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!st ever time imaging a planet :)


tingting44

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hi guys just thought id share with you my 1st ever capture of a planet, i was well chuffed considering it was only a single 0.1 second sub!!! i was well pleased when i processed it, as at 1st it was simply a glowing white blown out ball lol

what would be the best way of getting a better image? i know stacking is great but where ive got an AZ mount tracking is not the most precise so from each picture to picture of the planet will result in movement of the planet from the last picture, but when i go in to stack them will the program simply align the pics regardless of how out from each other the object (jupiter) is? hope ive explained well enough still very new lol any way here is my pic

8200750131_91b91da9be.jpg

Jupiter!!! by tingting44, on Flickr

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Nice first go. The best way to improve is to use a webcam or planetary camera, and take a rapid sequence (my webcam gets best results at 10 fps, I want a planetary camera that runs at 30-60fps), and stack the results with registax. It is surprisingly easy. I use an EQ mount to track, but Registax can deal with field rotation as well (in short runs you will not notice field rotation anyway).

BTW, your Messier count needs updating. If you saw Jupiter, you must have seen the Pleiades nearby. That's M45 bagged!

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Michael speaks the truth. Since Jupiter is so bright you will be able to some really good pictures with just a cheap webcam. As a matter of fact the right webcam is usually a better planetary camera than a DSLR for most consumer scopes.

THat is not bad by the way, for being a single frame so, good work!

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Nice first go. The best way to improve is to use a webcam or planetary camera, and take a rapid sequence (my webcam gets best results at 10 fps, I want a planetary camera that runs at 30-60fps), and stack the results with registax. It is surprisingly easy. I use an EQ mount to track, but Registax can deal with field rotation as well (in short runs you will not notice field rotation anyway).

BTW, your Messier count needs updating. If you saw Jupiter, you must have seen the Pleiades nearby. That's M45 bagged!

Thanks michael :) i dont have hardly any money to spend right now with kids and coming up to xmas, so planetary camera's and such is out of the question lol the most i would have this year to spend is about £70 which my wife was going to get me this planetary eye piece

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics-eyepieces/william-optics-spl-eyepiece.html

but could easily change that to some thing imaging wise as i think i like imaging more then viewing as you get to keep the image for ever lol :) i know £70 in AP is peanuts lol but its worth a hope for the time being :)

ohhh thanks for reminding me michael about my messier count!!! in fact i spotted my 1st messier the same night as i imaged jupiter, it was M43!!! i was buzzing to say the least i can tell you lol! my 1st ever time imaging a nebula too so i was buzzing!! so imaging M43 and Jupiter for my 1st time in one night i was loving it!!! :)

michael i never even thought about looking for Pleiades tbh but just looking on stellarium i see it hard to miss, defo will check out Pleiades next night we get clear skies :)

well here is my single sub image of M43, its nothing compared to what you guys get but im well happy for my 1st time lol, the longest exposure i could get was 15 seconds before i started getting star trails :( not bad i thought with just my SW 130p

8198816905_66192541fb_c.jpg

Great Nebula in Orion - M43 {PS} by tingting44, on Flickr

Great attempt - well done :smiley:

thanks sol :D

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Actually, that is (mainly) M42 you have got there. M43 is the little round nebula near the dark intrusion of dust in M42. Two Messiers for the price of one.

Even very cheap webcams can do the trick. There are some good deals on SPC880 flashed to SPC900 around, but some sellers ask way too much. Of course, you might first just want to observe, before plunging into planetary AP (which is BY FAR the cheapest form of AP).

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Great start to your planetary imaging ting! You must use that £70 on a philips spc880/900 webcam it will be the best investment you will ever make. You would have to pay over £200 to find a better cam they are pure gold for the money! Way better than any cheaper webcams. You only need an eyepiece to align Jup in your finderscope they are not any use for anything else :cool: .

Autostakkert (AS!2) is a great free program to stack and align the video footage. Your az goto mount will work fine for planetary imaging.

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thanks carl for your kind words, missed your edited post and only saw it now :)

Actually, that is (mainly) M42 you have got there. M43 is the little round nebula near the dark intrusion of dust in M42. Two Messiers for the price of one.

Even very cheap webcams can do the trick. There are some good deals on SPC880 flashed to SPC900 around, but some sellers ask way too much. Of course, you might first just want to observe, before plunging into planetary AP (which is BY FAR the cheapest form of AP).

morning michael!!! NO WAY!!! i actually bagged M42 and M43 in that pic above!!! thats amazing buddy!! WOO HOO lol :) another one to add to my messier count :) and i saw M45 last night but could not get conditions to image it :(

thanks for the tip on the SPC880 flashed to SPC900 webcams will defo look into them after me cuppa tea :) observing does not really cut it for me no more with the WOW factor of actually capturing an image....OH GOD what have i let my wallet in for lol

Great start to your planetary imaging ting! You must use that £70 on a philips spc880/900 webcam it will be the best investment you will ever make. You would have to pay over £200 to find a better cam they are pure gold for the money! Way better than any cheaper webcams. You only need an eyepiece to align Jup in your finderscope they are not any use for anything else :cool: .

Autostakkert (AS!2) is a great free program to stack and align the video footage. Your az goto mount will work fine for planetary imaging.

monring spacecow boy!!! Thanks for your kind words my friend :) wow your suggesting getting a philips spc880/900 webcam too!!! these must be good!!!! think i will change my xmas prezzy to one of these me thinks lol but never done ANY webcam AP as of yet! lol its only been viewing and imaging with my DSLR so i might need a bit of help with this philips spc880/900 webcam lol i will search for it in a minute, so i take it this just plops into my 1.25" eye piece holder on the scope right? ohhhh i cant wait lol :D

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You might want to check how the webcam images will compare size-wise with the ones you've already taken. The 130P isn't really the optimal choice for planetary imaging and if you combine it with a webcam with a large pixel size such as the SPC900 you may well find the images you are producing are very small. There's only so much you can do with barlows to increase the image size, too.

I wouldn't say don't buy the SPC900. For £50 I think it's worth the money for planetary imaging. But I'd have a look around the imaging section first to see what other people are achieving with the 130P and see how you feel about it. You might well come to the decision that actually you'd get more use and/or enjoyment out of a new eyepiece.

James

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mhhh james now you got me thinking shall i just stick with my new 6mm planetary eye piece i was originally going to get lol hard choice lol ill try and find some people using the same scope as me and see what they are getting, thanks mate

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I've just remembered that there are two different 130mm Skywatcher reflectors, too. The 130M has a longer focal length and will probably achieve larger images more easily. Your 650mm 130P model won't achieve the same image size at the image plane.

James

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Couple of stacked 2x barlows would get you up to f20 and a bit more extension f25. You should get similar images to the skymax 127. The Skywatcher 2x barlows go for a tenner used, you don't need anything fancy. Basically you would have the same scale as your posted image but with more detail.

I put some webcam imaging tutorials on this thread :

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/76963-embarrassing-jupiters-webcam-clinic/

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thanks space cow boy i have the SW x2 barlow all ready, also thanks for that webcam imaging tutorial will check that out tomorrow, got to get ready for my brother birthday party now :(

one quick thing, would a webcam perform better then my canon dslr 7d? as i can shoot.....

With a Canon 7D

The Canon 7D can shoot 720p HD video at 60fps, but an After Effects plug-in called Twixtor lets you slow that footage down—way down—to 1,000fps. Paired with the right (relatively slow-moving) subject matter, it looks phenomenal

if i would get better results with the 7d i could save getting a webcam right? :)

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