Files and lengths Planetary Video
Jupiter with 17" 136k

Jupiter and Ganymede with 17" 159k

Jupiter with 11" 198k

Jupiter GRS with 17" 225k

Saturn with 17" 105k

Long version of 11" Jupiter 573k

 


 Here are several planetary video clips. These we made with 11" and 17" Newtonian telescopes. The 17" was DOB mounted. All video was made using a Mitsubishi SVHS-C camcorder which was held behind the eyepiece. Focus and exposure were adjusted manually. I found that the best combination was to max the zoom on the camcorder and use a short f.l. eyepiece in the scope. This better fills the frame in my camera and allows more precise focus. Then the zoom can be used to make minor adjustments for best saturation of the image. Larger apertures allow more flexibility due to the higher light levels.

I tried mounting the camera on the scope but vibrations are a problem and finding an object is next to impossible. Practice with the moon as it is big enough to let you tune your combo without the frustration of constantly hunting the object.

These clips are recorded using Indeo 5.1 compression and should run on Windows 98. If you have downloaded the Indeo 5.1 codec to your Win95 machine, then they will run there also. A faster computer is better of course. I listed the file lengths to help gauge download times.