DIY Ideas to Help Get Into Planetary Imaging

[Gina]

I must admit it is very easy on a canon dslr as long as the model has movie crop mode. You can centre the image in normal video using the full 1920x1080 and then select the movie crop mode that only uses the center portion of the cmos sensor and gives an output of 640x480 at 50fps.

Its like having 5x zoom. You then use EOS utility to give a nice big picture on the laptop. Then you can change between the two movie modes without even touching the camera one for centering image and one for recording. The 50fps is nice as well lots of frames to stack.

I've just read the 1100D manual and it doesn't have "Movie Crop Mode" - it only does 1280x720 at 25Hz (PAL) or 30Hz(NTSC)   Another model I have 450D doesn't even do movies/video

[Gina]

Interesting. I tried with two spcs, it almost worked but was unreliable. I wonder if different cameras require different bandwidths. BTW mine was on a 15M cable so that may also have been a limitation. Or maybe depends on the quality of the drivers.

Joe

USB is only supposed to work up to 5m without repeaters.

[Gina]

I rather like the look of the ASI120MM-S particularly as my imaging laptop has a USB3 port.  Been looking for suppliers and found 365Astronomy who I've used before and found pretty good.  Anyone found any better?

[Gina]

I was awake at 4am this morning and with guiding having failed on the DSO imaging run I had going, I decided to have a quick look at Jupiter which was at about 20 degrees elevation in the east.  My mount/scope alignment was slightly out so using CdC slewing, Jupiter didn't immediately appear in the frame of the 460EX on the Esprit but it was only just outside and a spiral sweep soon found it.  I centred it using the reticle in Artemis Capture and found I could get it centred within a few pixels by manual slewing.  So this seems a practical way of getting a planet in the FOV of a planetary camera on the MN190

I'll put a Philips SPC900NC webcam on the MN190 and when conditions are suitable again I can give it a try.  Initially without a Barlow.  I can control everything from the comfort of the lounge except for opening the obsy roof.  I really could do with getting the remote ROR opening/closing working

[Gina]

Highly cropped Jupiter image from 460EX on Esprit 80ED at pixel for pixel view.  (Full frame FOV: 1.79° x 1.43° Resolution: 2.34"/pixel.)

Exposure 0.003s in Ha.

And zoomed in...

[JamesF]

That's rather tiny

James

[Gina]

Yup!

I dug my Philips webcam out and put it on the MN190 with the rig pointing at my setting up tree on the far hill.  After installing .NET 4 (Full version) followed by SharpCap 2.1, I tried to get the webcam working but no joy.  Went into Device Manager and no sign of it.  The Prolific UART that controls the long exposure mode was there though, so the USB is working.  Seems the camera may have developed a fault

Have to try another webcam or guide camera or something...

[Joe_L]

Gina> USB is only supposed to work up to 5m without repeaters.

JamesF> On a 15m passive cable I'd not be surprised if you run into problems to be honest.  USB wouldn't be expected to be reliable over that kind of cable length.

I'm using an active cable. Running 2 spc900nc's together plays up even on a short cable.

Gina> I tried to get the webcam working but no joy

Which driver version are you using? I guess you've already checked that.

Joe

[andyboy1970]

I bought my  ASI120MC from there, no problems, great service.

The problem with planetary slews is that they don't always end up bang on.

[Gina]

Gina> USB is only supposed to work up to 5m without repeaters.

JamesF> On a 15m passive cable I'd not be surprised if you run into problems to be honest.  USB wouldn't be expected to be reliable over that kind of cable length.

I'm using an active cable. Running 2 spc900nc's together plays up even on a short cable.

Gina> I tried to get the webcam working but no joy

Which driver version are you using? I guess you've already checked that.

Joe

good point   Must investigate.  Thank you

[andyboy1970]

When slewing to a planet I goto a nearby star re-sync then slew to the Planet. Increases accuracy.

[Gina]

Thanks

[idbvideo]

with regards to the EOS 1000 movie mode, provided it has live view, you could use Backyard EOS. It has a planetary mode which basically uses the live view image and creates a movie via stills. I am not sure if I have the explanation right, but I do know it does not use movie mode.

I plan on doing some planetary when the skies are clear enough for me to do it. Especially as the nights are getting longer :-)

[Gina]

I have several SPC900NCs so could take the lens out of one of those.  OTOH I might just go the whole hog and buy an ASI120MM-S and use it with my filter wheel.  It may also double as guide camera for DSO imaging though i don't know how it measures up against a Lodestar X2