Looking at Saturn and Jupiter on 9/12/2021

[monkeyonmars]

I saw Saturn through my tiny cheap SAGA Zoom Cassegrain Spotting Scope MC25-75×70 on Sept 12, 2021. Saturn always blows my mind. Looks about this size: (o) and Jupiter too with Callisto, Gan, Europa, Jupiter than Io. Jupiter looked like O or a little larger but could barely make out the bands. Too bright. But don't want to make hole in my lens cover to knock it down. The moon was nice too but lots of turbulence. Does anyone know if I attach a phone camera, will it capture image of Saturn. Does do the moon. Will have to try next nice night.
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View: https://youtu.be/rvq4xpwCzyo
This video at about 2.53 shows my scope under a different brand name. Cheap but fine for occassional starhopping. I attached a red dot scope to make it easy to navigate.

 

[Pogo]

Looks like your objective is 70 mm. Try cutting a piece of cardboard to the same size with a hole centered about half that leaving tabs around it so you can fasten it to the scope with a rubber band. This will effectively make it a smaller scope. A couple of different hole sizes should do for Jupiter, the full Moon, and quarter moon. The hole needs to be larger than your secondary mirror. Or two smaller holes one on either side may work better in some cases. Experiment!

I’ve heard that phone cameras work for photos and videos, don’t expect great quality, Haven’t tried it myself. I think they may even make adapters to attach the phone to the scope. Then you could Bluetooth it to a computer.

 

[monkeyonmars]

Looks like your objective is 70 mm. Try cutting a piece of cardboard to the same size with a hole centered about half that leaving tabs around it so you can fasten it to the scope with a rubber band. This will effectively make it a smaller scope. A couple of different hole sizes should do for Jupiter, the full Moon, and quarter moon. The hole needs to be larger than your secondary mirror. Or two smaller holes one on either side may work better in some cases. Experiment!

I’ve heard that phone cameras work for photos and videos, don’t expect great quality, Haven’t tried it myself. I think they may even make adapters to attach the phone to the scope. Then you could Bluetooth it to a computer.

Hi. Thanks for suggestion. I made one to try out soon out of cardboard and epp foam. Will post how well it works.

https://flic.kr/p/2mqXhz6

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33461807@N05/51478210711/in/dateposted-public/

 

[monkeyonmars]

Here is a video I made of using the aperture mask to video the moon. Not a great job but this is only my second attempt. Need to work out cell phone camera adjustments. Can rotate the mask to get desired amount of filtering. Before I used the mask, I videoed the moon when it was cloudy which also acted as a filter. Interesting.

View: https://youtu.be/OCGsdDlWc3E

 

[Pogo]

Not bad at all. I noticed some shots have some chromatic aberration, I suspect that is an artifact of the phone camera, not much aperture, there.

 

[monkeyonmars]

Shot this picture of moon last night. Had to up the contrast in PhotoScape. But it has these black dot artifacts in the original photo - don't know where they came from. Dirty lens?

Photo of Moon Sep 21 2021 with Spotting Scope

Photo has black artifacts that is dirt on lens or spaceships. Used Photoscape to up contrast. Moon shot through SAGA spotting scope and cell phone camera at about 100ISO and with homemade aperture …

demej00.wordpress.com

 

[Pogo]

Probably not so much on the scope objective, but, maybe in the eyepiece, or maybe more likely the phone camera lens. They’re really small and the tiniest dust can show up. If that doesn’t seem to be it, try a different eyepiece, or taking a pic without an eyepiece (primary focus), or a different phone. Then you could isolate the problem.

 

[monkeyonmars]

Probably not so much on the scope objective, but, maybe in the eyepiece, or maybe more likely the phone camera lens. They’re really small and the tiniest dust can show up. If that doesn’t seem to be it, try a different eyepiece, or taking a pic without an eyepiece (primary focus), or a different phone. Then you could isolate the problem.

Thanks, I will check it out and try again. The telescope eyepiece is definitely smeared so will clean that up. My wife sticking her eye into the eyepiece.

 

[Pogo]

Trim the lashes and ban the eyeliner.
But seriously, use a soft lint-free cloth and a lens cleaner. The stuff for eyeglasses would probably be good.

 

[Pogo]

Not bad at all for a cellphone video. I notice a bit of chromatic aberration (the orange and blue blooms on opposite sides). I imagine that’s the phone optics rather than the scope. Looks good.