Jupiter and Saturn

[powerlord]

Now they are back, I can't see em from my garden.

I've not imaged a planet yet, but I'd imagine my mak102 and asi224 should be a reasonable combination, maybe with a barlow to get em both ?

Looks like being a perfect cloudless night sat night here, and no moon.. On other hand.. nearly shortest night, and a target 10 degrees above horizon..

My question is, is that likely ? As I'd need to [removed word] around sticking all my stuff in the motorhome and driving somewhere for 2am or so.. and even then it's gonna be at 10 degrees altitude...SE from me, which should at least be reasonably dark.. but would like some opinions before I go on a fools erand really ?

stu

[neil phillips]

21 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Now they are back, I can't see em from my garden.

I've not imaged a planet yet, but I'd imagine my mak102 and asi224 should be a reasonable combination, maybe with a barlow to get em both ?

Looks like being a perfect cloudless night sat night here, and no moon.. On other hand.. nearly shortest night, and a target 10 degrees above horizon..

My question is, is that likely ? As I'd need to [removed word] around sticking all my stuff in the motorhome and driving somewhere for 2am or so.. and even then it's gonna be at 10 degrees altitude...SE from me, which should at least be reasonably dark.. but would like some opinions before I go on a fools erand really ?

stu

Should capture no lower than 16 degrees. 10 would be awful. Morning light  affects it. But not as much as  low elevation. keep capturing  into the morning light untill its too washed out. 

Nearly 4..30 in the morning bst 120mm scope bw. Our seeing might be similar i am in Suffolk too

Edited June 11, 2021 by neil phillips

[powerlord]

huh. thanks - glad i asked. i mean the birds start singing at 4am. it's nearly daylight. I wouldn't have thought of trying then tbh.

I'd be very happy with something like that shot. ok - will give it a go. I'm in west ipswich.

[neil phillips]

Just now, powerlord said:

huh. thanks - glad i asked. i mean the birds start singing at 4am. it's nearly daylight. I wouldn't have thought of trying then tbh.

I'd be very happy with something like that shot. ok - will give it a go. I'm in west ipswich.

It takes practice. Getting it on the chip, make sure your camera is at the largest resolution. Set it to 1/30th secs exposure (just to get it on the chip) put the gain high untill you see noise. not whited out just noise pixels. Get Jupiter in the centre of a high power eyepiece. carefully put the camera in. You should see a large out of focus circle. That will be jupiter good luck 

[powerlord]

I'm using asiair pro, so frankly my plan was to let it do the hard work of finding the thing 🙂

I dunno about the LARGE out of focus circle, according the sky safari, without a barlow its gonna be pretty tiny. I've never tried to image with a barlow and asiair though - so that might be too much fun and games for one night/morning.

So.. no sticking to unity gain, etc ? I thought that was a thing ? with my asi224 that 275 for 8 bit - which I think I should be using for planets right ? saying that.. don't think I remember seeing an option to set it in asiair, so if it forces 16 bit, I understand my gain should be 135 ?

stu

[neil phillips]

56 minutes ago, powerlord said:

I'm using asiair pro, so frankly my plan was to let it do the hard work of finding the thing 🙂

I dunno about the LARGE out of focus circle, according the sky safari, without a barlow its gonna be pretty tiny. I've never tried to image with a barlow and asiair though - so that might be too much fun and games for one night/morning.

So.. no sticking to unity gain, etc ? I thought that was a thing ? with my asi224 that 275 for 8 bit - which I think I should be using for planets right ? saying that.. don't think I remember seeing an option to set it in asiair, so if it forces 16 bit, I understand my gain should be 135 ?

stu

You can experiment with a 2x barlow. But you will be oversampled. (i do it all the time) But thats me. Because your learning i would advise against it for lots of reasons. But you do what feels right under your own circumstances based on what you are seeing.   8 bit is fine. Though lately i have been using 16 bit with custom boxes smaller to speed the frame rate up.

Gain is dependent on so many things, there is no one size fits all setting, it is dependent on scope size. sky transparency, Exposure being used. For you i would try 1/60 secs exposure. Then set gain untill you see a histogram of between 50% and no higher than 70% i usually aim for around 60% its safe ground for under or overexposed areas. You will have to experiment to learn. i can not give you a hard chart of numbers just guides. Hope this helps The large out of focus circle i was talking about would be jupiter out of focus. The reason i suggested you use high gain to get the planet on the chip is because. if you do not. and you are way out of focus. you wont see anything, and spend the entire time searching and getting no where. 

Edited June 11, 2021 by neil phillips

[powerlord]

thanks. My plan was to setup as normal anyway - i.e already have bahtinov focused on a bright star, etc. and once plate solved and PAed, asiair will take me to jupiter and track it.

I'll then setup guiding too.

So at that point I can experiment with different capture techniques. I'll post my results.

thanks again

stu

[The Lazy Astronomer]

The London Astronomer has a good guide to planetary imaging to get you going. I followed that advice last summer and got some pretty decent results.

https://www.thelondonastronomer.com/it-is-rocket-science/2018/6/7/a-quick-guide-to-planetary-imaging