AAHHHHHH!!!!!

[Yidoboy]

I give up! I need a dual axis motor and a half decent 3x barlow!!!

I just cannot, for the life of me, get a decent planetary image. Jupiter - nope! Saturn - nope! Mars - nope!!!

Help. That's another thing I need. A lot of help. A huge, massive....."here let me do that" kinda help.

I just want a half decent image of Jupiter, Mars and Saturn....apparently though that's too much to ask!!!

And breathe.......

[Qualia]

Yido,

I'm only a beginner myself - got my scope last week - so what I have to say may not be much help, but bear with me.

First thing which sprung to mind was that perhaps there is something amiss with the collimation? I mean, I have a 4" refractor sticking out of my heavily light polluted inner-city bay windows and its getting fantastic views of Saturn, some of its moons and all.

Mars will always be a disappointment but if we just consider for a moment its size (no bigger than the moon) and just how far away it is from us, an average of some 225 million km, then I figure that even to see it as a gleaming ball is something magic. Again, Jupiter, at the moment, is not in its best viewing potential.

I'm no expert on this but perhaps the magnification you're using is just a little to strong. Barlowing your 10mm plossl on the 900 focal length is giving you something like a 180 mag which might be a tad too much if you're not under good seeing conditions.

Again, my 4" refractor is not pushing anything more than 140 mag from the city (trying to figure how I can get out one weekend to really push the scope) and I'm getting decent views of the planets. Perhaps a little investment in a Baader ortho will get the ball rolling? The 6mm will push you to 150 mag which I reckon will be more than suffice for Saturn.

Final word is that perhaps you are expecting too much? I don't know, but you're not going to get much more than a tiny lentil size thing in your eyepiece. I imagine much bigger scopes like 10" dobs and the such, don't really get much more than a pea sized planet.

You've got a decent scope, it should give you hours of experience, so stick with it and it will come.

Hope there'll be others to give you better advice.

Qualia

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Well said Qualia. I get frustrated sometimes, but when you say image, I assume you mean in your eyepiece not a camera attachment? Remember your not gonna see Cassini type imagines of Saturn. But personally, I think the view is amazing.

[Yidoboy]

I mus admit I've never seen any moons when looking at Saturn....perhaps I do need to check my collimation. Might pop down to my local Astro shop and get that sorted.

In terms of Image, I'm after a decent astro-photography image of Jupiter and Saturn.....

I'm currently using my spc900 webcam on my barlow...not sure whether this is too much mag or not????

[dtr42]

what kit you using/ apart from the webcam?

[sytra]

I have a SW130/900 and have had a few great views of Jupiter and Venus both with the standard 25mm and 2x barlow, the problem comes when i introduce the spc900 into the mix, i can get it to focus and get a reasonably good image of jupiter, however as soon as i put in the barlow i cant get anything no matter where i try and focus, maybe the barlow and camera dont match up.??

I am not 100% sure how this works myself as i am still a beginner but hopefully you will get some good advice

[JamesF]

Realistically you do need an RA motor at the very least. DEC is not an absolutely requirement, but handy.

I'm using a Revelation 2.5x barlow successfully, so 3x should be achievable for your scope. People speak favourably of the Tal ones. Initially though, I'd start without one at all. Just get the planet on the screen and keep it there for a while. Practice getting the image focused well. Once you can achieve that then start jacking up the focal length with barlows/extensions.

Be aware as well that with the size of scope you're using and the SPC880/900 the initial avi image will look fairly rough. The stacking and processing makes a huge amount of difference. I've the settings I use in Sharpcap elsewhere in the forums if you need some ideas on where to start.

I'd forget Jupiter for now, and leave Saturn for a month or so. Concentrate on Mars. Jupiter is getting too low and Saturn not high enough for the best results right now, whereas Mars is ideally placed. it is unfortunately the smallest of the three, but you can't have everything.

James

[Yidoboy]

what kit you using/ apart from the webcam?

I'm using my stock barlow and running the webcam through WxAstrocapture. I am then using Registax to finalise the picture.

[The Warthog]

I disconnected the Dec motor on my controller, as it is easier and quicker to make adjustments in declination by hand.