Zwo First test 120MC Strange Venus

[ehgore1978]

Tested my new colour ZWO 120 for some fun however I did notice some wierd rainbow effect around the edge of Venus is this normal or a processing thing. I also think my focus was out with jupiter and Mars. had a hassle with my 3x barlow getting Mars into frame so just did it without, spat the dummy thats why no saturn haha. Its been way over a year since Ive done any astrophotography and first with a colour cam or non DSLR

[Rigel003]

Planetary imaging takes endless patience so take a deep breath and don't spit the dummy. Good starter photos. The colour bands on Venus are due to differential atmospheric dispersion, especially noticeable when the planet is low. The colour layers can be aligned in processing with either Autostakkert or Registax.

[Stonius]

That can be caused by using the same exposure for all filters, rather than adjusting to get the same histogram on a filter per filter basis. If the planet 'blooms' a bit more on one than the other, you get colours because the different images are essentially different sizes.

Of course, this assumes you're using filters, not one shot colour, in which case I guess I would look to optics?

Cheers
Markus

[andyc]

Graeme is right, good start there Scott! - he's also right that as you're using a colour camera (120MC), atmospheric dispersion is an issue when planets are low - especially below about 30 deg or so. See if you can use the RGB align feature in Registax, or manually align the channels in Photoshop or Gimp. While it's not a perfect solution, it should reduce the rainbow effect substantially.

Focus looks like it was OK to me on your Mars and Jup. What aperture is your scope?

[ehgore1978]

Yeah I had other people show up and got to distracting. My laptop was playing up so I was looking at what I had through the pc inside my shed going onto a projector screen. Was having a lot of proplems finding Mars when I attatched the camera and 3x Barlow. Just the camera I could find it but obviously it was smaller

[ehgore1978]

Hi Andy my scope is a 10" SkyWatcher Black Diamond reflector on a HEQ5. Considering its my first Venus I actually like the effect haha but always have to try to improve. Had problems finding Mars in my 3x Barlow with the camera. Id get mars in centre with my eyepiece, pull that out and stick the camera in. Got it fine with no Barlow but just couldnt find it when the Barlow was attached. Jupiter and Venus I found no problems with it

[astronobob]

You can be happy with them after not imaging for a time Scott,, done well ! !