20 Tips for Taking Photos of Planets (in 11 minutes)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- How to get the most out of your telescope for photographing planets properly. 20, yes TWENTY(!), tips for capturing the planets well from one backyard astronomer to another.
"Get Lucky" fingerstyle cover music played by me with a loop pedal. I thought it was an appropriate soundtrack for lucky imaging!
Support my alcoholism by getting some Star Stuff stuff:
/ @dylanodonnell
Dylan's Telescopes, Cameras & Equipment
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Celestron RASA 8" Telescope
amzn.to/3G4nlbP
Celestron NexYZ 3-Axis Smartphone Adapter
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Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro Mount
Usa : bit.ly/2NMD1em
Aus : bit.ly/3dxdRv1
Celestron CGX Mount
bit.ly/2H1LVl6
Celestron RASA F2 11" Telescope
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Celestron 11" Edge HD
bit.ly/3eaxJRl
QHY268M Mono CMOS Camera
bit.ly/3dOFgbx
Lunt40mm Solar Telescope
bit.ly/39ggrTW
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack
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ZWO ASI 174MM (Planetary / Solar Camera)
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ZWO ASI 120MM. (Guide Camera)
bit.ly/31bwspA
ZWO ASI 1600MM (Deep Space Camera)
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Celestron 0.7x reducer for 11" Edge HD
bit.ly/379s0LI
Celestron 0.7x reducer for 9.25” Edge HD
bit.ly/351togR
Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
bit.ly/379Nqsj
Canon 6D mkII DSLR
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Tokina 16-28mm Lens
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Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Full Frame
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Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens
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Dylan’s links
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PATREON : / dylanodonnell
WEB : deography.com
FACEBOOK : / dylanodonnell
TWITTER : / erfmufn
INSTAGRAM : / dylan_odonnell_
Intro Music - "Moving the Ocean (Aerologic Edit)" by Blastculture.
Another tip for focusing: some planets have moons... focus on those so they're just points of light, then the planet will be in focus too!
Great idea!
Get a Bahtinov mask to focus on a star and as long as the eye piece ( power ) is not changed will be in focus at infinity all the time.@@cryptojihadi265
I had no idea how much effort goes into making those twinkly blobs of light look like floating balls of sky-rock.
Dylan, great posting for us Planetary guys! I've watched it several times now in order to get the most out of my photo sessions. I would like to point out ONE more tip that neither you nor Christopher Go have to contend with. You two image the planets looking almost straight up, a luxury most of us don't have. And the one you forgot is to have an ADC (Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector) as part of your train, or setup. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the planets tend not to get any higher than 25 to 30 degrees high. That's a lot of atmosphere to be looking through! The ADC corrects for this disparity and helps to produce the sharpest images we can get before we start taking photos. It's a must-have, I assure you! Just thought I'd throw that out there for everyone else who comes here. Hope it helps someone! Clear Southern skies, Mate! Keep bringin' it!
Hey Dylan,
#21 - Use an ADC! An atmospheric dispersion corrector is used to correct the effects of unequal “seeing” when viewing a planet lower in the sky. Works famously and relatively cheap. FireCapture has a focusing tool that is easy to use and helps tune your ADC when shooting. Most planetary imagers find them indispensable! Keep the shows up. Love them. Dan
True .. good for one shot colour! But mono will take you further :)
I love how "Get Lucky" was on number 7! :)
I'm glad someone noticed ! :)
Wow and you have 7 likes haha
and 'get high' was tip 4/20!
step 1: have at least 10 grand to blow on this
Have you watched AstroBiscuit's videos?
@@gitaryddcymraeg8816 I wanted to photograph planets so bad but I'm not spending a fortune then I found his channel. He's the best!
I’m going to spend a lot less to start out. I’m sure my results will basically suck but it will give me some satisfaction. There’s a video on YT somewhere where a guy is challenged to spend only 100GB pounds to get a photo of Jupiter. He does by a used 6” reflector and some other bits and pieces to do it.
@@martynh5410 That's Astrobiscuit. His channel is awesome. He has done a few challenges on a budget.
You could actually get a pretty kick ass system for 6k. Premium 5" refractor, tracking equatorial mount and imaging equipment
Thanks so much for this Dylan! I haven't done planetary imaging in a long time, and when I did do it, it was using eyepiece projection. I am going to get myself a Powermate and now that I have much better equipment, I hope to get much better results too. Cheers!
Todd Thalimer hey good to hear! It’s planet season!
I'm a bit late to the party but I can't get over how quality these intro's are!
Haha thanks Nathan!
