Imaging the outer planets - frustration!

[iceman (Mike)]

Last night I went out to image Neptune and Uranus.. what a lesson in frustration that was.

I had little trouble finding the planets for an eyepiece view, thanks to Starry Night, eyeball and finderscope, but trying to get the image on the CCD was frustrating beyond belief.

I was out the front of my house, with a street light and the laptop ruining any possible dark adaptation, so I could barely even see it through the finderscope, and I couldn't see the black crosshairs. When I turned my red led's on to illuminate the finder, being so dim, the faint smudge of star-like planet became invisible.

I ended up giving up on Neptune before capturing anything on the CCD. I turned my attention to Uranus, which was brighter in the finder, and I took out the 5x powermate and went back to a 2x barlow. I also changed the frame rate back to 7.5fps with a 1/8s exposure time to give a brighter image.

I finally got Uranus on the CCD, and figured out that my problem with Neptune was not enough light coming in, and not a long enough exposure.. They're so faint, that at the focal length, frame rate and exposure I was using, it wouldn't have been visible even if it was in the centre of the CCD - and this was at 100% gain.

I captured a few avi's of Uranus, with 100% gain and 1/15s exposure, but it was a very frustrating experience. I got nothing of neptune to show.. I don't know if I'll bother trying again from home, it's just too hard with a dob without goto to get it accurately in the FOV for the CCD - not to mention that I need a long exposure (like, 1/2 s) to let enough light in, and my platform isn't accurate enough for 1/2 s exposures.

So, I think i'll give up on the outer planets for now. I'll image them again in the future when I've got my OTA mounted on an EQ6 or something.

[xelasnave]

You can only do so much with your mount set up and I recon even having a go was pretty ambitious. Even with a "fair" mount (eq5 or lxd55) I find planetary work so demanding there is no joy in it for me, whereas a nice widefield is relatively easy with less frustration. Try a hood like the old photographers used when viewing can make difficult light situations tolerable.
alex

[Robert_T]

Good to learn you are mortal Mike

Must give these two a go now the planetary drought is upon us. Surprised though that you had to go so to such a slow exposure to capture Uranus. Didn't recall having to go quite so slow with the Neximage on it last year, but then again it was quite a while ago!

cheers,

[Lester]

Nice try Mike. Enjoyed reading your report.

[Dennis]

I’m sorry Mike, I just can’t let this one go; I absolutely have to capitalize on your immense pain and wretched suffering, so well recounted in your heart breaking story.

What’s all the fuss about? When I took an image a couple of weeks ago, all I had to do was select Uranus from The Sky, click the Slew button and it was in the middle of the ccd. Whilst capturing several 3 second exposures, I was inside brewing a cuppa, chatting to the missus whilst keeping one eye on the TV.

Upon my return to the ‘scope and computer, the cheeky beggar had drifted slightly off centre in the 640 x 480 frame, perhaps by as much as 50 pixels drift in 10 minutes. Sheesh, these Tak mounts just can’t track!

Cheers

Dennis (heading for the door - fast!)

[mick pinner]

You beat me to it Dennis, if ever there was a press release needed for the old Go-To Mike just wrote it. There was a thread awhile ago about us Go-To'ers being a lazy bunch, to right l am but l can see Neptune.

[davidpretorius]

ice, i appreciate what you have gone thru, having similiar probs.

please can we cancel any membership for cheeky assed bris-vegasites that constantly throw awesome joops, moon shots, uranus & neptune moons!!!

At least we can say how much good old fashioned pride we gain from doing it the hard way......these young wippa snappas don't know how easy they have it with goto........well actually they do know how easy they have it....but that is not the point......i am not sure what the point is except to say..... we both need an eq mount mate!

[Lee]

Don't be surprised Dennis if the next time you try to log in, for some reason your password doesn't work - wait - maybe you won't even see this reply
I'm sure it won't take you long to guess gH65$@%^tYTY<><>[[[029uehd as your new password though!

Originally Posted by Dennis

I’m sorry Mike, I just can’t let this one go; I absolutely have to capitalize on your immense pain and wretched suffering, so well recounted in your heart breaking story.

What’s all the fuss about? When I took an image a couple of weeks ago, all I had to do was select Uranus from The Sky, click the Slew button and it was in the middle of the ccd. Whilst capturing several 3 second exposures, I was inside brewing a cuppa, chatting to the missus whilst keeping one eye on the TV.

Upon my return to the ‘scope and computer, the cheeky beggar had drifted slightly off centre in the 640 x 480 frame, perhaps by as much as 50 pixels drift in 10 minutes. Sheesh, these Tak mounts just can’t track!

Cheers

Dennis (heading for the door - fast!)

[iceman (Mike)]

LOL Damn you Dennis!

It's times like these I am envious of the goto, accurately tracking mounts..

I don't even want to do DSO photography (yet), I just want a less frustrating experience when doing planets and moon.

For visual observing, I love the dob + EQ platform + DSC's, but for imaging, there is something to be said for convenience.. imaging is hard enough and frustrating enough as it is (with all the processing as well)..

A goto, accurately tracking mount just takes a bit of that frustration away.. (assuming you can drift align it properly).

Thanks for the laugh Dennis, my wife asked me what I was smirking at (while reading your post) - I told her, and she said "what? That's like setting up a "knitting machine" and pressing a button and having it done when I come back"

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

That's like setting up a "knitting machine" and pressing a button and having it done when I come back"

And what is wrong with that

[iceman (Mike)]

My thoughts exactly Paul.. go to the shop and buy a blanket/scarf/jumper.. why knit one?!?

[acropolite (Phil)]

Originally Posted by iceman for Mrs Ice

what? That's like setting up a "knitting machine" and pressing a button and having it done when I come back"

No Mike; tell her Go-To is more like removing the need to chase down the sheep, shear it and spin the wool first.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by plasmodium

Don't be surprised Dennis if the next time you try to log in, for some reason your password doesn't work - wait - maybe you won't even see this reply
I'm sure it won't take you long to guess gH65$@%^tYTY<><>[[[029uehd as your new password though!

Hi Lee

My jester's act must have pleaseth the king and his court, for the head of this knave hath not yet rolled.

Cheers

Dennis

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Lee

My jester's act must have pleaseth the king and his court, for the head of this knave hath not yet rolled.

Cheers

Dennis

Laughingth outth loudth Dennisth

[netwolf]

Mike, Imagine doing it without a Platform and you can appreciate my situation. So there is someone worse of than you so take pride in what you have achived with what you have. I think for a dob you would be better of adding a bartel or servo system to it for Planetary work.


Regards

[Dennis]

On a more serious note, even having a polar aligned, equatorial mount that tracks and/or auto guides, does not always mean that ccd imaging suddenly become easy and hassle free.

The many unwanted variables that you either need to remove, control or manage in order to produce nice, sharp, natural looking images, (whilst remaining sane), are certainly reduced to a minimum. But there are sufficient of them left to challenge, and occasionally thwart you, especially if you do not have a permanent set up and therefore need to set up and tear down your system every session.

So, whilst not nirvana, but certainly less frustrating than Mike’s set up, don’t be seduced into thinking that this stuff ever gets easy; not in my experience anyhow. That’s why the real heroes are the dobbers, who do it the hard way.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving (David)]

dont see yoyur problem mike... just what are you whinging about?

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Dennis

That’s why the real heroes are the dobbers, who do it the hard way.

Heroes?

I have images of Mike storming Omaha Beach with the Dob on his shoulder bazooka style!