We had an unusually sunny day at Heaton Park on May 9th, so we enjoyed the Mercury Transit along with many friends from the Heaton Park astro group and even more people who where just enjoying their day at the park. The only downside was the strong wind, which tended to cover everything with dust […]
2016 Mercury Transit @ Heaton Park
May 13, 2016 // by ecuador
Planetary imaging comparison: Webcams vs DSLRs vs Planetary Cams
August 27, 2015 // by ecuador
The not so young amateur astronomers like myself who were aware of how difficult and demanding planetary photography was in the “old days” (i.e. 20th century) are pretty amazed at what you can achieve nowadays with equipment as simple as a webcam. Granted, most of the “magic” lies in the software processing that stacks hundreds […]
Planetary photography quick tips: IR filters & PIPP
July 5, 2015 // by ecuador
The number one enemy of planetary photography is the atmospheric condition, or “seeing”. Despite modern software being able to select and stack the best frames among thousands, the difference between results with good vs bad seeing can be great. Shooting at high FPS (60 or more) and using shorter exposures with sensitive cameras can help. An […]
Planetary Photography with a Canon EOS and a Tablet
June 21, 2015 // by ecuador
As you probably know, the best way to capture a good quality video of a planet is to shoot a video and combine the hundreds or thousands of frames using the magic of stacking software. That’s why a simple webcam will give you a better result than a single shot with your fancy Canon EOS […]
Planetary Shootout: Jupiter with Refractor, Maksutov, Newtonian, SCT
March 18, 2015 // by ecuador
Update 2016/04/27: As I get some questions, comments and even criticisms about a particular aspect of this article, I thought it was time to do an update to try and clarify some things, and also add images from my newest OTAs. So, some people tell me that images are not a good indication of the […]