Planetary Photography
What is planetary photography?
Planetary photography refers to using a telescope and a webcam to make
movies of relatively bright astronomical objects such as the Moon, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Why use a webcam to make planetary movies?
The Earth's atmosphere is constantly in motion and this displaces and
distorts (smears) images that are taken with a telescope. If you
capture several hundred images with a webcam using HandyAvi, then process
them with one of the freeware programs on the internet such as RegiStax,
amazing results are possible!
A few of the best
After HandyAvi and
original images captured
RegiStax processing of
using HandyAvi
several hundred images
This is sometimes called "image stacking". Mathematically, it can
be shown that averaging a lot of marginal images in this manner improves the
result dramatically.
Will HandyAvi work with my webcam?
We noticed that some software systems could not handle the Philips ToUcam
Pro webcam, a favorite among amateur astronomers. HandyAvi 2.0 uses
the most recent versions of DirectX software to ensure that the widest range
of webcams will be handled properly. HandyAvi 2.0 works very well with
the ToUcam as well as nearly all other popular webcams such as the Logitech
Quickcam Pro 4000 and the Philips SPC 900NC camera which has gained
popularity among amateur astronomers.
HandyAvi lets you capture bright astronomical objects using a webcam
and a telescope.
By bright objects, we mean objects that are bright enough for your webcam
to see using your telescope. These include Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn. If you have a big enough telescope, then other
objects become possible targets of course.
HandyAvi will control a Meade LX-200 telescope.
If you have a Meade LX-200 type telescope, you can also completely control
the telescope through HandyAvi's telescope control panel.
See the Telescope Control page
HandyAvi also contains a centering option that will keep the planet centered
in the frame if you are using an LX-200.
Astronomy image capture control window:
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