What goes into a Good Planetary Image?

Рет қаралды 6,431

2 жыл бұрын

Hey guys, It's been a while but I am back! I figured it's been a while since we did planetary and after getting my new camera, I wanted to give it another shot.
5 Point List:
1.) A Good Telescope
- Bigger the Aperture: The higher you can push the effective magnification
- High Focal length: The planets are TINY, I shoot at 2600mm for these.
- I'm using my Celestron 130slt as always. You DO NOT need the mirror mod for this since we are using Barlows
2.) Telescope Accessories
- Barlows to increase your magnification: I am using one 2x Astromania Barlow Lens and one 2x Svbony 2x Barlow Lens. The Svbony is cheap but not that great.
- Filters? Some people use these to emphasize certain surface details.
3.) A Camera
- Some people use DSLRs, some use Webcam style Cameras. Either way, High frame-rates are desirable, but don't sacrifice too much resolution.
- You don't need any astromods on the camera for planetary.
- If your DSLR has live-view but not video shooting, you can actually record the live-view using some software like the Astrophotography Tool.
4.) Shooting Conditions
- Calm/Not Windy: Reduces Atmospheric Shimmer & Telescope Wobble
- Cold: Reduces Camera Sensor Noise
- Avoid sources of heat that may cause up-currents like large buildings or active chimneys.
- Avoid sources of vibration that may disturb your image at high focal lengths like proximity highways with heavy vehicle traffic.
5.) Software/Processing
- Planetary Imaging Pre-Processor
- Autostakkert
- Registax
I actually acquired a Hydrogen alpha filter recently so I may cover that in a video in the near future. More to come!
As always, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments below and check out my website (kmcaesium.com/) for more info.
If you've found my video's helpful and have some results, email them to me! my email can be found on the About Me page on my website!
Affiliate Link Update (1/5/2023):
I FULLY ADVOCATE for the Used Market as the first and primary purchasing path for Astronomy. But, if you where planning on using Amazon and found my stuff helpful, I have some Affiliate Links:
Nexstar 6SE: amzn.to/3vO2TZX
NexStar 8SE (The 6's Bigger Brother): amzn.to/3QlBmZr
ZWO ASI 120MC: amzn.to/3VY3mDS
Barlow Lens Option 1: amzn.to/3WPWedQ
Barlow Lens Option 2: amzn.to/3ZeDAhn
UV/IR Cut Filter: amzn.to/3IrtOSW
And if you have ANY questions about equipment or process feel free to shoot me an email or comment and I'll try and help you figure it out!

Пікірлер: 43

@primary_productions 3 ай бұрын

This is such an excellent tutorial

@nedvedsimao1253 Жыл бұрын

this is gold, thank you

@taylorfnparsons 2 жыл бұрын

Great video!

@yaaahhtcha Жыл бұрын

Hi Kyle, I've recently found your youtube channel and I have the same telescope than yours, and nearly the same camera (Canon T3i), I just want to tell you that your channel is amazing, you are very passionate and it's a pleasure to see your videos ! Congratulations from France!!!

@kylemccaslin Жыл бұрын

Merci! Glad you're finding it helpful/entertaining! It can be a bit of effort putting these together so it's been great that the reception has been quite warm. Stay tuned for some more interesting stuff! I'm actually working on a couple different projects right now, not all astrophotography focused, but hopefully interesting none-the-less. Next on the menu should be Mt Rainier, Tracking Mountain Lions, and Astronomical Spectral Analysis... or something like that lol

@matiaslopez9915 2 жыл бұрын

great job

@craigkuchtaii492 2 жыл бұрын

Sweet! Those came out a lot better than mine. So it's just me and not the scope.

@ILS_W Жыл бұрын

Just took a picture of Saturn this morning

@wittyboy64 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@JohdagM 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing and helpful. Thank you! Is there any specific video format I should use?

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

If your using a webcam or machine vision style camera then .ser and .avi are good. If those aren't avaliable then other formats like wmv & mp4 will still work. For DSLRs your options may be more limited. If the format is more obscure then it may be a good idea to check format compatability with PIPP or Autostakkert If you have the option to change the bit-depth then you want to use 8bit, like RAW8. The framerate benefit from going to 8 outweighs the thinner range. And also RAW8 is better than RGB24 due to file size.

