Deep sky and planets

[RobertC]

Hey there, recently i've been having trouble with image magnification when using my dslr for imaging. I've been using the 2x barlow and still the planets even Jupiter i struggle to get detail on. Can anyone give me any tips regarding getting better detail and magnification.

Ps. I've been looking at a new focus system for my 200P to focus with a finer detail and also 3x to 5x barlow.

All i have been able to get is a distance un-focused image where the only detail is the difference of colours.

[glowingturnip]

I've had poor results using a DSLR for planets too, and to be honest, it's not worth the hassle - you can pick up a webcam off ebay for under £50, I got my SPC900 for £35, and it'll do the job much better - use that with Sharpcap and a 4x barlow or so, and you're golden

[lensman57]

Hey there, recently i've been having trouble with image magnification when using my dslr for imaging. I've been using the 2x barlow and still the planets even Jupiter i struggle to get detail on. Can anyone give me any tips regarding getting better detail and magnification.

Ps. I've been looking at a new focus system for my 200P to focus with a finer detail and also 3x to 5x barlow.

All i have been able to get is a distance un-focused image where the only detail is the difference of colours.

Hi Robert,

First point to clear is that magnification is meaningless for imaging, what you have is image scale which is  dependant only on the focal ratio of your telescope and nothing else, the longer the FL the larger the image of your target on any chip or sensor of any size. Your scope has an FL of 1000mm native and it will always project same size image of jupiter on DSLR, computer webcam, Planetary camera or even a super espensive cooled CCD.  Your idea of using a Barlow lens is effectively to increase the FL of your scope at the expense of loosing brightness, but what it does,  it will spread the image over twice 3 times as many pixels and therefore in theory at least it will increase the resolution of the scope and the chip combined. Another way is to obtain  a plnetary camera with very small pixels, this in effect is the same as a Barlow but iwill not dim the image and you'd be able to obtain finer detail. With your F5 scope you can gup to 3X  Barlow provided that your camera is sensitive enough to pick up detail that is now faint and that your mount is steady enough to carry the effective FL scope of 3000mm. At this point accurate focusing becomes critical. The only sure fire way of doing this is to achieve focus on a nearby star to your target using a Bahtinov Mask or by using software that analyses the brightness of the image ( at focus the object is at its smallest and brightest ) . Jupiter, depending on your latitude, is not well placed for imaging at the moment, give it a few weeks and things are very different.

Hope this helps.

A.G

[RobertC]

It's more of the trouble getting the detail using the focuser and with a 60d and they are not known for their lightweight body it becomes a struggle, anyway thank you.