Considering Planetary Imaging

[CKemu]

So far I have used my scope - plus DSLR to image the Moon, a few DSO's with ever improving success; however planets have always eluded me and over the course of reading forums and learning this subject, my understanding that 'videoing' the object and placing it in Registax is likely to give me the best results.

I have a Meade LX 90 8" SCT, I also own a 2x barlow and a reducer (takes me scope from f/10 to f/5 and gives me a much wider field).

My concern is that an imaging ccd/webcam etc is going to produce such a magnified narrow field that imaging say Jupiter / Saturn may become impractical.

Does anyone have any experience with SCT's and planetary imaging, for instance I am saving up to purchase the Orion StarShoot Solar System Colour Imager IV.

Will I have issues with focal plane, dimness and will it be magnified so much that no matter how good Registax is, it just won't be able to compensate.

I know my polar alignment will have to be spot on, but I can get 20 minutes unguided with the object in a 12mm eyepiece only moving 1/6-1/8 across the eyepiece. Any other movement I should be able to guide out.

[Cornelius Varley]

If you look in the Planetary imaging section you will find that most of your concerns will be laid to rest. The ideal imaging setup for planetary imaging will include a barlow lens of at least 2x if not more. The camera should be capable of recording an image at F20 or even more and registax will stack the avi.

Peter

[JamesF]

To add to what Peter has said, guiding isn't that much of a problem with planetary imaging. I use an unguided EQ3-2 (with the after-market motors fitted) and 127 Mak and have pushed the focal ratio up to around f/35 without "losing" the planet from the sensor during imaging runs of up to ten minutes. It doesn't matter too much if the image moves around on the sensor as long as it doesn't move too quickly. Registax can sort that out.

Image brightness can be a problem, but your SCT is much larger than my Mak so may well give you less trouble. This spring I had no problems with Mars, but getting decent magnification on Saturn was almost impossible as a result of the relatively small aperture of the Mak and Saturn's low position in the sky. I can't imagine there will be any major problems with Jupiter and Venus in their current apparitions and Jupiter particularly should be an excellent target for getting to grips with the processes involved.

If you want to do it "on the cheap" whilst you're saving for a better camera, an Xbox Live camera is very cheap and relatively easy to modify. I'd not describe it as outstanding, but it might allow you to get a lot of practice in for fairly minimal outlay. SPC900s do come up once in a while around the £50 to £60 mark, too.

James

[boabsta]

I would recomend the xbox 360 cam to start with. Thats what I am doing and as yet I am still to try it but it cost me £1.63 off ebay with free postage so whats to lose?

This way I should hope to get a feel for the whole imaging thing and hopefully help me to decide when and on what sort of cam to get if I enjoy it.

[fredster]

I would recommend reading a few reviews about the Orion Solar System Imager IV:

http://www.telescope.../58/p/52175.uts

A good camera for lunar and solar but lacking the sensitivity and controls for planetary. Just a heads up really. I messed around with version III of this camera with a friend and we found it better than the famous SPC900 on lunar but a lot poorer on anything planetary. I think a cheap webcam with a large CMOS chip will do the same job for a lot less money. Still can't beat the SPC880/900 for real budget planetary imaging. If only there were still any available.

Jupiter is very placed for the next 3 seasons. Should be a great opportunity to grab some stunning images.

[riklaunim]

If you really want to go into planetary imaging then no webcams and no Orion/NexImage/QHY5 cameras for imaging. The best (but not cheap) is TIS DMK21AU618 or it's 618 color variants if you want color. F-ratio depends on pixel size. For the most common 5.6 micrometer pixels I use f/20 for average imaging and f/30 for very good seeing. Higher doesn't give anything, just deteriorates the image due to overscaling. 8" scope is big enough to use a dedicated planetary setup.

If you want something cheaper than DMK21AU618 then in new cameras there is PGR Chameleon (more lunar) and IDS UI-1245LE/UI-1240LE. From used also ebay may be an option with matching PGR, Basler, TIS and other usable machine vision cameras. There is even Firefly on ebay - very cheap, but not the best thing (similar to QHY5v but with lower gain values that make imaging harder) - depends how deep you want to go in.

[CKemu]

Thank you all - certainly given me some re-assurance and some things to consider. I'm looking forward to doing some planetary imaging and also streaming video from my scope to people on Google+ and generally getting some photos of the things that first inspired me to look in to the night sky.

Can't wait for Jupiter this year and get payed at midnight tonight - so may just have to put an order in, well excluding that DMK21AU618 - amazing as it is, my word is that expensive!