Jupiter, Saturn, Mars Planet Parade with Animation: Mak127/NexStar SLT

[calli]

Hi,

using my wacky NexStar SLT and Celestron Mak127 is often frustrating, but when hunting planets it can be rewarding to overcome the limitations.

The images are done with a ASI120MC and Firecapture. Used a 3x Barlow.

Processed in AS!2, sharpened in Registax, touchups/GIF in GIMP 2.9.x.

Cheers,
Carsten

[laudropb]

Lovely set of images and animation.

[calli]

I just made a comparison of calculated (JuPos) and my imaged Mars. Yea! Not only smudge on the lens or stacking artifacts :-)

Happy Carsten.

PS: The lower one does not fit exactly, messed with the date in JuPos.

[Pete Presland]

Excellent set of images, a tough set of targets there. 

[Aussie Dave]

That's quite a nice set of planets from the 127 Carsten. You're getting some good detail coming through, nice work.

[mikeskor]

Really fine images. Well done.

Mike

[Jeff-Colorado]

Stunning images with your ASI120MC.

I have a Celestron 127 SLT and haven't had much success imaging with my Sony A5000 camera and Celestron 8-24 mm zoom EP. Which EP did you use? Was it difficult to focus with the 3x Barlow?

[orion25]

Very nice images. Keep up the good astronomy!

[calli]

6 hours ago, Jeff-Colorado said:

Stunning images with your ASI120MC.

I have a Celestron 127 SLT and haven't had much success imaging with my Sony A5000 camera and Celestron 8-24 mm zoom EP. Which EP did you use? Was it difficult to focus with the 3x Barlow?

I used a ASI120MC which is mounted focal, so no eyepiece. Same for my DSLR. With the 3x barlow I get 4500mm focal length and the small chip on the ASI120MC makes a small field of view, so much pixels for the whole planet disk.

Focussing is always a pain especially when the seeing is bad. So you often need to do a test and change it slightly. I use a motorized focusser which is controlled via bluetooth, a very nice thing for that high focal length.

Cheers,
Carsten

[Jeff-Colorado]

Thanks for the info, Carsten. Your terrific images are most encouraging about what is possible with this scope.

Is there much difference between the ASI120MC and the NexImage 5?

[calli]

On 17.6.2016 at 17:36, Jeff-Colorado said:

Thanks for the info, Carsten. Your terrific images are most encouraging about what is possible with this scope.

Is there much difference between the ASI120MC and the NexImage 5?

Hmm. Just did a quick look and if I am not wrong this camera is more a still camera? Video resolution 640x480? Not sure. At least I think the ASI is more versatile, also usable as guide camera and even for a bit Deep Sky... But maybe better ask in a video imager board :-) Of course you will get maaaaany opinions ...

Carsten

[Jeff-Colorado]

I'll do a bit more research (and take more photos with my Sony A5000 and see if I can improve the quality). Thanks.