Took these at around 3.30am on Friday morning. I had an RDO so it was an opportunity to catch all three before sunrise. Finished up about 4.00am, quite chilly and the seeing was variable but good enough to catch some detail with the Canon 550d on movie crop mode. Saturn was shot at 1600iso, Jupiter 800iso and Mars 400iso. Mars is still rather small at the moment, especially with an 8 inch Newtonian but the 5X TV Powermate produced a reasonable scale to see some features. The RA motor on the old EQ5 wasn't tracking very well for Jupiter and Saturn probably because the scope was virtually pointing straight up. A problem our Northern Hemisphere followers would love to have!
My Canon doesn't have the movie crop mode so I'm just interested, do you capture the movies on the camera's memory card or transfer the stream straight to your computer? How long were the videos?
Took these at around 3.30am on Friday morning. I had an RDO so it was an opportunity to catch all three before sunrise. Finished up about 4.00am, quite chilly and the seeing was variable but good enough to catch some detail with the Canon 550d on movie crop mode. Saturn was shot at 1600iso, Jupiter 800iso and Mars 400iso. Mars is still rather small at the moment, especially with an 8 inch Newtonian but the 5X TV Powermate produced a reasonable scale to see some features. The RA motor on the old EQ5 wasn't tracking very well for Jupiter and Saturn probably because the scope was virtually pointing straight up. A problem our Northern Hemisphere followers would love to have!
Definitely some good pictures there , and nice to see the iso details too! I've been filming with a Canon camera on the planets and was worrying I was filming at too high an ISO on Saturn.
Now to wait for the clouds to go away so I can get some morning, still twilight planetary action.
My Canon doesn't have the movie crop mode so I'm just interested, do you capture the movies on the camera's memory card or transfer the stream straight to your computer? How long were the videos?
Thanks, Andrew
Thanks Andrew, I record to the camera's SD card and copy the capture to the computer later. That's one advantage of the dslr over a dedicated planetary camera, less to take outside and no cables hanging off the OTA. The Jupiter capture was a 3min grab, Saturn a 6min grab and Mars was 3.5mins. The seeing, I would regard as average during the captures. Had I used the ASI 120MM, results would have been better but my wife had the Laptop to watch movies on Netflix.
Definitely some good pictures there , and nice to see the iso details too! I've been filming with a Canon camera on the planets and was worrying I was filming at too high an ISO on Saturn.
Now to wait for the clouds to go away so I can get some morning, still twilight planetary action.
Thanks Darren, Saturn does require a little more iso than Jupiter. I was able to shoot Mars at 400iso which helped with it's smoothness. This is where planetary cameras hold the advantage over DSLR, especially mono, with their extra sensitivity.
Thanks Andrew, I record to the camera's SD card and copy the capture to the computer later. That's one advantage of the dslr over a dedicated planetary camera, less to take outside and no cables hanging off the OTA. The Jupiter capture was a 3min grab, Saturn a 6min grab and Mars was 3.5mins. The seeing, I would regard as average during the captures. Had I used the ASI 120MM, results would have been better but my wife had the Laptop to watch movies on Netflix.
Thanks Mickoid, I certainly understand the advantages of less cables . I assume you are capturing at 60fps, I was only able to get 20fps from my 700D connected to my laptop through BackyardEOS (which is why I went with the ASI224MC). I don't think you would have got much better results with the 120MM (especially in variable seeing), my own testing puts the 700D and the 224MC pretty close, albeit with my old 6" SCT. Sensitivity on the planetary imagers is about double that of DSLR, but noise levels are higher. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...-sct-test-two/
Looks like the weather's improving in Melbourne, Sunday night looks the goods at the moment
Nice work. I might be setting the ISO too high. Normally I'd start at 1600/2000 for Jupiter, Saturn around 4000, Mars 1000. Then adjust shutter speed. Often seems to be 400 for Jupiter and 125 for Saturn. I might have to try going a bit lower with the ISO.
Thanks Jeff, first time I've posted any of my planetary images in this section of the forum ( I think )
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quopaz
Nice work. I might be setting the ISO too high. Normally I'd start at 1600/2000 for Jupiter, Saturn around 4000, Mars 1000. Then adjust shutter speed. Often seems to be 400 for Jupiter and 125 for Saturn. I might have to try going a bit lower with the ISO.
In movie crop mode, it's fixed at 50 fps which is, of course, 1/50 sec, so I'm using a lot slower shutter speed than you. This is why I use the lower iso values but I'd love to go lower for Jupiter and Saturn to reduce noise. Mars is so bright, I could have almost gone to 200 iso and achieved a reasonable result.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LostInSp_ce
Fantastic work again Mick and nice to see you mix it up between the DLSR and the 120. Well done!
Thanks for the compliment LIS. The option is always there, the ASI 120MM has slightly smaller pixels than the 550d and with it's smaller sensor, it crops the images nicely. The DSLR is easier to set up if you need to get out there quickly. Movie Crop mode is a nice feature Canon released for just a few of their older models. It's a shame they omitted it from their newer ones.
I'm using movie crop mode on the 60D at 60 fps. Can you get 60 fps with the 550D? I had to select NTSC to get 60 instead of 50, but it works. Had some great seeing conditions this morning from 3am to 5am, some of the best seeing I've had. Not a cloud in the sky, dead calm, no wind- it was about as good as I'm likely to get this time of year. Grass was wet from dew and there was light frost, but it was really good.
I tried with lower ISO settings and it looked great on the camera. Here's what I used this morning: Jupiter ISO 400, SS 60. Saturn ISO 1600, SS 60. Mars ISO 200, SS 160. Should be my best Saturn, the Cassini division was the best I've filmed it at.
Well I'm looking forward to seeing these by the way you've described those conditions. I was tempted to have a go myself last night but it was just too cold outside to get motivated. Hope conditions weren't as good in Melbourne as it sounds they were in SA, or I will have missed a good opportunity.
I don't seem to be able to get 60fps with the 550d, even with the NTSC format. When I import them into Pipp, it tells me they're only 50fps. I'm not too concerned about it because I'd have to push the iso up higher to get enough signal and I'd rather not have to do that in fear of introducing more noise.
The weather we had here might move across to Melbourne tonight, sometimes it does. Could be worth checking the weather forecast for tonight.
I started a new thread with some pics from this morning, the Jupiter came up really well. Amazing how much difference good seeing makes. I reckon the lower ISO settings worked better too, thanks.
, and nice to see the iso details too! I've been filming with a Canon camera on the planets and was worrying I was filming at too high an ISO on Saturn.
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