I’ve been outside just now, trying to sneak an image of Jupiter and its moons, in between the clouds and general haze here in South-East England tonight. (Isn’t it often this way? Two hours earlier, the sky was sparklingly clear!)
Anyway.. what I’ve realised is I need more focal length on the telescope, for the imaging of planets.
I put my old 6 inch Newtonian reflector onto the EQ6 mount, then added the Canon dSLR camera.
Ancient 6 inch Newtonian reflector, plus EQ6 telescope mount
It produced this image below, nicely showing three moons of Jupiter.. but no detail on the planet. The clouds must take a lot of the blame, but I see also, I need more focal length.
Jupiter And Moons (Io, Ganymede, Callisto)
The DSLR Canon camera is working at prime focus – using the telescope as its lens and nothing else.. (no eyepiece, or barlow lens etc).
Consequently, to get more magnification and fill the image field of view with the planet, I need a telescope with a longer focal length. My 6 inch (150 mm) reflector has a focal length of only about 700 mm.
(And as a PS. . what would Galileo have given for an image of Jupiter and its moons, like this?)
So, any suggestions for a good telescope to observe the planets?
Jupiter is washed out because it is over exposed. Try a shorter exposure time, and you will start to see details on the planet. (the moons will disappear, though). you can always merge two exposures to show the planet and the moon.
To get more focal length, try a 5x televue powermate, and attach your dslr to that. This will give you the same effect as a telescope with 5 times the focal length.
Richard, Thank you very much for the tips.