First planetary image - Saturn with DSLR movie mode

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Hi there Everyone,

Finally got some clear skies in Melbourne on Sunday so I thought I would set up for some casual viewing. When I looked at Saturn through the eyepiece I was amazed at the detail of the planet and the magnification I was achieving. Sure enough we had some lowish jetstream so I thought I would have a crack at my first planetary image using a DSLR. So here it is :

Scope : APM 130mm LZOS Triplet Apo F6
Camera : Modded Canon 550D (Astrodon)
Barlow : Baader FFC (at about 4x)
Captured in Backyard EOS in Planetary mode
Also had the IDAS LP2 filter in place

As always comment/critique always welcome
Clear skies,
Lucas

[h0ughy (David)]

fantastic image - well done

[MortonH]

Nice!

[Quark (Trevor)]

What a great result for your first attempt Lucas, very well done.

Regards
Trevor

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Simply excellent for a first attempt Lucas.

keep at it!

Cheers

Chris

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

excellent first image.
Hey, do you recommend getting the 550D modded?? I'm thinking of booking mine in for surgery.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Brilliant Lucas! Great capture.

Cheers Petra d.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Looks great!

[von Tom (Tom)]

Hi Lucas, nice image with plenty of colour depth.

Cheers,

Tom

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

fantastic image - well done

Thanks h0ughy, much appreciated! Hoping to get some more practice in soon...

Originally Posted by MortonH

Nice!

Thanks MortonH.

Originally Posted by Quark

What a great result for your first attempt Lucas, very well done.
Regards
Trevor

Thanks Trevor! Your images have definitely inspired me to tackle the planetary side of astrophotography.

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Simply excellent for a first attempt Lucas.
keep at it!
Cheers
Chris

Thanks Chris! I think the DSLR can produce results that are quite good which you have demonstrated.

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

excellent first image.
Hey, do you recommend getting the 550D modded?? I'm thinking of booking mine in for surgery.

Thank you jjjnettie! Hmmm....550D mod is a tricky one. It depends on a couple of things I suppose. The reason I went down that path is because my wife still wanted to use the DSLR for daytime photos but I wanted the Ha sensitivity. When I changed the filter inside to the Astrodon, I also bought the Hutech VLC daytime correction front filter which restores perfect white balance but is just unscrewed to give me my astro cam. I have the best of both worlds to an extent but.....as you know the small pixels are great for image resolution but can be noisy for long exposure work. It is warmer where you are so this will be (and has been) even more of a problem. I have overcome the noise to an extent with dithering and darks but cooling would be great. The Ha sensitivity after the mod is fantastic but if it was purely going to be an Astrocam maybe a QHY9 OSC or SBIG ST-8300C would have the distinct advantage of cooling. Cost also came into for me too. Because I did the mod myself I only had to pay for the price of the filters. I do love the Ha sensitivity from the mod so if this is more cost effective than the dedicated astrocams then go for it! Plus you get video with the 550D which is pretty good for planetary and will become better with firmware and software updates. Also still perfect for Daytime shots with the Hutech VLC filter (which is far superior to Xnite CC1 filters or custom white balance IMHO)
Like everything with this hobby there is always a lot to weigh up. Never easy...what to do

Originally Posted by spacezebra

Brilliant Lucas! Great capture.
Cheers Petra d.

Thanks Petra. Appreciate it

Originally Posted by Matt Wastell

Looks great!

Thanks Matt.

Originally Posted by von Tom

Hi Lucas, nice image with plenty of colour depth.
Cheers,
Tom

Thanks Tom. Also really like your latest three image with the sharp Saturn.

[ChrisM]

Lucas, that's a great first result! And I think it's the first pic that I've seen made from DSLR movie frames. How many frames did you take / use? Well done! I also got some superb views of Saturn through the eyepiece last week when seeing was very stable.

Chris

[asimov (John)]

Nice start Lucas!

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Thanks Chris! It was nice to finally get some cleaner views down here. I took five 1000 frame avi files one after the other using Backyard EOS, processed them with Registax 5.1 and took the best 10% (500 frames). For some reason if I try to take longer avi files the computer can sometimes crash when compiling the video so I find 1000 frames lots are best for me.

Originally Posted by ChrisM

Lucas, that's a great first result! And I think it's the first pic that I've seen made from DSLR movie frames. How many frames did you take / use? Well done! I also got some superb views of Saturn through the eyepiece last week when seeing was very stable.

Chris

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Thanks Asimov. Really enjoy your work!

Originally Posted by asimov

Nice start Lucas!

[Forgey (Paula)]

Very nice Lucas!

[StephenM (Stephen)]

That's an excellent first image of Saturn Lucas! Nice work.

Cheers,
Stephen

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Originally Posted by Forgey

Very nice Lucas!

Thanks for looking Paula.

Originally Posted by StephenM

That's an excellent first image of Saturn Lucas! Nice work.
Cheers,
Stephen

Thanks Stephen. Hopefully some more good nights sooner rather than later! There is a lot of tips and advice on IIS that I have found very helpful in producing this image. It's a great forum

[Troy]

Good images Lucas, looks like you are off and running. 8-)

[saysme (Steve)]

Lucas, What a great image, I have a 600d how did you get you camera to function in movie mode without a camera lens?

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Originally Posted by Troy

Good images Lucas, looks like you are off and running. 8-)

Thanks Troy. I'm very happy with the start so onward and upward!

Originally Posted by saysme

Lucas, What a great image, I have a 600d how did you get you camera to function in movie mode without a camera lens?

Thanks Steve. I use Backyard EOS in planetary mode for the capture where the camera can be in M mode connected to the PC via USB. You can also use the EOS Utility program (PC via USB) but you have to be in Movie mode for that one. If you are not using a PC and are going stand alone camera I am pretty sure with movie mode you can ignore that warning message and just press OK and it will start live view without a lens attached.