@JohdagM 2 жыл бұрын

@@kylemccaslin awesome. Thanks a lot!

@davvo1234 Жыл бұрын

Brilliant little channel mate 👍👍 I've been doing astronomy now for a few years.had some amazing planetary imaging with my old 8" goto dob. Just need to ask though' Is there any extra benefit from using 2-×2 barlows as apposed to just using 1 - x4 barlow?

@kylemccaslin Жыл бұрын

Thanks! And nope, if anything 2-2x is probably worse due to the increased spacing/distance from the scope making the setup physically more unstable. Only risk is if you have a lower quality 4x, since I think most mfgs normally make 2xs and may not be as good with 4x - That's just being speculative though so don't put any weight behind that.

@davvo1234 Жыл бұрын

@@kylemccaslin thankyou for the reply.most don't and thats annoying 🤐 can I also just ask (as I forgot to earlier in last comment) will the zwo asi 120mc-s work on usb2.0 laptop ports or only work on the faster 3.0 port. Im asking this as I saw the video you put up with your new scope 6se which you said you got for $300.. unbelievable price..here in the UK they sell second hand £900 with only maybe a few additional eye pieces..

@kylemccaslin Жыл бұрын

@@davvo1234 the ZWO asi 120mc that I have is actually the older USB-2.0 model. That matches my USB-2.0 laptop which is alright, but has given me issues. I'm unable to tell if its just my laptop being sub-par though. As far as compatability, I'm fairly certain that the USB-3.0 devices like these will work on a USB 2.0 laptop. You will be throttled/bottlenecked to that lower speed though which isn't optimal. The software for devices like these can tune down the rate and shouldn't require a 3.0 to 3.0 connection. I don't have the hardware to verify that though unfortunately.

@hazelwilkins1266 2 жыл бұрын

Wow thank you for the video. I just got a similar scope and was trying to start to get into astrophotography. One question I had was that I have 1 2x barlow and 1 3x barlow. If I were to stack these onto the scope, would this give a similar result? I am not too good with figuring out the magnification haha. Or do you suggest getting an additional 2x/3x barlow?

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

Assuming your scope's specs are similar, yes stacking the barlows would be a good idea. It can be a bit tricky getting your focus and target at the higher focal length though so be ready! make sure your finder scope is aligned beforehand too. I don't think another barlow would help. It would likely push the scope beyond it's effective magnification limit, meaning you would get more magnification but no increase in detail.

@samuelturner8069 11 ай бұрын

Hey Kyle, Amazing stuff. Love your videos. Have a question for you. I have experience with using a sv105 eye piece camera which i found annoying needing the laptop out as well. With the t6 canon do you take your laptop out too? Would be good just having the camera on the end and not needing the kitchen sink.

@kylemccaslin 11 ай бұрын

Thanks! For the latest T6 planetary captures that I did, I did indeed use a laptop. It was simply that I had to use a DIY-ish video capture mode. DSLR's video doesn't shoot at the resolution of the sensor, but the liveview when you zoom in does. So I used some computer software to record the liveview. Unfortunately, those webcam/machine vision style cameras that require computers do produce better results. The capture/setting flexibility of the their purpose built software is just that much better.

@samuelturner8069 11 ай бұрын

Really appreciate your reply. Such as life I suppose. How long would you say that your 130slt and 6se track whilst keeping a planet centred nicely? My plan at the moment is a 150/750 star discovery skywatcher. And maybe a svbony sv205 eye piece camera I'm thinking I can score those for $1100 in Australia where im from. Although I have heard with the star discovery I might have to attack the focuser to achieve prime. Still this doesnt put me off. Interested to know how the difference between an eye piece camera and DSLR changes (if any) in achieving prime focus?

@deepskychaser5707 2 жыл бұрын

This is a really informative video! So I tried processing it the same way as you did, but it lost its color after stacking in Autostakkert. I even bumped up the saturation a lot and still has no color. It went through PIPP just fine and retained its color. I saw that there is a colour setting on the top bar on Autostakkert. Did you leave it on auto detect or did you change it to something else? Thanks.

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

I left it on auto detect. Not sure what's going on in your case so not sure how to help. Best of luck?

