Meade DSI on planets...??

[GazOC]

has anyone got any tips? I tried last night but the "results" were abysmal!

What sort of settings should I use as a jumping off point?

I'm not much of an imager I just like to give it a go once in a while, so nothing to complicated/time consuming eh lads?

[OXO]

I had a Meade DSI for a short while and tried imaging Jupiter, i found it was great for getting Moon's with but lacked heavily in the planetry details department.

I would suggest getting the alignment Box over the chosen planet, clicking auto exposure then changing it to suit . Plus remember to use the option of turning off unsharp mask this will help a lot with getting the planet from over exposed look to normal. Also use the option too save all frames as JPG'S and stack em in registax. Keep Gain levels to a minimum and use Auto White balance.

James

[GazOC]

Cheers James,

Over exposed seemed to be the main problem, the image looked saturated with colour! Which is ironic as a tried for the Ring Neb as well last night and got virtually no colour (8 secs - too short?)

Gaz

[OXO]

Hi Gaz,

8 sec's is a little to short try for 15 sec's i managed to get a half decent image at 15secs although it can be done with 8sec's. The DSI is great for DSO imaging once you sus out all the option's, i found there was too many for my likeing esp when compared to a Toucam Pro sc Camera. The software leave's a lot to be desired IMHO not that user friendly.

James

[Ant]

Never used the DSI - but overexposure was a problem with the Toucam as well, my best image was compiled from an AVI where you could hardly see the disc of jupiter in individual frames...

With the ring, I've taken some great M57 shots with 15 seconds, so I would agree with jame take a load of 15 second shos. How many subs did you have to stack?

Ant