Starting in astronomy
beginner’s guide to stargazing
By Mike Barrett
How to photograph the planets
For the last couple of issues
our object spotlights have been
located within our solar system. It is
quite easy to see them, Jupiter and
the Moon in particular, but quite
difficult to image them. The term for
imaging the solar system is Planetary
Imaging despite the fact that both
the planets, the moon and the sun
are all imaged in this manner.
photography you do not just point
your camera at the object and
then take a long exposure image.
You can get some acceptable
pictures of the moon with a
long telephoto lens and a single
exposure, but the best way to
create a still image is using a video!
That may sound a little counterintuitive, but there are good reasons
leaving a large number of good
quality images. These good images
are then combined to enhance the
detail and produce the final picture.
Why is this better than taking a
single image? There are a number
of factors involved, but the main
disruptor to imaging is a constantly
moving atmosphere between
the camera and the target. As
the atmosphere shimmers with
the thermal currents so the image
is distorted. This effect can be
clearly seen when looking through
a telescope at say Jupiter as the
planet seems to wobble and
shift in and out of focus as you
are observing it. This is the effect
that needs to be removed.
The easiest way to do this is with
an internet camera often referred to
as a webcam. This can be either a
purpose bought device or a cheap
converted computer web camera.
They are essentially the same thing.
Equipment for
planetary imaging
High resolution image of Jupiter taken with a Professional CCD camera.
Credit Damian Peach (www.damianpeach.com)
This two part article will take
you through the steps required to
take some good pictures of the
astronomical bodies in the solar
system. The first part will concentrate
on equipment and capturing
the images, the next article will
look at how to process them.
Unlike conventional deep space
22
22
for this process. First we need to
think about how the video works.
A video consists of a series of still
images that are played back rapidly
to create the illusion of movement.
This is the core principle behind the
way imaging of planetary bodies
works. You take hundreds of images
and then discard most of them
The equipment that you
will need is as follows:
1) Mount-tripod or telescope mount
2) Telescope
3) Webcam
4) Computer
5) Capture software
6) Processing software
The mount:
The ideal mount would be a
tracking mount that will keep the
object in the middle of the frame
during the exposure. This is not critical
though and a normal camera
tripod can be used. The main thing
www.RocketSTEM .org