Tonight - IF THE CLOUDS SHOULD PART - the RED PLANET: Last night "up" looked like this.....the sun is shinning now and then today - that's a huge change

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Last night "up" looked like this.....the sun is shinning now and then today - that's a huge change - so maybe tonight a glimpse of the sky long enough to get Mars can happen. Since it is closer than it will be in a long time.....I will try. I am not too hot at planetary, lunar, and solar imaging so if you guys could share a few hints. I will try anything.

Along with the 8inch SCT at 2032mm...

Should I use my DSLR with a 4x Barlow (televue and it renders some nice sharp even field images) with the crop factor turned on at 1.5

or should I use my AZI120MC and shoot video....with the barlow or without.

Not too sure I will have a lot of time to experiment - changing kids and such.

This is what our skies looked like last night...and for the past 7 days.

(Download)

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

Last night "up" looked like this.....the... (show quote)

It sounds like you'll get clear skies tonight Ed.
Your AZI120MC should get you some good shots.
I think Jim can give you the settings you need.
I'm going to go with my D800E DSLR and the 10mm Lens Projection.
I have the same 2x as Jim but I don't get the same IQ he does.
Craig

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

CraigFair wrote:

It sounds like you'll get clear skies tonight Ed.
Your AZI120MC should get you some good shots.
I think Jim can give you the settings you need.
I'm going to go with my D800E DSLR and the 10mm Lens Projection.
I have the same 2x as Jim but I don't get the same IQ he does.
Craig

Funny thing about the ZWO.
I always let it set up automatically and boosted gain to fine focus. Then I dropped it back down, ran 10 seconds to confirm and then ran the video. Some of my best stacks have come from sequences that I thought were too dim.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

From Los Angeles, the worldwide center of astronomical events obscured by weather, Mars was brilliantly red.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

nikonshooter wrote:

Last night "up" looked like this.....the... (show quote)

AZI120MC it is....should I add the 4x Barlow. I have a 2X Celestron which I have never tried. The 4x is a jim-dandy but I will be giving up light. I just do not have a clue if the Mars will be bright enough for the ASI120mc and 4X barlow....on the 8 Inch that's a F/40 aperture.......jeeeeez-louise that's stopping down a lot of light - works great on the sun and moon.

Well if the clouds part, the fun will be in the trying.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Albuqshutterbug wrote:

Funny thing about the ZWO.
I always let it set up automatically and boosted gain to fine focus. Then I dropped it back down, ran 10 seconds to confirm and then ran the video. Some of my best stacks have come from sequences that I thought were too dim.

That's good to know......I have used this camera for a guide camera and did a few Saturn and Jupiter runs but do not remember much about the camera. What software do you use.....I have Sharpcap and FireCapture installed and am leaning towards Sharpcap!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

AZI120MC it is....should I add the 4x Barlow. I have a 2X Celestron which I have never tried. The 4x is a jim-dandy but I will be giving up light. I just do not have a clue if the Mars will be bright enough for the ASI120mc and 4X barlow....on the 8 Inch that's a F/40 aperture.......jeeeeez-louise that's stopping down a lot of light - works great on the sun and moon.

Well if the clouds part, the fun will be in the trying.

Did you mean f/4.0 if yes you should have enough light to get an image.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I wish.....nope, the SCT is an F/10 scope and when I or if I add the Barlow 4x that stops down the light to F/FORTY. So I am guessing I will need to use the DSLR and approach it just like I would DSO = if I use that setup. I just went out to where my scope will setup and I may not even have a shot for the bloody trees. It seems that Mars will be no higher than the ecliptic which at it's peak is 34.53 for my site....and my trees reach above that. So I may have to move to a dark site or get lazy and shoot something else.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

nikonshooter wrote:

I wish.....nope, the SCT is an F/10 scope and when... (show quote)

OK, and yes to the trees I can't get a shot of Mars or Saturn till 2:30 AM.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

nikonshooter wrote:

That's good to know......I have used this camera for a guide camera and did a few Saturn and Jupiter runs but do not remember much about the camera. What software do you use.....I have Sharpcap and FireCapture installed and am leaning towards Sharpcap!

It's been awhile, last summer, that I used these but It was the one that came up in a camera view without a lot of effort. I then processed in Autostakkert II letting it automatically dump into an already running Registax6. That will take you directly to the slider screen to do the tweaking magic.
Hope all goes well.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Albuqshutterbug wrote:

It's been awhile, last summer, that I used these but It was the one that came up in a camera view without a lot of effort. I then processed in Autostakkert II letting it automatically dump into an already running Registax6. That will take you directly to the slider screen to do the tweaking magic.
Hope all goes well.

I just don't think I will now have a view - there is a slight opening in the trees that seems to be close to the track (ecliptic) Mars will be moving - if so, I will have maybe 15 minutes to get some video. I think I used castrator to resample then took the files into Regstax. It was ok but nothing like the planetary images I have seen on this forum.