Please help put me out of my misery....

[Damien2904]

Hello,

Please can I ask for your advice.....I've been taking some photos of the moon / planets for a couple months now. I've made some progress along the way but I am equally becoming more frustrated with my results. 

My telescope is a Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ (not the best scope in the world I know), and a Nikon D3200 camera along with the following bits and pieces, arranged in the order as I fit to the scope.

IMG_7866.HEIC

Below are the results I've been getting.....

Jupiter : ISO 800 - Manual Mode - 1/20th sec with white balance at daylight, exposure has been reduced slightly via Photoshop.

Moon : 

I haven't included my attempt at Saturn due to it being so grainy & out of focus...I just don't seem to be able to reach focus to pick out detail.  I understand a lot of image processing is done via various softwares...but is there anymore I can do whilst taking the actual image? 

Am I missing something? Like a piece of equipment? I've been reading about a T-Adaptor / Focusers?

Or maybe is this the best I will achieve with my current equipment? 

Thanks for looking and reading.

Damien

[Craney]

For the planets, it can be a difficult job getting a  good focus due to atmospheric turbulence and  the high magnification of the system doesn't help stability of the image.

I use a Bahtinov mask to achieve best possible focus on a bright nearby star.   If the camera has 'live-view' and  a ROI zoom function then all the better.

Then lock the focuser. ( keep the mask on  ..... the telescope, not you Batman...)   just in case the tightening procedure shifts the focus.

Then back on the planet.

With a DSLR, it is going to be a fine balance between the grain and low light levels of high ISO to the blur factor introduced by longer exposures on lower ISO.

If this does not give you any real improvement, then....

Either,  check if your Nikon has a Video capture function off of the 'live-screen' mode. Think I read somewhere that you can take high frame rate movies with a DSLR....

OR......get a dedicated planetary cam  and record AVI's  (videos) that can be processed later. A second hand ZWO120MM or QHY5 will come it at about £100.

 

Hope this helps.

Sean.

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by Craney

[Marvin Jenkins]

Your 3200 definitely has video capture off the live view as my 3100 does this. If you have some success, please post, I would be interested to see the results.

I am presuming That Sean’s most helpful advice about taking video is to stack the best images using planetary software?

Marv

[dd999]

You may want to drop the ISO on Jupiter - try around the 200 mark. 1/20th a second sounds about right.

You won't get the moons, and it will appear darker, but you should get a little more detail and less of a wash out

[Craney]

13 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

...... about taking video is to stack the best images using planetary software?

Yes Marv.  Oops!!, forgot to include that slightly important fact.   Yes the AVI files can be stabilised, stacked and processed to give some quite remarkable detail considering the wobbly, jelly of an image that is dancing before your eyes.

The Moon as an object  is generally 'easier' to get crisper images because it is brighter and has features that you have a better chance of determining a near focus. ie. crater walls, shadow lines etc.

With a DSLR, Lunar photography gives you more flexibility in the  ISO and exposure settings.  Saying that, even the Moon suffers from atmospheric turbulence when you start to crank up the magnification.  The same advice regarding stacking video footage can be applied to the Moon as well, and some of the really stunning shots of the small surface features nearly always rely on video capture.

 

[Damien2904]

Thanks for all your advise....so it doesn't sound like I'm going too far wrong. 😀

I'll look up about the Bahtinov Sean....I've seen on Youtube you can make your own...lol I don't think I'd have the right skills and patience for that though. 

4 hours ago, Craney said:

Either,  check if your Nikon has a Video capture function off of the 'live-screen' mode. Think I read somewhere that you can take high frame rate movies with a DSLR....

My Nikon does have the video function, I have been using it to try focus before capturing the photos, think I read somewhere that it is best to do that? Can I ask what you mean by locking the focuser, on the camera? I must point out that the world of camera, photography & telescope is all new to me so if I sound dim then please bare with.

Taking videos, converting & stacking is something I later found out that I could try, but I'm yet to try this due to the unfavourable weather recently.

With regards to the softwares, I understand that RegiStax, AutoStakkert, Siril etc are all Windows programmes....I have a MAC and haven't had much luck finding one similar, does anyone have some suggestions? I'm currently playing around with (well...actually I'm learning from scratch 🤯) Photoshop which does have a layering/stack function, but I don't have the images yet to trial. 

My videos are .MOV so I need to convert to AVI....hmmmmmmm? Have to look up how 🤔 

4 hours ago, dd999 said:

You may want to drop the ISO on Jupiter - try around the 200 mark. 1/20th a second sounds about right.

You won't get the moons, and it will appear darker, but you should get a little more detail and less of a wash out

I'll try the ISO at 200 next time deffo 👍, I did manage to get an image of the 4 moons, the shutter was something like 1 sec so Jupiter was BRIGHT!

You can just see Io beginning to peep out from behind Jupiter on the right.

 

Thanks again.

Damien

[Craney]

1 hour ago, Damien2904 said:

Can I ask what you mean by locking the focuser, on the camera? 

Ah, now I've done a bit of research. The Celestron 127 Powerseeker may not have a lockable focuser. This is an image I got from Amazon and it seems not to have a small knurled knob between the two circular focus adjusters.

