/exposure/levels tweak as required & hey presto, you'll turn out some great shots...
A couple of examples below.. |
i do have a bhatinov mask and yes my nebula images have all been pretty good when it comes to focusing. I have bit of a photography background so wasnt full noob when coming into this field. I was just trying to take single images last night testing my new 5x out. Tonight if it stays clear i will try these exact instructions and see how i go.
Is there any particular video settings needed when filming with the dslr?