Super noob in Astro photography

[Jemmo (Adrian)]

So I got myself a dslr and I have a ten inch dob I'm not after insane photos I know I can't track or do long exposure shots I just wanna get a few snaps of Saturn Jupiter ect to show friends and family I have a 2x Barlow I don't seem to get a very big picture of Saturn in my camera how does a 3x or 4x Barlow go with the dslr and ten inch dob? I don't want to buy one and not be able to get focus or get one and it be too much mag for photos I'll attach a bad photos my first ever photo through my scope of Saturn to show how big it is through 2x Barlow.

Like I said my first ever photo I've never used dslr before was out of focus and rushed before clouds came but I just wanna get a bigger image

[Stonius (Markus)]

My understanding (and I'm a bit of a noob in a similar situation) is that you can either get a bigger barlow, but the best results are had with cameras that have smaller sensors to start with, thus magnifying the image. A lot of people use webcams to great effect, but you have to buy the correct ones so you can manipulate the exposure.

A full sensor DSLR is never going to give you serious planetary photos. They're more for wider field stuff.

Cheers

Markus

[Stonius (Markus)]

FYI - the best pics I ever took using the method you described are at the beginning of this thread http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/a...e.php?a=200191. Might give you an idea of what's possible using an untracked (large-ish) Dob, DLSR and a lot of post.

Edit; I should add that this is using eyepiece projection, which is partly how the planets were that big in frame. EP projection isn;t really recommended because you have to deal with EP imperfections and the fact that they're generally made for displaying an image for eyes, not cameras. :-)

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

The focal length of a dob is often fairly short meaning you get a lot of sky but not too much mag
Putting two barlows together will give you x 4 .
Take a movie and see how you go

[phomer (Paul)]

Jemmo,

Saturn is small and a DSLR has a large sensor, not an ideal combination.

You would be better off using a mobile phone which has a small sensor and taking a video.

You need a long focal length and may find it better to use the barlow with a low power eyepiece and use the camera through that. A bit of experimentation will be neccessary.

Regards

Paul

[Jemmo (Adrian)]

I have a phone holder to use on my dob but I have the hardest time ever trying to align my phone so it sees through the Ep I usually end up getting angry and giving up haha

[sil (Steve)]

you've made a good start, and you can get much cleaner detailed shots with the gear you have and no additional costs. basically you want to start learning to align and stack shots to reduce noise and then wavelets to bring out detail. You'll be blown away by just how much detail you can get if you are patient.


simplified:

- take lots of photos like you have done or a video during a 3 minute period (the larger planets are rotating so longer timespans can reduce possible details.). this is signal collecting, collect as much data as you can quickly.
- install PIPP (free) and run your video or photos through it an center object and probably crop the output to a small resolution to save space (unless you are getting moons, you should keep them). and output to bmp files. This makes up for not having tracking, you should end up with a series of uncompressed (no added artifacts) black images all the same size with saturn in the center.
- you can now dump these into Registax (also free) to stack and combine, then use the wavelets feature to bring out the details.

There are many ways you can go about using what you have and getting better results in the end which are so much better than you get out of the camera. but the above steps will get you good results. don't worry about correct exposure in camera, after aligning and stacking the image has plenty of data to bring up the exposure. look at trying autostakkert and DeepSkyStacker (both free) as well. you end up using lots of different programs for different things in astrophotography so give them a go and learn to be patient, until your data gets to the wavelets stage it'll probably still look crap but dont give up. experiment and have fun!

[Jemmo (Adrian)]

Wow very handy info sil thank you. Can I ask what wavelets is?

[sil (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Jemmo

Wow very handy info sil thank you. Can I ask what wavelets is?

Complex to answer. It's a sharpening method that works across multiple scales to refocus the image with the signal provided by stacking lots of images. You might be able to reveal in your shot the ring gap (Cassini Division) and maybe cloud banding on the planet and even a moon or two. Its a LOT more than just applying noise reduction and sharpening to an image. Just search online for registax and wavelet tutorials, they are a series of sliders in registax so play with them, but you need to stack a bunch of shots first for them to work so try the steps i outlined, they are very simple, and you'll see for yourself how easy it is. After that its about learning to get more and better uncompressed source shots to work with and trying different software and you'll learn as you go. There is much in our skies to capture with a camera. Of course there are bigger better telescopes and more specialised astrophotography cameras if you have the money, but I think if you learn how much work there is in getting a nice pic (its not just press a button and you're done) you'll know if its for you or not before wasting thousands on gear you won't use.

[el_draco (Rom)]

Remember also that increasing the focal length, increases the magnification and therefore the speed at which objects appear to move in your image and also the affects of turbulance in the atmosphere. Both consequently affect degree of blurring. You might try building a simple equatorial platform for short duration exposures. Look here for an example:

http://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.h...attform_e.html

Having said that, not a bad image!

Rom