Merci Dylan ! I learned 5 new tips that I did not know: use firecapture, use an infrared filter, use the photoshop autocolor, use a barlow to magnify the image, and use the firecapture drizzle 1,5x function and also use of the firecapture ROI ... Thank you very much :) I will now make more beautiful photography ... A bientôt ;)
Great news !
That's a great pic of Jupiter, Dylan. This is my first year to seriously try astrophotography, using a newly acquired CGX and EdgeHD 9.25. Using my Canon 4ti as the camera, and so far it's hit and miss. Seeing your pic keeps me hopeful. Like learning the piano, it's all about practice, practice, practice.
John Giromini congrats on the gear and the new hobby! It’s a journey :) thanks for the feedback!
tip #4 got me excited for a good second there
te he
4. Get high. Oh yeah boy
Haha!
I would've loved to do astrophotography myself.. but I know when I'm in over my head.
From my limited understanding, there doesn't seem to be an all-round telescope that can both give a clear view and be used to take great photos with. There are people more nerdy than me out there, with very fancy and expensive equipment..!
With the budget I have I will probably not be able to achieve the level of contrast/complexity in the pictures that I want. It's also a lot more than just snapping photos, with both tracking and computer programs.
So, note to self: buy a telescope for stargazing.
Maybe try taking photos through the barlow with your phone, but they're probably not gonna turn out very good. If they don't and I want to get a more detailed view of what I'm looking at, I could look up the work of guys like this! That actually know what they're doing and have all the necessary equipment for it!
So thanks Dylan for the work you do to take these beautiful space pictures! That people, such as me, can only dream of producing.
Great tips, thanks! Does ADC also help or how much would it help, in your experience? Appreciated and clear skies.
Best teacher on the internet. Thanks.
Thanks
Excellent video. Simplistic and straight to the point. Thanks for the tips.
Dylan. Your channel is top notch. I hope to start up a channel of my own soon, and you've set the bar wicked high! good work!
Marc Leatham hey thanks man! I try to put a little effort into the editing these days!
I subscribed based on your intro lol But I did find this video helpful. I'm so used to photographing Nature and Storms but putting myself out there to experience, learn, and geek out over Astrophotography.
Haha I'm glad I spend more than 5 minutes on the intro then. I still like it :) I started with wildlife and weather too. There are some parallels and some huge differences heh. Small, moving stuff generally far away!
@@DylanODonnell haha VERY TRUE! Tell you the Truth, I'm outside now pushing this cheap cannon to the limits lol. I am still practicing with Photo Stacking and such. Lol
Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes have (using the star diagonal elbow) 5 optical surfaces. That's a lot of glass. Each surface can degrade the image if not well made. I prefer a Newtonian since it only has two optical surfaces. Not enough magnification ? Do eyepiece projection onto the chip of your imaging device.
Just pondering planetary imaging. This vid is a great starter.
Thanks John! Planetary is very straightforward and rewarding :)
AstroBiscuit has done amazing things with budget equipment.
The biggest lie in Astronomy is that you need to spend a fortune to equipment.
AstroBiscuit is awesome at showing that you don't NEED to spend loads of cash. The guy should have his own TV show.
I've watched astro buiscuit before, his videos are amazing! 😄
lol just came here after binging rorys vids
you need time and patience and dark skies
What's the equipment one would need for the easiest (most automated) planet photography? Thanks.
Hello Dylan. Focusing on a star is great advice, however, how do you know if your imaging train is setup properly to begin with? Please help. It is one of my greatest challenges. How do you setup a proper back-focus and where do you measure it from with varied image trains. Thank you in advance.
No wonder how you guys create amazing images. Great video. Cheers.
Another tip. Even if you can't afford a dome, build a shed with no roof, or even just four fence panels, to prevent wind shaking the scope.
Hy Dylan: THX for your every videos,they are all very helpful. i am a new beginner in the world of Astrologie. I bought a Nextar Evo 6. What is your meaning about this. It is a good Entry Teleskop? I would like to starting with some Deepsky photography. i am thinking about a M42 for the first objekt. It is better the make photos trought the teleskop or should i use just a DSLR cam with a bigger lens. I already read about this, but i am not shore should i make more photos and stacking in PS or just 1 photo longer time? What can you recommend? thx for your supporting, i will often write you in the future, if i have a question, naturally if it's not a problem for you. Have a nice day. Cheers Attila
Great Video again Dylan thanks, maybe a quick video on fire capture is in order :) I've only used Sharp cap for planets so far and have had mixed results. Keep up the great work mate.
