whats best way to take photos of planets on a budget?

[batemantom]

Hi, I want to start taking photos through my heritage 130p, i've been leaning towards buying the Bresser MikrOkular or am i better off using my  smartphone to take some photos on a budget (under £100)?

https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-bresser-mikrokular-full-hd-eyepiece-camera.htm

Edited August 8, 2020 by batemantom

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, batemantom said:

Hi, I want to start taking photos through my heritage 130p, i've been leaning towards buying the Bresser MikrOkular or am i better off using my  smartphone to take some photos on a budget (under £100)?

https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-bresser-mikrokular-full-hd-eyepiece-camera.htm

Hi I had this webcam and wasn't greatly impressed but that's my experience, yours maybe better, I went to a svbony sv105 (£40) which gave me better images with my skymax 127 maksutov, but I'm hankering for a zwo asi120mc, pricey at £150 region but will be worth it when I csn afford it, but you can get some great photos and videos with your smartphone to stack and process. I use my celestron nexyz phone adapter (£45) at times though pricey again it saves a lot of faffing about with holding your phone to the ep and better than some budget adapters. The attached images are with my svbony 105 and skymax 127, all stacked and processed.(they are slightly yellow as taken on the full moon last week whilst the moon was yellowy) I'm using a skywatcher eq3-2 mount and tripod with manual tracking with slow motion ra dial and video captures of 1000 frames ,we all like spending someone else's money 😉

Edited August 8, 2020 by LeeHore7

[vlaiv]

Very very hard to make it on that budget.

First thing that you want to solve is telescope tracking. In order to take photos of planets - your telescope needs to track. It does not need to track perfectly for planetary photography because exposures are rather short - but it needs to track planet long enough for you to take a lot of such exposures.

First part would be to research for how much money can you get tracking system. There are really three options there:

1. Get second hand EQ mount exceptionally cheaply and restore it to working order (you won't be able to get very low price on proper working one) - aim for EQ2 / EQ3 type mount - anything more serious will be over budget. Then you'll need a bit of DIY to fashion a tacking system for that mount. You'll need a stepper motor, some electronics / reduction gears. You can even use plain DC motor - as you don't need precise tracking - just add simple speed control - like single potentiometer.

2. DIY mini dob platform - you don't need it to be very big nor heavy and you can save a lot on material because your scope is small and light weight - same as above you'll need motor and control. This is probably more serious project than number 1

3. DIY barn door tracker. For this one, I'm not even sure it will track properly at magnifications you want - so a bit of research there on their precision and can they keep planet in FOV for duration of recording.

Now that you have tracking sorted, you need to think about camera. Probably cheapest way to go is to use second hand web camera that you will modify by removing front lens and exposing sensor. This is what I did for my first planetary camera. I used Logitech C270 and a piece of PVC pipe to make a nosepiece.

Then you'll need to watch some tutorials on how to do lucky imaging - take a lot of exposures and use software like Autostakkert!3 to stack those exposures and then use software like Registax 6 to perform wavelet sharpening and your favorite software for a bit more processing (Gimp is fine and free).

Otherwise, you'll need to increase your budget about x5 to get everything (Eq3 mount with tracking motor and ASI120 planetary camera).

Hope this helps.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Try the smartphone first. It probably cost more than your Heritage 130 did. 🙂

if you own a DSLR, you could try that.

Ideally you should use a planetary video camera and process the video to get a sharpened picture.

For under £100 (new) you will not get a good planetary camera, but there are various cheap ones for as little as £10 or so that may satisfy you for the present.  I have tried two cameras before settling on an ASI224MC.  You could look for a Datyson T7C, said to be a cheaper clone of the ASI120MC, or try secondhand.

It will also help if you can put your 'scope on a mount that tracks.

 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Cosmic Geoff
Tracking

[AstroNebulee]

2 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Try the smartphone first. It probably cost more than your Heritage 130 did. 🙂

if you own a DSLR, you could try that.

Ideally you should use a planetary video camera and process the video to get a sharpened picture.

For under £100 (new) you will not get a good planetary camera, but there are various cheap ones for as little as £10 or so that may satisfy you for the present.  I have tried two cameras before settling on an ASI224MC.  You could look for a Datyson T7C, said to be a cheaper clone of the ASI120MC, or try secondhand.

 

I'm really hankering after the zwo asi120mc, just got to persuade my wallet to use the money 😕, the svbony sv105 is, very capable but the asi has faster frame rate and more colourspace options 

[batemantom]

35 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Try the smartphone first. It probably cost more than your Heritage 130 did. 🙂

if you own a DSLR, you could try that.

Ideally you should use a planetary video camera and process the video to get a sharpened picture.

For under £100 (new) you will not get a good planetary camera, but there are various cheap ones for as little as £10 or so that may satisfy you for the present.  I have tried two cameras before settling on an ASI224MC.  You could look for a Datyson T7C, said to be a cheaper clone of the ASI120MC, or try secondhand.

It will also help if you can put your 'scope on a mount that tracks.

 

I already own a smartphone adapter to connect my phone to a telescope, I am yet to test this on my new heritage 130p. I originally used it on a 70/700 refractor and i did get some fantastic images of the moon using the adapter. 

So i'm guessing for my budget the best camera i can use is a smartphone.

I don't own a DSLR unfortunately. 

[AstroNebulee]

3 minutes ago, batemantom said:

I already own a smartphone adapter to connect my phone to a telescope, I am yet to test this on my new heritage 130p. I originally used it on a 70/700 refractor and i did get some fantastic images of the moon using the adapter. 

So i'm guessing for my budget the best camera i can use is a smartphone.

I don't own a DSLR unfortunately. 

