Jupiter and Saturn Will Form a Rare Double Planet

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Mick

Slowly getting better, but still not where I want it. The other night, trying to figure out the focus problem, I set the 'scope to be what I knew to be a little overfocused, and took a pic. Then, I backed off the focus a little, and snapped again. I did the same thing 5 more times, and what I got were 7 identical looking pictures. Conclusion: the camera's "autofocus" function was ****ing with me.

So, during the recent storm, I learned how to "focus lock" the camera, and tried the same thing tonight. The problem: The focus lock turns off after each exposure, and re-locking it (where I had to hold the shutter button half way down while pressing another button), while easy on the kitchen table, was VERY challenging when the camera was mounted on the scope. Add to that the fact that the planets are now far enough apart, I can't get both in the view with the camera's 4x optical zoom any more, and the attached may be the best I achieve:

Guess this is s little late but is there a way to disable autofocus? I disable autofocus and keep adjusting slightly, taking a shot and continue until some bright star is a small as I can get it. There's another technique that requires some additional equipment. Nothing elaborate, just what looks like a lens cap with some slots in it. It's called a Bahtinov mask.




You can make one but it's tedious. The slots need to be the appropriate size for you focal length. There are several websites that generate templates based on your focal length and sensor size. I tried to make one... too fiddely for me. Think I paid less than $15 for mine. It produces an image like this (not my photos):


You adjust focus until the spikes look like the center image. Once you get it as perfect as you can, then lock the focus with some painters tape. One thing to note is the focus point on most zoom lenses shifts slightly as the focal length changes.



Your shots look great given your challenges with the focus. Lots of people have posted shot on FB that don't even show the moons of Jupiter. Definitely keepers.
There's also the problem of Jupiter being so much brighter than Saturn. If Jupiter is good, then Saturn is dim. If Saturn is exposed right, Jupiter is blown out. The best shots I seen all took separate exposures for each and blended them in Photoshop. I would have tried that if I could have gotten my mount to work. Poor prep on my part.
Two on yours.

[Mick]

Originally Posted by snide

Best shot I've seen yet.

Definitely kicking my ass!

Originally Posted by TripleBlack

Guess this is s little late but is there a way to disable autofocus? I disable autofocus and keep adjusting slightly, taking a shot and continue until some bright star is a small as I can get it. There's another technique that requires some additional equipment. Nothing elaborate, just what looks like a lens cap with some slots in it. It's called a Bahtinov mask.

Yes, I figured out how to disable auto-focus. The problem is that when I disable it, it comes back on after each shot, and I don't think there is a way to make it stay that way (I have been reading the manual more today). It's super easy to disable the AF when I'm sitting at the kitchen table, but VERY challenging with the camera mounted onto the 'scope.

Your shots look great given your challenges with the focus. Lots of people have posted shot on FB that don't even show the moons of Jupiter. Definitely keepers.
There's also the problem of Jupiter being so much brighter than Saturn. If Jupiter is good, then Saturn is dim. If Saturn is exposed right, Jupiter is blown out. The best shots I seen all took separate exposures for each and blended them in Photoshop. I would have tried that if I could have gotten my mount to work. Poor prep on my part.
Two on yours.

Thanks!

One of my biggest problems is I really didn't know much about how to use the camera I have. When we did some astrophotography before, my daughter was the cameral person, and I was the telescope guy. I figured there would be a learning curve, so I started working on it a several days before the event, I should have started a month or more ahead of time!

Weather looks like we might get another short opportunity tonight, but my wife wants to try using her iPhone (she bought a mount specifically for it), and I have agreed, so I am probably done. I'm not upset about how it worked out, we got fantastic views looking directly into the eyepiece, and I learned a lot about photography and how cameras work. All in all a good time was had!

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Daughters friend took this with a cam and telescope

Winner!! That's the way it's done. You can see the bands on both Jupiter and Saturn. Even Jupiter's Red Spot and rings of Saturn clearly.





Edit: Plus the moons of both planets.

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Mick

Definitely kicking my ass!

And mine!


Maybe I'll try again tonight. I had trouble with my tracking mount and it seems to be working now.



I wish I had eyepieces for my telescope but it's set up strictly for photography.



It was a cool thing to just see as was Mars earlier in the year.I just wish I was away from so much light pollution.

[Wathen1955]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Daughters friend took this with a cam and telescope

That is an excellent shot! If you click on the picture, you get a better view.

[Thunder22]

Originally Posted by TripleBlack

Guess this is s little late but is there a way to disable autofocus? I disable autofocus and keep adjusting slightly, taking a shot and continue until some bright star is a small as I can get it. There's another technique that requires some additional equipment. Nothing elaborate, just what looks like a lens cap with some slots in it. It's called a Bahtinov mask.



You can make one but it's tedious. The slots need to be the appropriate size for you focal length. There are several websites that generate templates based on your focal length and sensor size. I tried to make one... too fiddely for me. Think I paid less than $15 for mine. It produces an image like this (not my photos):

You adjust focus until the spikes look like the center image. Once you get it as perfect as you can, then lock the focus with some painters tape. One thing to note is the focus point on most zoom lenses shifts slightly as the focal length changes.



Your shots look great given your challenges with the focus. Lots of people have posted shot on FB that don't even show the moons of Jupiter. Definitely keepers.
There's also the problem of Jupiter being so much brighter than Saturn. If Jupiter is good, then Saturn is dim. If Saturn is exposed right, Jupiter is blown out. The best shots I seen all took separate exposures for each and blended them in Photoshop. I would have tried that if I could have gotten my mount to work. Poor prep on my part.
Two on yours.

Why not just disable autofocus and set focus to infinity?

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Thunder22

Why not just disable autofocus and set focus to infinity?

Well, it turns out that "infinity" isn't really infinity on many camera lenses. I've used several different camera lenses for astrophotography and none of them focus to infinity right on the infinity mark. You can get by with that on some wide angle lenses but the longer the focal length the more critical focus becomes. When I run my telescope I refocus about every hour to account for changes in temperature. Just a couple degrees is enough to make a difference with some scopes.

[04 commemorative]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Daughters friend took this with a cam and telescope

Asked daughter to ask her friend how she took it and this is reply..

She said..."I have a Celestron telescope with my dslr camera system attached with adapters. There are a lot of physics and calculations to make when you’re going to shoot something. They can get complicated to pull focus properly and have the right camera set up with the right telescope. The camera and the telescope you own have vast differences"

[Mick]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Asked daughter to ask her friend how she took it and this is reply..

She said..."I have a Celestron telescope with my dslr camera system attached with adapters. There are a lot of physics and calculations to make when you’re going to shoot something. They can get complicated to pull focus properly and have the right camera set up with the right telescope. The camera and the telescope you own have vast differences"

I have no doubt this is true. My telescope is a 90 mm refractor with an equatorial mount. This is basically two steps up from the junk telescopes you buy for $60 at Walmart, because they are usually 60 mm, and use an "alt-az" mount. The camera I use is a Canon Powershot SD1300 IS, which although it is a nice camera to take on vacation with you, it is a $200 toy compared to some of the equipment even backyard hobbyists use.

It was still fun though.