SKY-WATCHER Skyliner 200P Manual de usuario

Planet Astrophotography with a Dobsonian Manual

Telescope

Thanks for downloading my guide to planet astrophotography with a Dobsonian manual telescope.

With this guide I hope to explain, how to end up with an image you will be proud of. However,

please don t expect to end up with a super image the first time, it will take a lot of practice, patience

and clear skies.

Why am I doing this tutorial? Basically help fellow Dobsonian users with the techniques I have

perfected in my quest to end up with a worthy image.

Contents

1. Equipment

2. Software

3. Setting Up

4. Sharpcap Capturing

5. VirtualDub Editing

6. Castrator Editing

7. AutoStakkert Editing

8. RegiStax Editing

9. Gimp/Photoshop Editing

10. End Result

1. Equipment

Dobsonian Telescope with Finderscope

This my Skywatcher Skyliner 200P. You can use

any Dobsonian you like as long as it good

quality. For this tutorial I will be using the

finderscope, however if you have a Telrad or

similar finder you can use that.

Barlow Lens

You will need a barlow of reasonable

quality, as this will affect the results.

It is best to start with a barlow of 2x

magnification, as it will be easier to locate the

planet on the laptop.

Converted Web Camera

This is a Philips SPC900NC web camera. It has

been modified by removing the original lens and

been replaced with 1.25” nozzle adapter with an

IR filter screwed on. This particular webcam has

been discontinued and is fetching high prices on

online auction sites. However, there are

alternatives available for a reasonable price;

such as the Xbox and the Microsoft Cinema HD

the latter being a bit more tricky to modify.

You can find tutorials online, that explain how

to modify these three webcams.

Laptop

Not much to say about this, as long as you have

plenty of memory, it is not too slow and a

power source if the battery is poor. Make sure

all the drivers for the webcam are installed.

2. Software

All the software required, is available online for FREE. So click on the links provided and

download the latest versions. Even though they are free, some of the websites do accept donations,

if you wish to give them a few silvers for all their hard work in producing these excellent programs

– go ahead.

There are other programs out there which are similar to the ones listed below. So if you are happy

using others that you use already, then feel free to. I use these as I m most comfortable with and

happy with the results I achieve from them.

Sharpcap http://www.sharpcap.co.uk/

VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org/

Castrator http://www.astrokraai.nl/castrator.php

AutoStakkert!2 http://www.autostakkert.com/

RegiStax 6 http://www.astronomie.be/registax/

Gimp http://www.gimp.org/ or Adobe Photoshop CS (not free)

3. Setting Up

Before you can start capturing videos of your chosen planet, you will need to go through a few

checks. Firstly, make sure the finderscope is aligned with the main scope and secondly that the

scope is collimated. If you are unsure how to do these, you can refer to your telescope user manual,

or there is plenty of instructions around online.

On your chosen night for capturing our solar system neighbours, you will need to take the telescope

outside an hour before you intend to use it. This so the whole thing can reach ambient temperature,

thus avoiding any distorted images.

Whilst the telescope is cooling down, you can gather everything you need for the night. You will

need a stable stand or table to place the laptop on, which will need to be positioned next to the

telescope. Whilst still inside, turn on the laptop, so that if it needs to do any virus scans or Windows

updates etc. they will be finished by the time you want to start capturing. Have the webcam and

barlow ready to hand. Dig out some gloves, hat, jumpers and coat especially if it s a particularly

cold evening.

On your laptop, go to wherever the video documents are kept and create a new file, for example,

this tutorial so I shall be capturing Jupiter, so I will rename the file - Jupiter 2Feb13

When the hour has passed you can then, take the laptop, barlow and webcam outside. Attach the

barlow lens into the focuser tube and the webcam into that and plug into the laptop. Now you can

begin to capture.

4. Sharpcap Capturing

There are tutorials on how to use Sharpcap on Youtube so I will not be going into a great detail

regarding settings for this program. These guides can explain in a lot more detail then I can in

this written tutorial, I suggest checking these out before progressing further.

1. Open Sharpcap and select the camera from the cameras menu.

2. Select the set capture file from the file menu, this the folder you created earlier, mine was -

Jupiter 2Feb13. This is where all the saved videos will be kept.

3. Select your capturing settings from the drop down menu and load this.

4. We want to find the planet easily on the Sharpcap screen so we need to slide the exposure setting

to the lowest figure. This will make the planet a white blob, that will make it easier to find and to

focus too.

5. Providing your finderscope is aligned to the scope as perfect as you could earlier, the following

should cause not too much trouble. Find the planet in the finderscope and centre it in the cross-

hairs.

6. With one hand on the telescope focuser, the other on the scope and your eyes on the laptop,

move the scope very, very slightly left, right, up, down etc. till you see what resembles a white disc.

Once you found it adjust the focus till its nice and sharp on the screen.

Did you see which direction the planet was drifting across the laptop screen? We want the planet to

drift from left-to-right on the screen.

7. To do this, loosen the webcam in the barlow lens and get the planet visible on the screen again,

let go of the scope and turn the webcam until the planet drifts left-to-right and re-tighten the

webcam in the barlow lens.

8. Get the planet onto the laptop screen and look through the finderscope and make a mental note of

where the planet is positioned. This is the critical point you want for the arc of the planet to drift

into. For example as detailed below.

9. The next bit is really trial and error until you find the correct path. Looking through the

finderscope, point the planet at the critical point then move the telescope so the planet is slightly

right and up from the critical point. Let go of the telescope and look through the finderscope and

watch the planet drift towards the critical point, once it reaches the critical point, take a look at the

laptop screen. Does the planet appear? If not, you will have adjust the drift path so it hits the critical

point dead on. This will take a long time to master, it took me many evenings just to get the hang of

it – some evenings even now, it just doesn t happen.

10. Set the planet drifting across your screen, and quickly adjust the Sharpcap settings. Reduce the

exposure so you can see planet details and adjust the other settings if need be, till you are happy

with the on screen image. You may need to drift a few more times till the settings are complete.

11. Click on the start capture button and use these settings when the window pops up. Don t press

start just yet.

12. Set your drift path and once the planet appears on the screen, hit start. MAKE SURE THE

PLANET IS 100% VISIBLE, EXCEPT WHEN IT IS ENTERING AND EXITING THE SCREEN.

Once the planet leaves the screen on the right hand side, click stop capture. Repeat this process and

aim to capture at least 15 good videos. Don t touch the telescope whilst you are capturing.

When this is done, bring all the kit back inside.

5. VirtualDub Editing

1. Open up the VirtualDub software and click file, then click open ideo file and find the video

folder that you created earlier, where all the Sharpcap videos are stored and click on that.

2. Double click the first video - that will open up in the VirtualDub screen.

3. Next, you need to add on the second video to the back end of the first. To do this, click on file

and click Append AVI Segment.

4. This will bring up the video folder again, so double click on the next video and this will be added

to VirtualDub. Repeat this for all the remaining Sharpcap videos.

Once you have added all the Sharpcap videos to VirtualDub, you can now begin to edit them. This

is so you can remove frames where the planet is not 100% visible on the screen and any bad ones,

from poor seeing, cloud etc.

At the bottom of the screen you will see a line stretching right across, this is all the frames from the

videos you have loaded up. Underneath, are the function keys.

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