Planetary Imaging with an Alt/Az mount?

[BlueAstra]

I'm considering getting back into lunar/planetary imaging with an AltAz system such as a Meade ETX, LS or Celestron Evolution mount. My question is can webcam imaging of lunar/planetary targets be successfully carried out to reasonable high standard on a AltAz mount? My concern would be field rotation, but can stacking software deal with that (e.g. A number of 2 min video shots spaced over say an hour)? My next concern would be the quality of the drive mechanism and whether it is 'smooth' enough during the webcam capture.

[MarsG76]

I don't see why not.. I imaged Jupiter and Venus with my Dob on a GOTO Alt-Az mount and it worked fine.

If you span your images over the hour you mention, than its easy to "de-rotate" your FOV images in GIMP or Photoshop OR when you de-rotate the planetary detail (such as Jupiter) in WinJupos, you actually align all of your frames horizontally so that in turn that would Derotate you FOV rotation caused by the Alt-Az mount.

 

[Owmuchonomy]

2 hours ago, BlueAstra said:

I'm considering getting back into lunar/planetary imaging with an AltAz system such as a Meade ETX, LS or Celestron Evolution mount. My question is can webcam imaging of lunar/planetary targets be successfully carried out to reasonable high standard on a AltAz mount? My concern would be field rotation, but can stacking software deal with that (e.g. A number of 2 min video shots spaced over say an hour)? My next concern would be the quality of the drive mechanism and whether it is 'smooth' enough during the webcam capture.

Absolutely, just follow the exploits of the author of the AS!2 stacking software Emil Kraaikamp.  My summer solar imaging is all via my EQ6 in Alt/Az mode. As MarsG76 says there are also plenty of options to remove field rotation.

Here is the Mercury transit in Alt/Az mode showing Mercury at 15 minute intervals. I used PS to take out the field rotation and AS!2 to stack.