Will A Camera Attached To My CPC 800 Make Planets Bigger?

[Zaine UK]

Noob question. I always see people who have taken pictures of planets and the planets always look bigger than what i see them. Don't get me wrong, i'm happy with what i can see, but would attaching a camera to my telescope allow me to use the cameras zoom to get a bigger clearer view of the planet through the cameras viewscreen? Also would it show colour?

I also like looking at Messiars. Would this work with them as well?

Thanks i'm a total newb when it comes to cameras attached to telescopes. I feel i'm slightly above a novice now with just my telescope. Learn't alot since i took up Astronomy in early 2012.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

With a normal camera, i dont think you would get focus by zooming, opically or digitally. People use webcams to get pictures of the planets, they are similar to a 6-7mm EP, and sometimes over many exposures, and then stacked in software later on. The pictures are also cropped afterwards, so as its just the planet your seeing, and no blackness around it, it makes it appear bigger.

[Zaine UK]

Thanks.

[brantuk]

You can use a barlow to enlarge the image

[pel]

People use a lot of magnification on the planets upto x5 barlow's with the Webcam. You can even combine 2 x2 barlows, I've tried a x3 and a x2.

I prefer to just image the planets with my SPC900NC Webcam as I get to see them close up on my laptop while I'm recording the AVI's. The resulting images are the combination 1000's of different frames.

The thread "Embarrassing Jupiter's" has a lot of very useful info.

http://stargazerslou...er#entry1594026

Imaging the Messier's requires, either a modified webcam (for long exposures as the chip gets hot and needs cooling), a DSLR or a dedicated Astro CCD.

Normal attachment of a DSLR to a telescope is to remove the lens and directly attach (with a t-ring). The DSLR will pickup colours, but to pickup some of the wavelengths, the internal camera filter should probably be removed. Astrophotography is a very steep learning curve and I'm a beginner myself.

[Zaine UK]

Thanks.