Help!!! How to improve my pics?

[Nikolai De Silva]

Hi everyone!

We got a Sky-watcher Starquest 130p 3 months ago and was able to see Saturn and Jupiter only a few times. We have a tab camera and just need to take pics of them, not for professional astrophotography. With the naked eye, views were great! But when photographing, the pics are bad. I've attached some photos I took. 

How can I improve the pictures? Any idea?

Hoping for responses!

Nikolai

Edited November 30, 2023 by Nikolai De Silva

[vlaiv]

Try setting manual exposure and lower it significantly - to say 30ms or there about (do try different ones).

If you have delayed timer or a way to remotely trigger shutter that would be great. When you manually trigger the camera (press a button to take image) - you introduce shake into the setup that should really be avoided.

[Nikolai De Silva]

Thanks @vlaiv 

I will try it and let you know the results.

[Mandy D]

@Nikolai De Silva Vlaid is right. But, also, I suspect that is Jupiter and it's moons you are trying to image, in which case you will need high ISO and long(ish) exposure for the moons. Not so much so for Jupiter itself. Remote shutter release is pretty much essential, but self-timer will also work.

For Jupiter's moons you might be down at 1/30 (as Vlad says, 30ms) with ISO as high as 6400. For the planet, drop the ISO to 100-400 and shorten the exposure to see surface detail. Also, make sure your camera/phone is solidly mounted to the focuser or eyepiece.