Gollond Black cheers Golland! I’ve been considering it! Firecapture is free so I highly recommend switching to it.
There is a good intro video on FireCapture by the one of the creators on you tube, if you do a you tube search I am sure you will find it, there are others as well. I have only just downloaded it myself. Cheers
Congratulations on a great tutorial, Dylan. There is something new for everyone here!
Melvyn Davis thanks MD! 👍🏼
Nice video!
dylan yet another excellent video good stuff mate the jupiter shot jaw dropping good ... have you ever considered a longer video of you doing a full nights imaging session solving problems as they come up talking a little about what your doing and why with hints a tips along the way and then a nights processing ... as a noob only doing visual at the moment i am trying to learn as much as i can .. before the big spend on gear... thanks for all your videos mate i learn something every time you post
cheers
james D
James Dougan thanks man :) I’ve done it before and have a few sessions on this channel somewhere .. maybe unlisted now that the live stream is over as they are a bit long winded and dull heh
long winded is fine by me i watch a lot of longer videos on astroimaging and the hang outs at deep astronomy... astro backyard did a 2 1/2 hour imaging session loved it just wished he explained what was going wrong a bit more than just working on the problem in silence ... the afternoon coffee hangouts are really good talks with the people that are doing the science on exoplanets etc and not that have just read the science papers if you could re-up the videos you talked about of your sessions or post a link i for 1 would very much appreciate it .... i had a quick search for them and found nothing on your channel and the general search box at the top of the page unfortunately ..... i watch the harvard and nasa lectures /discussions on space science they can get long winded and complex sometimes maybe i am just a boring old far*/ bottom burp but i like to learn and your presentations are top quality stuff
cheers
james D
This one might be ok? It's a bit older with my EQ6 mount but hopefully it's of some value! ua-cam.com/video/oorQAYe_KcM/v-deo.html UA-cam video ID : oorQAYe_KcM
thanks heaps mate for the link i am watching now very much appreciated your a true champion
cheers
james D
There's also a version 3.0.14 of Autostakkert available, it runs under 64 bits. It's listed under the link to the beta versions, but runs very stable for me!
Also: great channel! Your videos are very well done and cover a lot of information.
Julian Dinges great tip! Firecapture really is the best. Thanks for the encouragement !
I downloaded Firecapture. Now got to do its tutorials. Thanks a bunch!
great informative video :) however, idk if it's just me, but whenever i focus on stars, and then move to a planet, i find the planet slightly out of focus. i guess planetary cameras are sensitive to more levels of "infinity" :)
You’re right !
That's bad ass man. Really Cool. Hey Man I bought a Mavic Air to do my swamp videos prior to the Rhino Slider showing the Milky way go over the videoed area
If you needed to narrow your field of view for a particular object, would it be better to use a barlow lens over a smaller crop sensor camera ? What would be the pros vs cons? F-ratio sacrifice or pixel definition. I hope I make sense. Love your work!
Good question. I think adding a Barlow reduces image quality and speed and would also mess with your sampling. But if you simulate it on the Bintel astronomy calculator (which I built) it should give you the theoretical answer :)
Hi , looking forward to do Planets photography . I have a Celestron 14 Edge HD & a Coronado 90mm double stack & 3 Zwo Asi Cameras color 094 , 1600 mm with EWF 36mm & 174 mm . Two Televue Barlows 2x & 3x & a Celestron reducer 7x .
Which Telescope is better for the planets photography ?
How will make the perfect combination ?
What are the size of the filters needed to be put in a EWF ?
Looking forward to buy Baader filters for planets photography ( Baader IR685 , Venus , Methane Filter ) what should be the size of filters & if there any filters you can add ?
is a hyperstar good for planets photography ?
I am a beginner , nothing done until now , because of heat & DUSTY weather in Saudi Arabia .
Thanks very very much for he nice Video .
Good lord you must be loaded :) check my Bintel astronomy calculator (google it) which I wrote which will help you determine the right combinations
I just sold my 16" Dobsonian this morning. It will make Marty very happy.... Now I want a new scope...lol. Time to sell some of my other non astronomy gear and figure out my next moves. got to love astromart.
Forget the dob camp and come to the astrophotography dark side :) #teamreflector
自分も望遠鏡や双眼鏡が欲しいですね。
しかも性能が良いヤツ。
使いこなせるかは問題外ですが。
I love your Videos! Thanx a lot!!! (I have 5 hours left right now for my first Jupiter in opposition shoot. I’m on a mountain in the Austrian Alps and I hope I don’t f*** it up 🥶)
How did it turn out?
