How do I take pictures of other planets? Is it possible with my rig? - Forums

Topic starter

Dec 10, 2016

Hey there, I just recently got into Astrophotography and I was wondering if some veterans could help me out.

Telescope: Celestron NexStar 6SE
Camera: Celestron NexImage 5
Software: iCap 2.3
Location: Long Island, New York

I bought my telescope and camera yesterday, and last night was my second night out. Using iCap, this picture of the moon is what came out. Can anyone give me advice on how to improve? The camera is very zoomed on the moon and I can't zoom it out, is this normal? I tried getting other celestial objects into view of my camera. I would put my 25mm lens in, find a star, center it, take my lens off, put the NexImage in, and all I would get on my laptop is a black screen. I couldn't even find any planets, although I'm going to keep trying.

Also, I see these amazing pictures of Galaxies and Nebulas, but even with my 7.5mm lens I could never see anything that resembles either. So I want to know, is it my amateur skills, my telescope, or light pollution? (I live in a standard suburb with streetlights and such, I took the moon picture from my driveway.)

Thanks!

Engaging

Adel Kildeev

Dec 11, 2016

Hi,
You do have a nice setup, it should work well for planetary imaging. First of all, play with camera setting (gain, speed etc). For the Moon 20-25 sh/sec is ok, for the planets 30-50 the best. Secondly, read carefully telescope manual, it is not a fun but you must. Finally, use Autostakkert and Registax free sotfware - very good and give excellent results. Do not be frustrated if you do not have good results in thr begining, with the time you will master your skills. As to deep sky photography - you would better buy Newton scope (150-750) or ED refractor (80 and up) and German Eq. mount ( celestron adv or Skywatcher EQ-6 or Orion. Another thing - you would need a separate autoguider scope and camera. And for photo - you need camera ( Dslr or special astrocamera - plenty to choose from). Read astroforums and magazines, you would lear a lot. Clear skies

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Garry O'Brien

Feb 3, 2017

For the "zooming" change the bin setting to 2 or 4.

To find something easily set the bin setting to 1 and choose a large frame e.g. 1920 x 1080 that way you see more of the sky via the chip. Once you have found your target place it in the middle and reset the frame size (usually to the smallest) and your target should be centered - you may have to select bin 4 at first and then recenter it. Oh and once you have focused properly changing the bin setting to 1 may may you think that its just gone out of focus - it hasn't so leave the focus alone and change the bin setting. With iCAP your maximum frame rate is 52 But its more important to set the exposure so that you can see the target clearly - try to keep the gain below 75%. I have a Celestron 4SE and found that for example Jupiter I had to set the gain at 70% and the exposure at around 100 - 200th second. I also needed to use a Barlow 2 for both Jupiter and Saturn. When you process through registax its fairly key to try and find the sharpest or least burry frame for reference before aligning. For the moon on some occasions I found that bin 2 gives a better image but less detailed. I also have a bigger scope (9.25 SCT) and use that for most imaging now. If you look me up on site (garryob) 50% of my moon shots in Astrobin were taken with the 4SE.

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