[acarleton (Aidan)]

when i take video of a planet, any planet, i am unable to get any decent detail, and the atmosphere appears to have devastating effects on the view of the planet (i.e. instead of looking round it distorts significantly and looks like a deflated balloon, only around 70% of the object stays consistently lit up) this means that the best i can do in any video is just make out the 2 main bands in jupiter, make out the rings and just the cassini division in saturn and discern no detail on mars. i know that i should expect atmosphere issues but this just seems crazy. here is what i am doing,
hooking my GSO 254 f4 newt up with a 1.25" 5X teleview powermate. attaching the qhy 5l-ii camera to it and focussing, i also check with an eye piece to make sure it is all good. i then look at ezyplanetary and reduce the sliders until i can make out as much detail as possible.
i did find that the powermate needed an extender which i have added. i have collimated with the extender attached to the focusser. I feel the issue is either
1) the collimation is an issue, whenever i test it i need to make adjustments, including adjusting the secondary mirror which makes me think something is up there
2) something to do with the light path when i add all the elements up means that it is not hitting the sensor dead on
3) maybe a 1.25" barlow is no good for these applications
4) the gods just don't like being shot by me

this is very frustrating so any help will be appreciated. i have also attached the images i took of saturn and Jupiter (stacked in registax)

Thanks