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imaging planets mainly the moon

tony69

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tony69

tony69

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hello

i was woundering if anyone can help me i have a skywatcher 150pl on eq5 mount and a spc900nc webcam

but was looking for something a bit better for takeing photos of the moon i have done loads of a focal digital camera which iam happy with but would like something else i find the spc900nc pics are not good i have a budget of about £150/200 dont now if i can get anything for that i have read other topics on here and viewed loads of webcams but cant make my mind up as there are loads of mixed reviews.

hope someone can help me please

many thanks tony

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JamesF

JamesF

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Are you stacking images from your SPC900 for the lunar images, and can you post an example?

You might also try with your 350D, controlled by APT (Astrophotography Tool) or BYE (Backyard EOS). Same basic procedure -- take a few dozen exposures in quick succession and stack them.

James

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tony69

tony69

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hi james

have not got any pictures saved now was useing registax think spc was on its was out thankyou for advice

peter

have had a look at this qhy5v it looks very good thankyou

was woundering if anyone else has any thoughts on this one before i buy it

tony

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JamesF

JamesF

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Have you looked at one of these, little bit more expensive, but it takes its power from the USB lead so one less cable to trail about....and it might be a better CCD, i don't have a clue about that though......

http://www.firstligh...autoguider.html

Not that clear from the description that I can see how many frames a second it might be able to generate, either.

James

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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The better results you want to get the better camera and bigger scope you will have to get. SX Costar is not an option as it's a gudier without support in planetary imaging software (and without that it's nearly useless for planetary imaging).

At the moment there is a big sale of PGR Firefly 0.3 on Ebay - it's close to QHY5v but lacks autoguider port and high gain values (but it's only $35). Anything from the really good planetary cameras costs from around 350 EUR and up. Some webcams (like old SPC or new MS Lifecams) can be a quick and cheap start. The unexpected Firefly sale also :)

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JamesF

JamesF

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Just thinking about imaging the moon for a moment, I think I've calculated correctly that the moon will appear just under 11mm wide at the image plane of your 150PL. With an awful lot of webcams and planetary imaging cams that means you'll need to take multiple images and create montages if you want an image of the entire moon. For images of individual features on the moon they'll probably be fine.

The alternative for getting a shot of the entire moon in one go would be to use your 350D, which would easily fit the entire moon on the frame.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Hmm. Usually that's because the focuser either won't go in far enough, or won't go out far enough. If it won't go out far enough that's a fairly easy thing to fix -- you just need an extension tube. Assuming you're using a T-ring you can get suitably threaded extensions without too much trouble.

If there's no enough inwards focuser travel then that may mean you're stuck unless you can get a low-profile focuser. The irritating thing about low profile focusers is that you often then need an extension for all your eyepieces to reach focus :( Perhaps someone else might be able to suggest an alternative solution as I can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

James

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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any thoughts on this Celestron NexImage 5 Solar System Imaging Camera just over my budget ?

Try to get the Firefly. Similar, much cheaper and although the sensor is smaller it has a better, global shutter. It's also mono which is very good for lunar imaging. For planets it allows some sharp mono imaging with red/orange visual filters (VIS+IR).

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tich

tich

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There have been some good results with the XBox webcam on planets & the moon although I haven't tried one personally. I managed some moon shots with my DSLR on Thursday night & was quite pleased with them although the webcam mosaic I did on the same night was far better just more time consuming. I kept messing around with the DSLR's ISO & shutter settings until I was able to get an image on the viewscreen. Maybe if I'd took a lot of photo's & stacked them it may have improved matters. You can see then here.

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