@deepskychaser5707 2 жыл бұрын

@@kylemccaslin I got it to work now. I played around with the settings a bit and got the color back😁

@SuperAwesomeGamer 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Kyle! I also have the 130slt, and I have a quick question if you have the time to answer: I also have to use two 2x Barlow Lenses because of the short focal length. I suspect that the Barlow lenses give the camera extra leverage to weigh on the altitude motors in the mount since the objects Im trying to look at escape through the bottom of the frame. When using solar system align, the planet Im looking at escapes the frame in about 1 minute, making it either difficult or impossible to stack.. Have you ran into an issue like this? If you have any suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate it!

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

Hey SuperAwesomeGamer, I haven't run into this issue before but may have some things to try? Firstly, if you can reduce the moment arm that the weight is imposing then it may be easier on the motors. Adjusting where the telescope mount holds the tube's dovetail would be an easy thing to try (My tube's dovetail is sitting towards the back of the slot). Secondly, I'd double check that all of your inputs like latitude, longitude, and whether or not its daylight savings time are correct each time you do your alignment. I would assume you've already checked this, but it can be something that is easy to forget in the moment. Hope that helps? Let me know if it does.

@iikspert 7 ай бұрын

Hi Kyle! I have a Panasonic g7 camera, it doesn't have an infrared filter. the question is what. What Kelvin should bb use when shooting nebulae and hydrogen?

@kylemccaslin 7 ай бұрын

um... unless you've modded it, I'd be skeptical that it doesn't mostly block the 656nm wavelength. All terrestrial (for normal use) cameras have infrared filters built in over the sensor. Some cameras allow 656nm to pass through, the wavelength that you really want for nebula, but I'd wager that nearly all non-astronomy cameras clip that part of the near infrared. If you want to really dig into it, you can look at the band-pass of the internal filters on your g7 and see where it starts to cut You can use cameras without the mod though and they work for the most part. I have a video comparing before and after for my camera: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/odp7p7h-0NDRZGg.html I'm not sure what Kelvin I had been using, it's been a while. I think I just used one of the night presets though if that helps...

@animalandairplanecollectib1127 2 жыл бұрын

One question. Are you gonna do another Evergreen Colorado trail cam someday?

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

Yup! I'm sorting through the most recent footage now. The cadence should be similar though so its more of an occasional thing.

@AmatureAstronomer 10 ай бұрын

Any one know if I bought a Celestron 127 SLT and replaced the optical tube assembly with a Orion 134mm Observer telescope, which is 2 inches shorter and 1.5 pounds lighter than the 130 SLT optical tube, would it fall over or anything? The 134mm optical tube is on rings with a dovetail mount which would make it stick out about an inch and a half more than the 130 SLT optical assembly.

@kylemccaslin 10 ай бұрын

I'm afraid I can't really answer that. I haven't tried anything comparable.

@AmatureAstronomer 10 ай бұрын

@@kylemccaslin Decided against it. Suppose I will just keep wrestling with my equatorial mount.

@mileshuxley5462 2 жыл бұрын

Do you do prime focus or eyepiece projection?

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

Prime Focus

@mileshuxley5462 2 жыл бұрын

Thankyou and do you have any tips on how to focus the telescope because I have the same set up as you but my focus wheel can’t go far enough to focus on far away objects such as stars and the moon so if you could give me some tips on how to focus it would really help. Thank you.

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

@@mileshuxley5462 It depends a bit how exactly you are mounting the camera and what type of camera. For true prime focus with a DSLR, you actually need to bump the mirror forward in the tube a bit (Video for the mod here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oKqghruBs6nSg2Q.html). If you have a barlow then you can achieve focus without a mod. That is perfect for planetary, but will not work well for Deep Sky targets like galaxies or nebula. Alternatively, if you have a planetary camera, you should be able to get focus natively though admittedly I don't have experience with those.

@mileshuxley5462 2 жыл бұрын

I hope you don’t mind me asking another question but for the planets I am using the Barlow lenses and the same telescope and camera and telescope you have but the focus wheel won’t go far enough. Does this mean I need to collimate my telescope?

@kylemccaslin 2 жыл бұрын

@@mileshuxley5462 that's probably not the issue unless your scope is WAY out of colimation. I'd double check that but if it isn't too bad then let's move this conversation over to email so you can send pictures of your optical train. My email is khmccaslin@utexas.edu