First images and now I have the bug for more

[Simsyuk]

Hello everyone; well I'm new into startgazing after watching the BBC live shows last week and I thought I have to give this a go. WHAT HAVE I MISSED, wow it's really great fun.

I purchased a secondhand Skywatcher PK13065 computerised parabolic Newtonian Reflector, pluged it in, did all the settings as per the intructions and off it went wizzing around the sky. 

With my first attempt I was pleased but a little disapointed taking a photo of Jupiter for some reason I couldn't get a really good picture, with that in mind would someone be kind enough to suggest what to purchase (I was looking at a 5x barlow lens from ebay).

Anyway here are my first attempts, I used a Sony a77 using a wireless trigger so I didn't shake the camera.

Thanks for any comments.

[Scott]

pretty impressive for a first attempt, especially saturn . Sorry, being serious though, although Jupiter is one of the easier planets, it's far from easy so I reckon you've done a great job here.

[wxsatuser]

Very good for a first try.

[Simsyuk]

Thanks Scott.

[Simsyuk]

Thanks Mike.

[wuthton]

Excellent efforts, did you frame Jupiter like that purposefully? I think planets look excellent framed with the rule of thirds.

[Astrosurf]

Great first go! Planets are really hard as atmospherics can be troublesome. People normally use a webcam or dedicated planetary cam as they take lots of rapid shots, so at some point the atmospherics settle and that shot will catch the planet when it's clear. Then you stack the resultant vid in Registax and it can be set to stack only the good-quality frames. You can then process in Registax or move to processing software. When you take one snap with a camera, it's likely to have taken it when the atmospherics are making it blur. Focusing is an issue too. I use a Bahtinov Mask and focus on a star or one of Jupiter's moons.

The capture software I use for my planetary cam (and when I used a webcam) is SharpCap. It's brilliant, but of course you need a laptop or Netbook etc!

Does your camera have video mode? That can be used too.

Alexxx

[Mattscar]

Id be very happy with those images if they were some of my first! 

The Moon is relatively easy to photograph with most kit as its nice and big, shiny, easy to spot and has almost limitless detail at any magnification. The planets however are abit more difficult.

Astrosurf sums it up quite well in the post above so I won't go repeating anything. Using that method myself, with a similar scope to you and a £3 xbox webcam I bought from amazon I was able to produce images like this

Jupiter 16.2 by A Drummers Space, on Flickr

Saturn 640 20fps 02_06_2013 by A Drummers Space, on Flickr

Experiment with what works for you, dont be dis-heartened if something doesn't come out great, but by all means keep it up!

Matt

[Astrosurf]

Ditto Xbox cam. A very good start. Here's a tutorial on how to mod an Xbox Livecam for AP:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/131246-xbox-livecam-mod-cliff/

And Xbox 360:

http://astrobeano.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/xbox-360-webcam-for-astrophotography.html

I don't know how available they are now or their drivers, though.

[Simsyuk]

Thanks for all your feedback and comments it's very helpful. The guy I purchased the telescope from was very helpful informing me what I needed to do, luckily he had a connection to my camera (he also had a Canon) that fits to the telescope.

I just plugged it in, told the telescope to find Jupiter and then had a look as was impressed but by the time I connected my camera everything had moved (funny 5 minutes trying to find the darn thing again LOL) but I managed to get it aligned to the bottom so I thought quick take the shot.

My camera does have video and it's pretty good, I also have an old Philips SPC900NC web cam in a draw somewhere so I will try that to see if it's any good (the telescope came with a web cam fitting - no idea how it works but I'll give it a go LOL).

[simmo39]

V nice.

[Astrosurf]

The SPC is a great little cam. Plug it into your laptop or whatever and attach it via the nosepiece to the scope's EP holder. Open SharpCap. Choose the camera, which should automatically be in the list, from the Cameras menu. The Compression should be YUY2. Frame Rate shouldn't be more than 10fps for this camera as you get too much compression, or so I've been told. Resolution at its greatest, but that should set itself automatically. Play around with Gamma, Saturation and Brightness. Have all that right up when you're looking for the planet, as it's easier to see when it's out of focus and faint, and then focus and adjust settings to suit. Do note that if Gamma's too high you get noisy banding.

I hope these instructions are right. They're from my dodgy memory!

[Simsyuk]

Thanks Alex, I will be playing tonight. We're having a little party with a few friends to take a look (if it's a clear night), everyones welcome.

[Astrosurf]

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

[Simsyuk]

Well we had our little party and we ended up looking at clouds all night LOL but a fun evening anyway.

[Astrosurf]

Darned annoying, but I'm glad you had fun!