Help with imaging planets

[Stargazing101]

So I've seen Jupiter, Saturn and Mars through my telescope and they're really nice but when i take a photo of them with my dslr it looks like a faint smudge. i don't know what else i can do so any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks! 

[PeterCPC]

Please tell us what gear you are using. Then we may be able to offer some suggestions.

Peter

[Knighty2112]

Not sure if your in the UK,  but the  planets are very low in the sky for us northern hemisphere observers, so couple that with any average or below par seeing on any nights and the planets don’t look great on a single image with any camera, so some form of stacking of multiple images with software is required to bring out a better overall image. Free software like Registax will help with this,  but there is a bit of a learning curve to get the best out of any stacked images. If the seeing conditions are still poor then the image results will still reflect this alas. 

[newbie alert]

With a DSLR the planets will be small because of the sensor size..planetary cameras have bigger sensors and use a video format (avi) to capture short videos with rapid frame rates so a 1 min video could have 2000 frames..stack them together and choose the best say 200 ..sharpen them up again in software and Bob is your uncle..some DSLR can do avi format do it's worth checking but the target will still be small..

[Freddie]

The planet will be the same size on a planetary cam as it is on a DSLR, it just looks small on a DSLR as the chip will be bigger than on a planetary cam. The size of the planet is fixed by the scope, not the camera being used to image it. As said, planetary cams do however have the advantage of higher frame rates.