best software for planets?

[Guest Gino Arcari]

i have a windows laptop and a nikon d5200. whenever i video a small planet for stacking, its way to small and the video gets compressed so i loose tiny details, however, if i zoom in on live view, more detail comes out but i can not record while zoomed in on live view..so i was wondering, is there a software for windows that would let me connect my camera and record while zoomed in (cropped)? any help or suggestions will be great, thanks 

[dawson]

Gino, hello. DSLR cameras are not the best for planetary imaging as the sensor is massive, and most often if you use a smaller area of the sensor you result in lower resolution as the pixels are "binned" as far as I'm aware, which on a colour camera isn't good (again, as far as I'm aware), and also the DSLRs seem to compress the data which contributes to less resolution. However there are lots of examples of people getting pretty impressive results with DSLR cameras with planetary imaging on SGL; search there for "planetary DSLR" or "jupiter DSLR" and see the results.

 

What you need is a small sensor and an ability to take fast frame rates. A modified webcam is what most people start out with, and this allows frames rates of 10-60 fps depending upon the camera and the USB connection (USB1 seems very slow and acts as a bottle neck). The techy people will know more about the bottlenecks than I do, but I often managed 10-15 fps with my Logitech 4000 Pro, and got some reasonable images (well ones I was happy with at the time).

 

Many people use a modified SPC900c as a first planetary camera. I used a Logitech 4000 Pro. These cameras can be picked up second hand for anything from £30-£90 on ebay / astrobuysell etc. There are others too (lots written about this on SGL).

 

ZWO are now a popular make for planetary cameras and I have one of these, the 120MC (1.2 megapixels, colour chip); there is a 120MM (mono), and now even smaller chips, 034MC (0.34 megapixels, colour) and the 034MM (0.34 megapixels mono). Don't worry about the apparent low megapixels, as this is just a reflection of the size of the sensor, you will get the same "resolution" as the 120MC but you will have a smaller chip. I have never needed all the 1280x960 (or whatever it is) on my 120MC and usually image Jupiter at less than 640x480 (so use less than a quarter of my 1.2 megapixels). You can easily add a barlow or powermate in front of these cameras (or webcams, or DSLRs) to make the image appear bigger.

 

As to the software for recording the zoomed in appearance on the live view of the DSLR, I don't think this is possible or if it were it still would pose many of the issues of undertaking planetary imaging with a DSLR, namely the issue of compression (I believe).

 

I'm not sure I have helped much.

 

Felix showed me a book which I've since read and found really useful:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Webcam-Astrophotography-Universe-Affordable/dp/0943396867

 

It must be in demand as second hand copies are still selling for more than the original asking price!

 

Felix will hopefully be along soon and be able to contribute too. There are several other keen planetary imagers on here too who will hopefully give their opinions.

 

My bottom line is, the DSLR is not the ideal tool for the planetary imaging job, but it can be used. I'd try and get a second hand astro-modified webcam.

 

Good luck and let up know how you get on.

 

JD

[catman161]

Well I am not sure I can add much more to what James has said apart from reinforce the book recommendation.

One thing that was hugely helpful to me when I first started was Dion's video tutorials on webcams and planetary imaging over on a forum called astronomy shed. Definitely get signed up there and have a watch of his videos.

As far as the software for capturing whilst in live view I am not sure either I'm afraid.

[andyboy1970]

Backyard Eos allows you to do video capture (live view) with Canon cameras.

[dawson]

Can you capture a zoomed in version on live view too with it, or just the native video format of the camera?

[+RonC]

Same question as James and what format is used, not .avi I think?

 

Ron

[andyboy1970]

I haven't used it for a few years, here is the webpage - http://www.backyardeos.com/product_backyardeos.aspx

[+RonC]

Thanks Andy, all this time and I never knew that! 

[andyboy1970]

Unfortunately as you know a DSLR produces disappointing planetary results.

[dawson]

This suggests that you use the zoom function in Live View to select the area you want to zoom in on and record; very promising for planetary people, especially is BackyardEOS is getting around the binning and compression issue which appears to make DSLRs less favourable for planetary imaging. I had a visitors license for this software but it expired so someone else will have to experiment and report back.

 

 

JD