Process Your Planetary Astrophotography | High Point Scientific

In a follow-up from our previous video on planetary imaging our team member, Kyle, goes over his preferred method to processing his images of the planets.
Check out our video on planetary imaging with the Nexstar 8SE: • Photograph a Planet wi...
Choosing the Best Planetary Camera: www.highpointscientific.com/c...
Gear used to make this image:
ZWO 224MC: www.highpointscientific.com/c...
Celestron CGX: www.highpointscientific.com/b...
Apertura Dovetail: www.highpointscientific.com/a...
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Software used:
PIPP: sites.google.com/site/astropi...
Autostakkert: www.autostakkert.com/?source=...
RegiStax: www.astronomie.be/registax/?s...
#highpointscientific #astrophotography #jupiter

[@stevesolon6710]

Many thanks, Kyle. I'm primarily a deep-sky imager, but am always trying to improve planetary processing techniques. This tutorial certainly helped, especially since I've not used PIPP before; I'll give it a try. All the best, Steve

[@atuliczek]

Great Video Kyle! I recommend it.

[@mariusmacas380]

Thank you. Good man!

[@reflactor]

Super helpful. Thank you!

[@highpointscientific]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Comet-2011-W3-Lovejoy]

Pipp got deleted???

[@Bills_APCh]

Hi Kyle. superb work here and video. Did you say you used a 8 inch Dobsonian, with ASI 224 MC camera. Did you use a tracking platform ? What about a barlow or powermate ? That Jupiter looks so big ! Thanks.

[@highpointscientific]

Hello! A 3x barlow was used, the 8" dobsonian OTA was placed on a CGX mount.

[@ainttakenanyshit]

AT 7:50 why did you not put any alignment points on the moon? Does it matter? How much better is the quality when you selected the SER output format? Thanks for you answers on these few questions.... Hank

[@highpointscientific]

It shouldn't make an impact, the moons of Jupiter are pretty small and your focus is on the planet itself. SER isn't necessarily higher quality, but it saves more disk space vs an .avi file and can go up to 16 bit.

[@cex7355]

Correct putting alingment points on the moon is key for getting a nice round moon and possibly surface details

[@naduntharaka6197]

💓👀

[@jayh106]

Thanks for the vid. All I need now is for the camera to come back in stock.

[@AlexanderEsbb]

Hope I win the Celestron telescope 🔭😁

[@marcocambray7725]

Any future videos using Apple ?

[@kyled7969]

You should be able to run these programs using Wine, but AFAIK there's no real way to do this type of processing with Mac OS.

[@marcocambray7725]

@@kyled7969 seems the moon and sun photos I have will have to wait until I get a PC thanks for the information

[@highpointscientific]

Hello! We do not plan on creating a video using Apple software given the lack of support for astrophotography.

[@battleop]

You can run this software with Wine or Parallels. I use both on all of my Macs.

[@marcocambray7725]

@@battleop I will give a try are they free

[@vcotta2012]

This is the hardest hobby I've ever tried!! Frustrating beyond anything. It's incredibly difficult to even find the planet while using a highly magnified lens. I can not even take a photo.

[@alanstewart3929]

I found the same. There are a few things to consider. First of all, you need to get your telescope pointing in the right direction = that may sound obvious, but for small, planetary tragets you need to get it right. I ended up buying a sighting device which at least gets me in the vicinity of my target. Next thing is focus. You may have focussed on the planet in an eyepiece, but if you swop to a camera (DSLR or video cap) you need to change the focus. An out of focus target, like a star or planet, will show up as a faint fuzzy 'donut' shape. That's ok, though - if you can get that onscreen, you can then fine tune the focus so that the image is reasonably sharp. Finally, if your target looks washed out, reduce the gain (on vidcal cameras) or the exposure on DSLRs. A further complication is that your target will seem to drift across your field of view. If you have a telescope that can track a target, use that facility to keep the target centred. If you don't, the Plan B option is to set things up that your target drifts acorss the screen, so that it is visible for the maximum time possible. This is where vidcap cameras really shine - the longer clip you can capture, the more frames your stacking software has to work with and your chances of a good result are higher (all other factors, such as seeing, being as good as they can be). To be honest, I'd advise practising with the moon first. It is a big, bright target, that you can easily locate in the eyepiece. Then go for something like Jupiter. Good luck in your future efforts!

[@supremeknowing7896]

Earth is flat tho.