Planetary Live View

[S-D]

I set up this weekend with my 700D at prime, connected to BYE.

 

As a test, clicked over to Planetary and focussed in on Jupiter.  The live view seemed quite noisy looking.  All of the screenshots I've seen look very crisp. 

 

Is this something I'm doing wrong?  I was in maual mode at 800 ISO, with 5X zoom set.

 

I'm sort of new to this, so if there is information I'm leaving out that could help, just let me know and I'd be happy to provide it.

 

Thanks.

 

S-D

[astroman133]

When in LiveView, the camera uses both ISO and shutter as brightness controls. They do not affect the frame rate, just the brightness. You can play around with these controls to see what I mean with a lens on the camera and not even connected to BYE. Set the ISO to 200 and the shutter to 2" (2 seconds). Then use the shutter speed wheel on the camera to shorten the exposure while watching the LiveView display. As you get shorter the display should darken. 

 

You will see the same behavior when you are connected to BYE on the Frame & Focus or Planetary capture screens, if you uncheck Maximum Sensitivity in the Settings.

 

When you are using BYE to focus on a bright star, you want to set "Maximum Sensitivity" on the settings, or set the ISO to maximum, say 12800, and the shutter to 2" (not BULB). That is just about the maximum brightness that you can do. Then when you slew to Jupiter, you want to uncheck Maximum Sensitivity, set the ISO down to a reasonable value, say 200 or 400, and start lowering the shutter until the planet darkens and you can see the equatorial bands.

 

I hope this helps.

[astroman133]

What focal length? What was the shutter set at? For a normal Planetary capture of Jupiter, in LiveView it should look dark.  It is easy to brighten it too much,and wash it out, by having an overly-long shutter.

 

Also, you may be better focusing on a bright star before slewing to Jupiter.  That way you can use the FWHM or HFD focus metric.

[admin]

You absolutely need to select a shutter speed < 2 seconds, probably even < than 1 second.  If you have it in BULB mode exposure simulation is not active.

 

Hope this makes sense,

[S-D]

So, even though it is using the live view, I need to be concerned about shutter speed?  I thought it was just a video representation of what the camera was seeing.

 

Thanks for the response, Guylain.

 

S-D

[S-D]

I guess I should add that I am not actually recording an avi, I am just viewing as a test.

 

Thanks.

 

S-D

[S-D]

Okay, that makes sense. 

 

Thanks very much, Rick.

 

S-D

[Dirty Harris]

Hey S-D let me chime in on this planetary imaging quickly. Don't know where your local is or your seeing conditions? I am in Colorado USA, at about 5000ft. Seeing here is just average to good at times.I have come to find that a good starting point for Jupiter, and Saturn for imaging is to set shutter at 1/60th or 1/80th ISO at 400 on Canon models. The image will still be fuzzy and aberrated due to atmospheric conditions. As Guylain said use 5x always for best results, and as stated use FWHM on a nearby star to focus. If you're just observing you can even put the image on "FULL SCREEN" again it will be wavy and fuzzy and a little dark. If you run a video at this point and then latter stack that video in Registax-6 then play with histogram, gamma, and sharpen the image with wavelets, you will be pleasantly surprised how well your fuzzy video will result in a pretty fair single frame picture. This is just a starting point and you may have to do some tweaking of your own. Hope this helps some and keeps you interested in Astrophotography, clear skies your way, regards, Dirty Harris Colo. USA.  

[S-D]

Dirty Harris.

 

Thanks so much for the tips. I'm in Wisconsin and the light pollution is terrible. Having said that, I am able to get pretty decent viewing of jupiter and Saturn on clear, cool nights with the scope. Mars just looks like a blurry orange marble.

 

We've had pretty stormy, hot and humid weather lately, but I will definitely try your suggestions next time I get a clear shot.

 

Thanks again.

 

S-D