Hi guys I got myself a Zwo 385 mc. I know pretty much nothing about astrophotography. I have been trying to capture Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter is basically like a grain of sand. Its tiny. It is next to impossible to focus it is so small. The instruction manual is not great with the camera and the one video I found online is in another language. Even when I lower the resolution Jupiter is little more than a very very small pea. I wasnt expecting it to be easy but it is like an endurance test tying to use it. I looked at a video online and Jupiter was nice and big on the computer. Surely I am doing something wrong. Any advice would be much appreciated. (I'm using a cpc 11)
Ah thank you Michael. That makes sense. I have a 2x barlow so I may purchase a 3x. Would that be standard when using a planetary camera? I was so confused! It was so small I was convinced I was doing something completely wrong. Also is it normal to have a hard time actually getting the planet into the cameras field of view? I find that the margins of error are tiny. Tonight for example I couldn't get Saturn into the field of view. I blew my plug so was operating the scope manually. That obviously didnt help.
Getting the planet into the field of view just requires that the finder scope is accurately aligned. As the camera field of view is smaller than an eyepiece there is less room for error.
I find that once I have done my 2 star alignment the scope will put a planet on the chip most of the time. I leave the barlow out until I have found the planet.
Thanks for that Michael. I probably am guilty of not aligning the finder scope 100%. I am pretty happy that only need a barlow. I really would like to get a good crack at Jupiter and Saturn before they bow out.
neil
The following user(s) said Thank You: michael_murphy