It is a great way of getting into imaging and many smartphones now have a pro mode built in where you can change various settings as on a dslr, depending which phone you have, like you I've had some great images from my smartphone, clear skies friend 

[batemantom]

52 minutes ago, LeeHore7 said:

Hi I had this webcam and wasn't greatly impressed but that's my experience, yours maybe better, I went to a svbony sv105 (£40) which gave me better images with my skymax 127 maksutov, but I'm hankering for a zwo asi120mc, pricey at £150 region but will be worth it when I csn afford it, but you can get some great photos and videos with your smartphone to stack and process. I use my celestron nexyz phone adapter (£45) at times though pricey again it saves a lot of faffing about with holding your phone to the ep and better than some budget adapters. The attached images are with my svbony 105 and skymax 127, all stacked and processed.(they are slightly yellow as taken on the full moon last week whilst the moon was yellowy) I'm using a skywatcher eq3-2 mount and tripod with manual tracking with slow motion ra dial and video captures of 1000 frames ,we all like spending someone else's money 😉

i may give the SVBONY SV105 a go. i've found it for sale for £37.59

[happy-kat]

I would start with your smartphone seeing as you already have an adaptor.

Take video as that's better ideally then individual images as you'll get a lot more of them. Registax can be used to process your video. When first trying use an eyepiece that means you see the whole planet and let it drift across the frame. Then trim the video so the start and end frames have the entire planet then process.

I'd save your money until you have exhausted getting the most from what you already have.

For the Moon I picked up a webcam on ebay for under a £5 that worked great on the Moon and my android phone could control it.

Edited August 8, 2020 by happy-kat

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, batemantom said:

i may give the SVBONY SV105 a go. i've found it for sale for £37.59

Remember when using any planetary webcam it'll be similar to using a high power ep, think this is like a 6mm ep but will give you a good dip your toes in the water to planetary imaging at an affordable price 

[batemantom]

19 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I would start with your smartphone seeing as you already have an adaptor.

Take video as that's better ideally then individual images as you'll get a lot more of them. Registax can be used to process your video. When first trying use an eyepiece that means you see the whole planet and let it drift across the frame. Then trim the video so the start and end frames have the entire planet then process.

I'd save your money until you have exhausted getting the most from what you already have.

For the Moon I picked up a webcam on ebay for under a £5 that worked great on the Moon and my android phone could control it.

I've noticed it says you also own a heritage 130p. have you tried using a smartphone adapter on this telescope? 

[happy-kat]

I haven't but my phone isn't geared up for trying with really.

[batemantom]

32 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I haven't but my phone isn't geared up for trying with really.

I'll try using the adapter on the next clear night, I wasn't sure if it would be strong enough to hold my phone (due to the heritage having a different focusing method) . But after doing a little more research, there's a lot of people with the same telescope using a DSLR with no problems. 

[AstroNebulee]

10 minutes ago, batemantom said:

I'll try using the adapter on the next clear night, I wasn't sure if it would be strong enough to hold my phone (due to the heritage having a different focusing method) . But after doing a little more research, there's a lot of people with the same telescope using a DSLR with no problems. 

Yes that was the thing about the heritage that put me off, that different style focuser and whether an adapter would work, good luck be interested to hear your results, clear skies

[happy-kat]

A wind or two of PTFE plumbers tape takes the slop out of the focuser.

 

[batemantom]

12 minutes ago, LeeHore7 said:

Yes that was the thing about the heritage that put me off, that different style focuser and whether an adapter would work, good luck be interested to hear your results, clear skies

I was also a bit unsure about the different style focuser (before i purchased).

I've owned the heritage 130p for about 1 month now and i actually prefer its focusing method. 

[batemantom]

Forgot to mention before, I also tried using an old XBOX 360 webcam. It worked well... Until i noticed all the dead pixels....😠

[happy-kat]

How many is a lot as you'll find using registax on the video will take the best images and I doubt your final image would show any dead pixels. 

I'll see if I can find the great post comparing webcams and it's got good images taken with the xbox.

[happy-kat]

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/168060-spc900-vs-xbox-live-webcam-vs-lifecam-cinema/

Just to show what's possible.

[batemantom]

16 hours ago, happy-kat said:

How many is a lot as you'll find using registax on the video will take the best images and I doubt your final image would show any dead pixels. 

I'll see if I can find the great post comparing webcams and it's got good images taken with the xbox.

Here's a video while i was testing the xbox 360 webcam a couple weeks ago, this was filmed while i was still setting up all the software. there were quite a few dead pixels so i haven't used it since. 

 

[happy-kat]

I would try using a barlow if you aren't already.

[AstroNebulee]

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I would try using a barlow if you aren't already.

I agree with Kat, it may help bring out more detail when you take a video and stack and process them. Use sharpcap to alter the settings whilst capturing with your xbox cam

[happy-kat]

I'm assuming you are using an XP computer? I thinks that would be sharpcap 2.9

[batemantom]

4 hours ago, happy-kat said:

I would try using a barlow if you aren't already.

but what do you think about the dead pixels? would that be a problem?

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, batemantom said:

but what do you think about the dead pixels? would that be a problem?

Not a tall. AS!3 has bad pixel map feature.

What sort of mount are you using for tracking? For bad pixels - best solution is to have your mount track less than perfect - so that planet moves across the sensor. 

Software will then pick up which frames have dead pixels in certain position - and use other frames to make that particular pixel - thus completely removing dead pixels from your image. But like I mentioned, for this to work the best - planet should not always be in the same spot as that makes bad pixel in the same place in all the frames - you don't want that.

From the video you posted - there is something really interesting - defocused image of Jupiter.

It looks like just a quarter of aperture is used (defocused image will start to show image of aperture). Do you know if something was blocking the front of the scope or maybe optics is out of alignment?