Though I usually don't try to image planets-too hard(!)-I attempted to see if I could image Venus yesterday with the webcam, but found that I had big diffraction spikes and virtually no detail..generally very unsatisfactory
Would any of you planetary gurus be able to provide some tips on how to go about this?especially K3CCD settings?
The planetary Gurus will probably give you the correct answers but some of the best planetary pics I have seen in here where the ones taken with 'ordinary' to 'extremely good' digital cameras afocally!
My little Kodak pocket digital doesn't quite work well enough for astropics but some other slightly better models give good results. Then you've got the Canon 30D pics!!!! WOW!
Narayan,
You won't get detail on Venus, you'll only get the phase. Some amateurs *have* extracted some detail in the cloud tops of Venus, but with very specialised equipment and methods. Steve Massey is one of them, he had an article in one of the mags a while ago about it, i'll try and find it.
So just concentrate on getting the phase, and you'll probably need a lot of RGB shift in registax after it's stacked.
Also don't forget that the Jetstream is right overhead us in Sydney at the moment, so seeing (for webcam imaging) is absolutely shocking.
it's a catch 22 situation. The best shots I've pulled off on Venus is when it's towards it's great elongation. Or it will be too close to the sun and horizon and thermals to get a clear view. Nov 4th is when this happens. But you should be able to get images well before that date.
Mercury is looking pretty cool at present. I lil cresent shaped moon lol. It will be at it's greatest elongation on the 24th August. But I reackon you could probably image it now. So it wont be long before Venus will be image-able.
The pic below was taken with an LPI. No filter involved, except a medium edge filter was applied during post processing.
