First Saturn pic from a 1 week newbie

[EzyStyles]

lol compare this pic to others saturn pic this is quite bad. But hey, just bought a telescope only last week and started playing with it. Pointed my sony digital camera into the eyepiece and fiddle around until i can see something from the LCD screen. Was kinda troppy cloudy night. Took a .mpg movie with 99 frames at 640 x 480 (32frames ps rate). frame 13 seem to be the best so I simply captured it (print screen) :P

-Optex 8" 800mm F/4
-2x Barlow
-Plossl 9mm
-Sony DSC-T1

Seem kinda small and out of focus? maybe from the digital camera. anyone can point me to the right direction would be great.

ps. this is my ever first astro pic! yayyy! :)

[jjjnettie]

Pretty good for a first effort.
I'm only a beginner as well, so I can't help you much except for....
Download a copy of Registax, its free. Then you can stack all of your frames to make one really good pic.
Use your cameras optical zoom to enlarge the view through the eye piece.

[EzyStyles]

took a few more video's as i was disappointed with the first one. This time using zoom on the digital camera. Have to say, the camera is really crappy. Same method as before using print screen.

[EzyStyles]

Thanks for the reply. Stack as in merging frames? sorry im really new trust me. Those were the best frames. Others are really blurry. I was trying to use the 4mm to get better magnification but can't find saturn on the LCD screen. Was moving the camera left, right center still nothing.

[davidpretorius]

great start mate.

http://precons.com/iceinspace/Articles/imaging_toucam_planets_notracking.a spx has a section on registax which covers the program registax.

By "stacking" ie merging lots of frames together, you are able to bring out more detail.

[Robert_T]

Onya Ezistyles, get stuck right in. :) One week into it and you've produced an image on Saturn that experienced amateurs would have struggled to capture 10 years ago. As DP says get yourself Registax and start stacking ;)


cheers,

[iceman]

Ezy, can you save your images as jpeg instead of bmp? They'll attach to the forum better (showing a thumbnail) and they'll be smaller in size.

Thanks

[EzyStyles]

Thanks guys. Will learn to stack tonight. NP riceman.

[ving]

riceman?
lol

looks like my first ones ezy :)
doesn you camera have opticla zoom?

[davidpretorius]

good question sling

[EzyStyles]

it has optical 3x and digital i think 8x. when the second images were taken, i was using the optical zoom never digital as i read somewhere it distorts the image.

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Ezy,

Your off to a great start. My first Astro pics were taken with a little cheap Kodak Digital camera shoved up against the Eyepiece, and the results at first weren't as good as yours. But it got a bit better with time (not much better though).

I have since changed to a Toucam Web Camera and find it a lot easier. I have been using telescopes for 20 years now but I've only been into Astrophotography for the last few months. I still have heaps to learn.

Here are 2 shots by me through 2 different scopes (1 with tracking, 1 without) to show you where I am up to with planet Saturn. I still have to learn how to get closer shots!

See, not that much different to yours. Keep up with it, and enjoy.

[jjjnettie]

Its the fine tuning of focus between the camera and the scope that is the tricky bit.
Oh, and keeping the planet in the field of view.
Registax.
Can you convert your .mpg to an .avi? Then you can start processing it. Choose frame 13 for your allignment square if it was the best. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

[EzyStyles]

hey ballaratdragons thanks for making me feel better and the encouragement not to give up :)

Here is the processed image. Much better. Thanks David for your tut on Registax and astra image. Really really helped me out. It is now in my favourites.

[EzyStyles]

and another, this time using abit of optical zoom on the digital camera.

[davidpretorius]

well done mate!!!

are you coming to the star camp in march at snake valley (near ballarat)

it will be a great learning chance??

i will be bringing the laptop and bird (planet master) will be there, so in terms of learning registax and processing techniques, a great opportunity!

plus have some fun with the guys and look at scopes!!!