dabbling in astrophotography

[Dindsy]

Hi There,
I recently dusted off my 150mm Skywatcher Newtonian and thought i'd have another go at imaging. but i'm not having much luck or i don't really understand what to expect.

I've been out in the early morning trying to capture Jupiter. I'm using a Orion Star Shoot Solar system color imager. the image i see in the viewfinder with a 8mm eyepiece shows me the color bands. but the image i'm capturing with the star shoot is just a white disk.

i've tried processing it with Registax 6 and i don't get anything better. Is my scope just not capable of getting a better image or am i doing something fundamentally wrong? Do i need filters? i don't understand the what people are talking about when referring to shooting RGB Ha, Lum. I know something of photography. i used to do print photography when cameras used film...color and B&W. so i know about filters for printing.

I'd really like to start getting galaxies but if i can't get a planet i'm not that hopeful.

I'd really like to buy something better to improve my chances but that is a whole new discussion (and requires funding approval).

Any advice or websites to hit for understanding this would be welcome.

thanks.

Martin

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Reduce the exposure time - you are probably over-exposing, so all the camera can capture is a "blown-out" white blob.

I find it is handy to have the camera exposure set quite long for initially acquiring a target, so that the planet / stars you want to capture are easy to find, but once you have it centred and tracking, on bright targets like the Moon and the brighter planets, you need to cut the exposure back until the white blob starts to show some detail and colour, and then you can "fine tune" to see what settings for exposure time and gain etc work best for you on each target.

[Dindsy]

It's not a dslr that I'm using. I am capturing a 30 sec AVI at 30fps. The image is displayed on the laptop. Do your comments still apply to that?

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Either shorten the exposure time or reduce the gain until you get better contrast and can see features on the surface...

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Originally Posted by Dindsy

It's not a dslr that I'm using. I am capturing a 30 sec AVI at 30fps. The image is displayed on the laptop. Do your comments still apply to that?

Yes, your capture software should allow you to adjust the exposure duration per frame, and / or the Gain ("light amplification") - reduce these, and the white blob should start to show more detail and colour.

[Dindsy]

Thanks, i'll give that a try.
It seems i have Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness and Gamma controls to play with.

cheers

[mariner10 (Steve)]

Hi Martin, the first time I imaged Saturn I found a similar problem to you and apart from a few other issues I also found trying to maximise your resolution helps. I had a horrible 2 minute video of the planet and it was down to resolution but gain etc. is also important.