how not to take a photo of Saturn

[shane shaw]

here is a photo I took of saturn the other night with my Canon EOS 400d and 75-300mm

can you please tell me what I did wrong ??????? all the photos turned out the same..

thanks

I am thinking overexposed ?

28/03/2008 19:59:37
Tv(Shutter Speed)
4Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F5.0
Metering Modes
Evaluative metering
Exposure Compensation
-2/3
ISO Speed
1600
Lens
EF75-300mm f/4-5.6
Focal Length
155.0 mm
Image size
3888 x 2592
Image Quality
Fine
Flash
Off
White Balance
Tungsten
AF mode
Manual (MF)
Picture Style
User Setting3(Standard)
Parameters
Tone Curve : Standard
Sharpness level : -
Pattern Sharpness : -
Contrast : 0
Sharpness : 3
Color saturation : 0
Color tone : 0
Highlight tone priority : -
Color matrix
-
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
3412 KB
Dust Delete Data
No
Drive Mode
Single-frame shooting
GPS Data
Satellite signal status : -
Date(UTC) : -
Latitude : -
Longitude : -
Altitude : -
Geographic coordinate system : -
Owner's Name
unknown
Camera Body No.
830441439

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

The really simple answer is to either:
1. try eyepiece projection (it's ok but not as good as 2.)
2. get a ToUcam and Barlow and crank out cracker images by the dozen.


Well it does take a bit of practice but it is more satisfying than trying to do it with a DSLR.

BTW your focus is a long way out as well.

BBTW your 300mm lens is nooooo where near long enough. Try imaging though your 12" instead.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Try this program for your 400D
http://www.xmission.com/~jstanley/focusassist/

and download a magnifying program to get in nice and close. I use Magnifier 2.4

http://www.iconico.com/index.aspx bottom left corner.

[joshman (Josh)]

in one word (well, two)

shutter speed.

and focus, by the looks
.

try a combination of ISO400, shutter speed of 1/100 sec
about f/6.3 or so should do it. planets are quite bright objects, so your pic is largely over exposed.

[shane shaw]

thanks all for the tips and programs will give them all a try. I now have a better grasp of the exposure time problems after having a chat with a pro photographer and plaing with my camera in manual mode taking pictures of lots of things

shane

[shane shaw]

here is a picture taken with my Acuter ccd camera. I have used my old 4" celestron SC and barlow. I have got the focus as best as it will go and still the pictures is you guessed it ****. Now when I have used this camera the acuter digital imager it never seems to be able to focus in on saturn very well. Does nayone have the same prolems ? I had previously tried with my 12" meade and had similar results.

Being a bit of a novice with this thing I was thinking it would be really good but I am a bit dissapointed with the thing. Or am I expecting too much. As far as I was concerned it was around 19:30 tonight and was around 15 c and 4 knots wind.

thanks guys oh and girls

[skwinty (Steve)]

Hi Shane
The pic is overexposed and ideally you need to have lots and lots of images stacked to really end with a good picture

[shane shaw]

Originally Posted by skwinty

Hi Shane
The pic is overexposed and ideally you need to have lots and lots of images stacked to really end with a good picture

thanks for the comments mate. When you say over exposed, I understand in terms of taking a picture. However with the ccd camera how does one under expose ? It does n't have the ame controls as a DSLR. Oh an by the way so when you do get good pictures 1 isn't good enough you need to stack heaps on top of each other to get a good one ?



thanks mate

[skwinty (Steve)]

Hi Shane
For planetary shots most people use a modded web cam or a camera capable of shooting 15 to 30 frames per second. you literally can stack thousands of these short exposures and end up with an image that has good resolution. ie you can see the divisions in the rings around saturn. I am not familar with your ccd but you must make shorter exposures so not as to overexpose.
Keep at it!

[shane shaw]

thanks steve