Why can't I find Mars or Uranus in my setup?

[Quetzalcoatl72]

I was trying to image planets last time with my RC6 stellar lyra scope which I've never had much use out of it, it's been a long time since I imaged something(march I think) but I did remember to set up everything correctly I think. My camera of choice was the asi462 planetary camera, I polar aligned to the best I could and I aligned my finderscope to the best of my ability(which I really hate because there's 6 bolts and trying to get a star centred whilst having said bolts tightened and making sure the star in the scope itself is also centred is near impossible for me) but it looked central to me.

I moved to a star and it was in the image which is a great start (using Sharpcap), so I centred it and moved to Jupiter(which wasn't centred annoyingly), took a while finding Jupiter, I followed the bright spike of light on the image to see it. I imaged that and got a decent job out of it, then I realized at 2am mars was out so I got excited and moved to there, for some reason I could never find it on my computer screen no matter how much I tried to use the keypad manually, same for Uranus which I guess is a harder target. I'm also using a 2x barlow.

I am using N.I.N.A and I tried to plate solve but ASTAP said there was no stars despite there being many after a minute exposure at least, it also said astrometry.net wasn't working either, I've always been having on and off problems with plate solving for a while, oh and as a side note, my dec is having problems where it struggles to turn on rates lower than 3, there's a slight knocking noise, I don't know whether the worm is too tight or loose. I'd love for any help on this would be great as I intend to go out with my scope in a more darker area and I don't want any hiccups there. Thanks!! oh and I've attached an image of my results for the first time with this scope

01_54_45_pipp_g4_ap639.bmp

[CraigT82]

Not a bad result at all, well done. I often have trouble finding targets too especially the dimmer ones.  One way is to whack up the gain and gamma to max and increase the exposure up to 0.5sec or something like that, you might then see a glow off to one side which you can then follow to the now very bright target.

Another way is to just take out the barlow, find and centre the target then replace the barlow, doesn't always work this as the act of removing/replacing the barlow can shift the image.

[Quetzalcoatl72]

2 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Not a bad result at all, well done. I often have trouble finding targets too especially the dimmer ones.  One way is to whack up the gain and gamma to max and increase the exposure up to 0.5sec or something like that, you might then see a glow off to one side which you can then follow to the now very bright target.

Another way is to just take out the barlow, find and centre the target then replace the barlow, doesn't always work this as the act of removing/replacing the barlow can shift the image.

Thanks, I still don't think it's as good as my old one with the orange scope, plus having the red spot is a bonus. Glad I'm not the only one, going out tonight to see if I can fix this dec backlash, and try your method without the barlow, just have to be slow and careful putting it in.

[CraigT82]

If your using compression ring adaptors with more then one screw, be consistent with how you tighten the screws up so that the accessory is always clamped (and thus shifted) in the same way.
 

My focuser has a compression ring and three thumbscrews which is overkill. I removed two and just use the one so that whatever goes in the focuser is clamped the same way each time. My imaging train is nice and solid with even with just the one thumbscrew. 
 

 

[Quetzalcoatl72]

59 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

If your using compression ring adaptors with more then one screw, be consistent with how you tighten the screws up so that the accessory is always clamped (and thus shifted) in the same way.

My focuser has a compression ring and three thumbscrews which is overkill. I removed two and just use the one so that whatever goes in the focuser is clamped the same way each time. My imaging train is nice and solid with even with just the one thumbscrew. 

I'm using this astro essentials scope, when you pick it up it's guaranteed that you knock it out of alignment, I also have troubles focussing with this setup, there's always a blurry ring around the stars, difficult for phd2 etc, not sure if it's the scope or the old asi120 camera(the one that doesn't have a window over the chip to protect it)

[Elp]

Personally I'd dial it back a little and try to find manually if you can, you can visually see mars, Jupiter and sometimes Saturn with your eyes, align the scope manually first. Trying to automate it can be a pain if it's not setup right. Even though I've got goto, for planets I always align manually first, at least you know it's right or wrong from the off.

[michael8554]

Capturing planets with a 1/3" sensor camera can be challenging.

At f/30 I had to use a Flip Mirror.

To centralise the target with a parfocal cross-hair eyepiece, before flipping to the camera.

As Craid said, over-expose the camera in the hope of seeing a glow to one side.

Michael

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

How I find planets to image them:

1) 2-star Celestron Nexstar auto align.

2) GoTo planet.

3) Check with an eyepiece that it is perfectly centred. Align the main scope and finder.

4) Fit camera and set it to full pixels

5) The planet should be on the sensor. If it isn't, put an eyepiece back in (a higher powered one) and try again.

If the planet drifts off the cropped ROI for any reason, switching back to full pixels and/or using the finder should re-locate it.

The only serious trouble I had recently was in trying to locate Neptune for imaging.  In the end I had to use a high-power eyepiece to check each faint thing in the low-power eyepiece field. 

 

[Quetzalcoatl72]

I still don't know if i recorded neptune or uranus it's my first time tried again tonight, on neptune that is or i recorded a star since it's very difficult to find at that magnification, it's just a blurry bluish image, slightly spherical. I made sure the finder and scope were central and the closest 'star' i find in PHD2 to the crosshair is what i think could be the planet. I'll post once i process the many gb of footage

[newbie alert]

On 13/08/2022 at 21:44, Cosmic Geoff said:

How I find planets to image them:

1) 2-star Celestron Nexstar auto align.

2) GoTo planet.

3) Check with an eyepiece that it is perfectly centred. Align the main scope and finder.

4) Fit camera and set it to full pixels

5) The planet should be on the sensor. If it isn't, put an eyepiece back in (a higher powered one) and try again.

If the planet drifts off the cropped ROI for any reason, switching back to full pixels and/or using the finder should re-locate it.

The only serious trouble I had recently was in trying to locate Neptune for imaging.  In the end I had to use a high-power eyepiece to check each faint thing in the low-power eyepiece field. 

 

Interested to know what setting it to full pixel is Geoff?