Tracking planets?...

[Smithfire]

Simple question. Can I track planets using my EQ5 mount with the 2 motor drives and a handset? And if so would it be accurate enough for simple planetary ap using registax?

Many thanks

Clive

[knobby]

Yes :-)

[m37]

Definitely! And if you find registax struggles there is some software called castrator that picks out the planet and centers it in the video. Can help if there is too much movement between frames.

cheers

[Stargazer33]

Another good piece of software for centring your planetary images is PIPP. It also crops the image and selects the best frames so reducing the amount of memory required for Registax to work. 

[cgarry]

For centring, cropping and removing frames without a complete planet (and a whole lot more):

http://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/example-uasge/example1B

AS!2 is a better choice than RegiStax for stacking because it handles the planet moving about and even moving off frame.

Cheers,

Chris

[Smithfire]

Brilliant. What info do I have to input into the handset to track planets?

Clive

[ronin]

You should polar align the mount, usually a bit better for AP then visual, then aim scope with webcm at the planet, centre it and get the avi file. Say 2 minutes worth, although maybe less for Jupiter - it rotates pretty fast.

After that process through Registax.

The mount will (should) track as the default so you basically let it do it's stuff.

[Spikey]

Brilliant. What info do I have to input into the handset to track planets?

Clive

Once you're polar aligned and your star alignment routine is complete slew to your target planet. Sidereal rate should now be active and tracking will be as good as your alignment will allow.

[Cornelius Varley]

Brilliant. What info do I have to input into the handset to track planets?

Clive

If the mount is equipped with the basic dual axis motors all you need to do is polar align the mount and centre the planet in the eyepiece, the mount will then track the planet with little input from you.

[Smithfire]

Ok. Sorry, I was under the impression that the planets followed their own slightly different trajectory that the background stars. Do I only really need 1 drive motor then?

many thanks for the replies

Clive

[Spikey]

Ok. Sorry, I was under the impression that the planets followed their own slightly different trajectory that the background stars. Do I only really need 1 drive motor then?

many thanks for the replies

Clive

They do, but sidereal rate is used to compensate for the earth's rotation relative to the fixed points of the stars or in this case relatively fixed planets.

[Butchless1]

Ok. Sorry, I was under the impression that the planets followed their own slightly different trajectory that the background stars. Do I only really need 1 drive motor then?

many thanks for the replies

Clive

Although you really only need RA,I think you would wish you had both available further down the road, I find that no matter how good I polar align, after several hours I have had to give the dec +/- button a push to re-centre at some point...

If you had both motors you could in the long run connect control via a laptop and solder an ST 4 connection to the handset to run both RA and DEC via a guidescope- just thinking how you could futureproof at lower initial outlay

[jambouk]

Yes, you only need a motor on the RA axis to track the planets if you are polar aligned. The planets appear to move over the course of the seasons, but on an hour by hour basis you won't notice their movements to differ from the surrounding stars.

James