Edwins wiki

Planets are spectacular to view through a telescope. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, in particular, are always impressive sights. On Jupiter, you can just make out that the cloud bands are not uniform strips but are turbulent at the edges. And Saturn, of course, has its rings. You can even see that there are multiple rings; Saturn doesn't have just one, and you can spot the Cassini Division, which forms the boundary between the inner and outer rings. However, photographing the planets is not exactly easy. The photo on the left shows how a typical shot turns out. You need a great deal of luck to capture Saturn at the precise moment the atmosphere is steady. The result is always disappointing compared to the visual view.

Yet, with some simple techniques and software freely available online, you can create an image that looks even better than the view through the eyepiece. For recording, you use a simple camera that can be mounted in place of the telescope's eyepiece. The cameras you can order from China for this purpose are essentially simple webcams. They are perfectly adequate because the limiting factor for image quality is not the camera, but the telescope. I also use a Barlow lens to further magnify the image. You record a short video file consisting of a few hundred frames at the lowest possible resolution. Next, you stack the images using a program that selects the best frames and stacks them to minimize noise.

The program I use to record the video file is SharpCap. Sharpcap allows you to choose from various resolutions and adjust the exposure time for a recording; it is specifically designed for astronomical imaging. It is very simple to use: you can configure everything needed for a capture on your laptop right next to the telescope. Then, you select the best frames and stack them to obtain a sharp image. For this, I use AutoStakkert. This yields the second image.

The great thing about sharpcap and autostakkert is that you can generate an image right there at the telescope by using their automatic settings. You don't have to sit at the computer after the night is over to create an image; instead, you can see immediately whether your capture is good. With autostakkert, you can also apply a convolution filter to the image right away to sharpen the details further. The result is the third image. The Cassini Division is visible, and you can clearly see the equatorial cloud band on Saturn. You can even see the edge of the ring's shadow on the planet. And all of this can be seen right there at the telescope. It’s fantastic that the authors of sharpcap and autostakkert are making this available to planetary astronomy enthusiasts.