Mars Shooting Tips

[Radar]

Okay tonight I am going to attempt Mars with my DSI. I've been paying close attention to tutorials and infromation posted on this site.

I'll be shooting Mars in RGB.

Should I use an infra-red filter for all the RGB exposures? The infra red filter part is still confusing me a little. :confused:

What is the maximum time I can shoot Mars for?

I'll be using an 8 inch SCT which is barlowed. So I'll be shooting at 4000mm FL. I have another barlow that I may use if Mars is bright enough, but more than likely I'll just use the one because the filters will darken the image.

If anyone can offer some hints and tips on this thread that would be great. I'll start shooting in about three - four hours time.

Ray

[beren]

Im not sure with RGB imaging Ray :confused: Are you planning to combine and stack each channel or saving every frame {per channel} as BMP's for stacking in registax ? Im not 100% sure what time limit for Mars is but I go for 150s.....if you stacking and combining in the meade program and if you have the quality set high 85+ you might not grab {depending on the seeing :biggrin: } enough frames.

Good luck mate, I just finished setting up my gear for DSO's so its ready to go later tonight if the cloud cover disappears, just want to get something before the Moon becomes too obtrusive.

[Radar]

I have a one shot colour DSI and a monochrome DSI. I was going to try the monochrome one with filters. I'll try 45 seconds on each filter and then use registax to combine them.

I'll also try the one shot colour camera and see how I go with that. I know once I get out there tonight that it's going to be one frustrating evening. :ahh!: But I'm ready for the learning curve.

Ray

P.S That collimation link you provided Stu worked wonders on my SCT. My SCT hasn't had good collimation for about two years, so much so that I lost interest in looking at Jupiter and other things. I've had such a strong emphasis on astrophotography in recent years that the visual side of things has been put on the back burner. After fiddling around for about 5 minutes I had good collimation, but I noticed that it could be better, so I tweaked it again and again with other eyepieces with the donut at different sizes. I'd forgotten how good the views are through this telescope. Paul says to collimate without the diagonal but last night I used the diagonal. I'll probably shoot with and without the diagonal tonight and see how that affects the end result. I like to keep the image train quite long, this seems to enlarge the planet.

[beren]

Sorry I cant help to much with the DSI settings Ray, been a while since I used mine. Generally I keep my diaognal in and collimate while its in place, I know its another piece of glass in the imaging train but it aids the image scale plus Im confident it's aligned right {better be its a televue everbrite}. When I finish collimating I use my DSLR to record some images and see how good I have got it, a live feed from a webcam/dsi is distored a little by the seeing.

[Radar]

When I set the DSI software to take very short exposures the image disappears from the screen. Does this sound right? :ahh!:

Also when I decrease the exposure time the image becomes smaller on the screen. How do I know what size is a good size?:ahh!:

The DSI software exposure time setting has disappeared. I can't tell it to do very short exposures, it seems to be going off the preview setting. :ahh!:


Warning - Planetary Photography can cause stress related illness. :crazy:

[timthelder]

Howdy Ray,

I know I'm a little green,but here's a few things I figured out the other night.



When I set the DSI software to take very short exposures the image disappears from the screen. Does this sound right?


Start focusing at the fifteen second mark while your looking at the live view.
When you achieve focus,shorten the exposure time,say to 8 seconds,refocus,repeat until you get it down to the 1 second mark.



Also when I decrease the exposure time the image becomes smaller on the screen. How do I know what size is a good size?

I did not notice this when I was shooting...I did notice the magicfocus triangles 'shrinking',each time I shortened the exposure time.They would get bigger each time I refocused.



The DSI software exposure time setting has disappeared. I can't tell it to do very short exposures

Did you click the autoexpose button to let the camera make some adjustment's?Seems like the camera goes back to 'live' after doing this.


Another note,On my 9 1/4,I could not get the imager to focus using two high-quality barlows in series to bump up the focal length...My uneducated guess is to use a 3x or 5x telextender...

Hope I helped...

[hpcoolahan]

hey there Ray ,, calm down!!:smile:

Most of your planetry imaging will be well under 1 sec for exposure.
The way i do it is to focus roughly,and hit the auto exp button.

Then focus again.

then slowly take the exposure down manually until all the white , over exposed part of the planet has gone,
Then focus again.

That should do the trick.

The dsi will always over expose using the auto setting.

You said when you decrease the exp the planet gets smaller , thats good , keep going till you get rid of all the bright over exposed part , and keep fiddling with the focus till its right.
Verry small tweaks on the focuser ok.a little goes a long way.

Then get up to 200 shots to combine.


Clear skies
Pat

[Radar]

Thanks guys, I'll try that out tonight. I knew I was going to have some issues going into planetary, but after seeing Beren's and Paul's efforts, I'm determined to learn the ropes.

I've picked up some stress pills to calm me down :biggrin:

http://www.myastrospace.com/images/val.jpg