Hey guys, I have an 700mm solomark telescope with a 80mm aperture, is there any shot I'd be able to see detail on Jupiter with a high power magnification, like a 6mm eyepiece?
Hey Brother I'm planning to get a telescope to mostly see planets, I'm a newbie ,I know nothing about telescopes,I do enjoy watching Neil Degrasse Tyson "just a side note" I'm planning to get the 10" Dob , I also have in mind the Celestron 8se I do have around $1500 I can even go a little higher ,but like I sad there a too much info and options, aperture, f/4 f/5 f/10 ,plus lenses and eye pieces, please guide me on what to get to have a good definition of Planets jupiter, saturn and nebulas without that fuzziness view i appreciate .
Thanks so much
no worries!
What do you recommend, taking lots of photos or shooting a video with planets? And usually how many?thank you
Video - max time per video depends on how fast the planet rotates!
Very informative, thank you!
Hello I wanted to know if I should get a RASA 11" or a 11" EdgeHD, im relatively new to the hobby but want something I can upgrade and grow into. The RASA looks really good but in the forms people are saying the EDGE is probably better because it more versatile, and can get hyperstar. There are so many versions of them it gets very confusing, let me know what you think. I would mainly do imaging, planet and galaxys, I also have a Nikon D500, Im going to keep watching your videos
Both are good! I have the 11 RaSA but still want an 11” ehd!
Great video. Had discover much of what you explained the hard way.
There is one item you did not address. Alignment. If you do a solve and sync using plate solving align your scope but then how to get it to the planets with which program? Could you explain this? Thank you. By chance will you be at NEAF next week?
I was at NEAF! It was so good! Recap video coming soon. Your suggestion about a video on GOTO in general is a GREAT idea. Thanks!
"get high"
"Well, thats an odd tip but lets try"
News: "yesterday a guy fell of from his balcony due to drinking"
Just a question for tip 4, what kind of substance do you mean?
I didn't inhale.
Hello Dylan, thank you so much for those videos! One question please, how do you thread the 2.5 powermate to the EFW? I understand you remove part of it and added some T adapter? Could you please detail this with links or references?
May be a dumb question, but... de-rotation in Photoshop. Can it be used in lunar photography to combine images over a whole month to get more detail from the shadows?
Thanks for vid! helped a lot, and starstuff 2 was awesome
Thanks Ben! I had a blast!
Cool thank you bro!
Really enjoying the channel. Greats tips! Thank you.
Thank you! New video written .. just waiting for chance to film.. :)
Excellent tips!
G'day Dylan. Really enjoying your channel mate. Like a lot of the world I'm a covid lockdown astro convert. Can I ask you, what specs would you recommend for a laptop to be able to do planetary stacking and processing etc? I don't want to go nuts but I also don't want to buy something that isn't up to the task. Appreciate any tips on what to look for. Cheers 👍🍺
Welcome to hell! For acquisition you don’t really need much power at all but USB3 ports and SSD storage will help. For processing .. CPU helps so the beefier the laptop the less progress bars you’ll see.
@@DylanODonnell lol cheers mate 😁👍
will a 5.1 inch newt geta a significant picture of jupiter/saturn on an advanced VX?
Top Notch info Thanks Dylan.
Hey thanks for subscribing!
@@DylanODonnell No Prob do the same if you like my channel
Nice video, first time viewing one one your video an I understand everything thanks keep going!
Question : I have a NEXSTAR 130SLT COMPUTERIZED
Aperture 130mm (5.12") Focal length 650mm, f/5, 25mm and 9mm eyepiece
What do I need more to see Jupiter or Saturn With details , Thanks 🙏 good luck
Rafael Rodriguez you’re going to need a good camera, like a dslr or dedicated planetary camera to take video. A 2x Barlow would help give you a little more focal length to give you a bigger image with the camera. Once you get the data with the camera, you’ll need to process it with software like pipp and Registax or autostakkert.
The pics on my avatar were taken with a dslr while tracking by hand with a 10” dobsonian with a 1250mm focal length. You should be able to get some detail out of your setup, especially if it’ll track for you.
Intro is actually lit
i like tip #4 :)
🔥
cheers!
1:50 done and done ;)
Wonderful tutorial, very very useful to everyone who like planetary imaging, could we share your video on ZWO website?
Sean Wang Hi Sean! I’d be happy for you to share the video or help produce videos for ZWO generally. Thanks for your help! Shoot me the link if it goes up!
i subscribed thankyou
Great stuff! Do you recommend using a cls filter in conjunction with a UV/IR filter when imagining planets?