Check out this image of a Skywatcher focuser for a Newtonian...

That does have the screw.    This might be the source of some of your problems.   The weight of the DSLR will pull the focuser slightly out of focus due to gravity.

The Powerseeker is a budget scope and is most likely designed for visual where the weight of an eyepiece is not enough to significantly change the focus.  Once you stick a big DSLR on !!!  things start to shift.    A lockable focuser would combat this.   So in a way, even your best efforts at focus will be circumvented by this effect.

 

1 hour ago, Damien2904 said:

I have a MAC  ..........Photoshop which does have a layering/stack function....

My videos are .MOV so I need to convert to AVI..

mmmm....don't know much about Mac's.    I think it might be harder to find suitable software that is as 'developed' for astro work as the windows based stuff.  Search the web is my best advice, I'm sure somebody,somewhere has had the same issue.

Remember that your movies may have up to 1000 frames. ( the stacking idea uses the principle that a small percentage of the whole capture will have significantly better seeing and clarity than the rest. Hence the programs analyses and rejects the rubbishy frames.... well.... orders them in terms of quality.   More frames captured usually provides a higher number of the better frames).

PhotoShop and your Mac may choke a bit with a 1000 frames to chew through !!   That's not to say it isn't possible though.

There are some freeware  converters online that will change  .MOV to  .AVI.     I don't know if  .AVI is the best, it just seems to be the one a lot of people use, and consequently software tends to use it as default.

 

Ok. Good luck.

 

Sean.

 

[dd999]

2 hours ago, Damien2904 said:

Thanks for all your advise....so it doesn't sound like I'm going too far wrong. 😀

I'll look up about the Bahtinov Sean....I've seen on Youtube you can make your own...lol I don't think I'd have the right skills and patience for that though. 

My Nikon does have the video function, I have been using it to try focus before capturing the photos, think I read somewhere that it is best to do that? Can I ask what you mean by locking the focuser, on the camera? I must point out that the world of camera, photography & telescope is all new to me so if I sound dim then please bare with.

Taking videos, converting & stacking is something I later found out that I could try, but I'm yet to try this due to the unfavourable weather recently.

With regards to the softwares, I understand that RegiStax, AutoStakkert, Siril etc are all Windows programmes....I have a MAC and haven't had much luck finding one similar, does anyone have some suggestions? I'm currently playing around with (well...actually I'm learning from scratch 🤯) Photoshop which does have a layering/stack function, but I don't have the images yet to trial. 

My videos are .MOV so I need to convert to AVI....hmmmmmmm? Have to look up how 🤔 

I'll try the ISO at 200 next time deffo 👍, I did manage to get an image of the 4 moons, the shutter was something like 1 sec so Jupiter was BRIGHT!

You can just see Io beginning to peep out from behind Jupiter on the right.

 

Thanks again.

Damien

Yes I'm afraid Jupiter and its moons together will need two photos. One at a low ISO to capture the detail of Jupiter - and then a high ISO for the moons (try 1600 or maybe 3200)

Then you'll need something like Photoshop to merge them together 

I did something similar here - it was only taken with a mobile phone (not a dslr) but hopefully gives you an idea 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by dd999

[Cosmic Geoff]

You may make some progress with your existing equipment, but equally I suspect that a different scope, a dedicated planetary video camera, and a Windows laptop (or dual boot on your Mac) would improve matters.  See the images taken with a 127mm Maksutov in the Planetary Imaging thread.

[Damien2904]

15 hours ago, Craney said:

 This is an image I got from Amazon and it seems not to have a small knurled knob between the two circular focus adjusters.

Thanks for researching Sean, you are right...I don't have the focuser screw on my telescope. Guess I'll just have to focus the best I can using LV & hope it stays there. 

I see what you're saying about the softwares, I'll try out Photoshop first, then if no success look into other options (this is the first time I'm wishing I had a Windows laptop! 🙄)

To my surprise, last night....just as I was off to bed I looked out the window & it was clear skies....very clear in fact!!! I managed to take some videos & over 500 photos of Jupiter on a continuous shutter, I've segregated them into groups so will brush through them at some point to pick out the better ones and try Photoshop. 

21 hours ago, dd999 said:

You may want to drop the ISO on Jupiter - try around the 200 mark. 1/20th a second sounds about right.

You won't get the moons, and it will appear darker, but you should get a little more detail and less of a wash out

I tried your suggestion to drop the ISO to 200, the photo below I picked out this morning & touched up a little but the cloud bands do seem more clearer than my last attempt. 😀👍 I'll try out the ISO suggestion for the moons next time.  

 

 

7 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

You may make some progress with your existing equipment, but equally I suspect that a different scope, a dedicated planetary video camera, and a Windows laptop (or dual boot on your Mac) would improve matters.  See the images taken with a 127mm Maksutov in the Planetary Imaging thread.

A planetary camera was next on my list of potential purchases, I've particularly been looking at the ZWO cameras (120MC-S Colour, 120MM-S Mono & 224MC Colour).

I need to research more about what each one can do etc....they seem quite reasonably priced but unfortunately budget does come into it (unless I've had a few beers & 'accidentally' press the purchase button). Does anyone have these cameras, if so...any good?

Thanks.

Damien