Re: Planetary imaging troubles with my new G811
|
Glen, Your problem is a common one.? The image chip is quite small (regardless of the large number of pixels, the chips are still small....and therefore inexpensive).? Even if the planet is centered in your finder scope it may be just off the small chip area.?? So I do this: I leave the video camera connected by cable, but carefully remove the video camera from the optical train. Don't let the camera fall to the ground.? ?I then insert a 1.25 inch diagonal and wide angle eyepiece.? I don't expect the panet to be in focus, I only need to see where the planet is in the wide field center the planet in the eyepiece. Then I reinsert the video camera and....voila: the planet is in the video image.?? Sometimes especially for an SCT, the focus can be so far out, you have the dark central obstruction in focus.? You can use the moon to get the focus settings then go back to the planet.?? When on Jupiter, I push the gain way up, the exposure way up and use a visible moon of Jupiter with a Bahtinov mask to set my focus.? Then go back to Jupiter with lower settings.?? Anyway, focus the video image, center it, but.. not yet don't start the Autoguider in FireCapture.? Also rotate the video camera so the rings of Saturn or equatorial bands of Jupiter are horizontal.? This aids in later de-rotating the planet frames in the WinJuPos program.? I guess you could also try to get the polar cap of Mars at the bottom of the image to de-rotate that planet also.? ?? Then...recenter the planet and start the Autoguider in FireCapture.? If the Autoguider then quickly moves the planet left or right out of the frame, you must check (or uncheck) the RA reverse setting in FireCapture autoguider. Likewise if the image moves quickly out of frame up or down it is the DEC checkbox reverse that must be changed.? This is an experimental hobby. Try some things ...you really can't harm anything.? ?Keep notes about your optical setup and Firecapture settings so you can find the optimal settings for your system. Have fun, and enjoy the journey! Michael On Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 6:36 PM Glenn <glancey3@...> wrote: Michael, |
Michael Herman