Sweatsox8 yes these can make good L channels in your final process .. generally though you don’t need an LP filter as the planets are pretty bright anyway.
Celestron Nexstar 4se is good for astrophotography right? I mean, it already has its own EQ mount
it's not an eq mount.. and it's not ideal for astrophotography, but I enjoyed mine :)
Wouldn't an IRRGB capture create a weird pinkish color in the image?
Only if you use it for the Red channel :)
I got a 12" Apertura Dobsonian Telescope from HighPointScientific. How easy or difficult to you think astrophotography will be with it? Also, do you use an iPhone to photograph or a camera?
Nice explanation of transparency and calling it seeing lol.
Hello Dylan, you have some great videos. Do you sell your photos or is your photography a hobby? I wish you luck on your future photos.
Thanks Alan! I don't do astronomy commercially and give all my images away for free, they are licensed public domain. Although I do run the Star Stuff festival in Byron Bay Australia in July :) Thanks for the kind words!
Thanks for the good information Dylan.
Anytime space dude :)
Great tips Dylan. I can’t really afford a 14” Schmidt Cassegrain though. What’s the lowest cost scope size that would work okay?
I reckon the 9.25” onwards is great for planets :)
Dylan O'Donnell Thanks :)
Guyslisten to tip 4 before tryin it!
Dylan thanks for the answer I already star to looking to buy the camera an the Barlow, I already subscribe to your channel and in the future I will letyou know how it going Thank
Hi bro,You seem to be the video writer on the home page of ascom？
That’s me :)
@@DylanODonnell Awesome! I found this from your computer desk.
Hi Dylan, for the 9.25 ~ 2350 , which barlow will you use? (add the links)
I'm gonna go get high and try to use my big f*cking telescope to get lucky.
Good strategy
Use blue tak to stitch them together.
Great video! :)
Hey thanks!
Great video!
Thanks!
i love bobs knobs
never knew that they made a telescope thinggy for his knob
Can you please do a review on your 9.25” celestron.
That's a great idea :)
Thanks for the info.. one of your better informative videos .. LOL .
Yeh I’m about 50/50 .. thanks 😆
@@DylanODonnell I'm used to Sharpcap but you mentioned using firecapture.. can you recommend a good tutorial on it?
what about planetary filters?
I've never shot planets before. Do you think it would be worth using my RC8 for it. I'm shooting QSI690 though so I'm not sure that camera would be optimum for it. I don't know if you can shoot video with a 690. I've never tried
Sean M that’s ccd so no, you need a high speed cmos for planets. The 8” RC is fine for planets though :)
Dylan O'Donnell I thought so. I should have held on to that ASI 1600mm. Thanks Buddy. I wish lived where you do!
very nice
2:09 - what is that program your using to see position of planets?
That’s stellarium .. it’s free and open source and works on anything and you should definitely try it :)
Dylan, I used the ZWOASI178MC on my Celestron VX8 for Jupiter at opposition last week, got great videos, but had to keep hand correcting drift because no time or space on our balcony for accurate alignment. But neither Avistack 2 nor Registax 5 or 6 will load the video. Tried conversion to .bmp's, no dice. Any ideas how I can get them to load?
Run your videos through PIPP and be sure to save them as AVI. Registax 6 will have no problem loading them afterward.
Can’t do tip one, to broke to get anything larger than 6in aperture
What program do you use on your computer?
I'll add an extra tip, use a Atmospheric dispersion corrector, Good Vid..........
Thanks John! These are only beneficial for OSC though right?
Where is the best place to buy celestron advance vx telescopes in australia?
I like bintel.com.au!
What was the name of the de-rotator? in your last tip of the sequence.
I found it in Firecapture where it's referred to. Winjupos
Winjupos :)
Is the CGX strong enough for a 14 inch SCT plus camera or do I need a CGX-L mount ??
Gunnar Jensen definitely cgx-L
What for camera are you using for planetary photography?
Arthur Wiegman I personally use a zwo174mm but have been playing with the neximage 10 lately too.
Dude,what do you think, i can get great planets photos whit a 7" dobson telescope F/6 motorized ,barlow GSO 2x and ZWO ASI120mc camera ?
Should do the trick :)
Nice Video....!!
Love from #stardustastronomy
how long did you need to image Jupiter to make the animation?
Hiya! From memory it was about 45-60 mins .. it has a very fast rotation!
Thanks Dylan Great Tips to improve pics! Stay Safe!!
Nice intro
Thanks! I spent a whole day messing around in iMovie to make it. Would like to update it soon.
there are only two countrys with the inch stuff... so annoying...