Some of these planetary images are progressive photos taken from when I first started astrophotography in Oct 2019, whilst others are part of my portfolio. The reason I have presented some early shots of planets is to encourage beginners to keep persevering to achieve better results, and not become discouraged. It is a learning journey, and alot of the information gathered to achieve better results have been through reading forums online, experimenting with differrent camera settings, and many hours of trial and error. I have learned that to achieve the best planetary photos, "three" very important things need to be considered.
The first thing is... It is almost a "MUST" to capture planets when they are at least 35 degrees above the horizon. This eliminates most, if not all, atmospheric distortion and colour. You will notice that just before sunrise, or just after sunset, the skys colour is banded and doesnt really stablise until about 35 degrees up from the horizon. We cannot see this gradient at night time, but it is still there and can greatly reduce quality of the final photo.
The second thing is... a combination of temperature and humidity. The cooler the temperature outside, the better your photos will turn out. For two reasons. When it is cold during the day, and hence cooler at night, the earths surface temperature is cooler. That results in almost no, or a very small amount of air distortion. (The air currents and vapour you see rising from the ground, or warm surface, on a hot day.) A higher humidity will then amplify this effect. Another way of achieving this condition is to photograph planets early in the morning after the earth has had greater time to cool.
The third thing is... (This isn't absolutely necessary, but certainly does make a difference).
If you can hang out until the planets you want to photgraph are at opposition, then you will get even clearer photos. Opposition means that the planet you want to photograph is directly adjacent planet earth, and on the same side of the sun. This means the planet is at its closest to earth during its solar orbit. Closer means clearer, and larger. There are plenty of free programs that can be downloaded that track the planets Solar orbits.
Once I took the above situations into account, I became excited at the vast improvements in photo capture quality that was able to be achieved. I was actually becoming dishearted about astrophotgraphy until the above was factored into my photo shoots. The differences have shown themselves, and the rewards are obvious.
The first thing is... It is almost a "MUST" to capture planets when they are at least 35 degrees above the horizon. This eliminates most, if not all, atmospheric distortion and colour. You will notice that just before sunrise, or just after sunset, the skys colour is banded and doesnt really stablise until about 35 degrees up from the horizon. We cannot see this gradient at night time, but it is still there and can greatly reduce quality of the final photo.
The second thing is... a combination of temperature and humidity. The cooler the temperature outside, the better your photos will turn out. For two reasons. When it is cold during the day, and hence cooler at night, the earths surface temperature is cooler. That results in almost no, or a very small amount of air distortion. (The air currents and vapour you see rising from the ground, or warm surface, on a hot day.) A higher humidity will then amplify this effect. Another way of achieving this condition is to photograph planets early in the morning after the earth has had greater time to cool.
The third thing is... (This isn't absolutely necessary, but certainly does make a difference).
If you can hang out until the planets you want to photgraph are at opposition, then you will get even clearer photos. Opposition means that the planet you want to photograph is directly adjacent planet earth, and on the same side of the sun. This means the planet is at its closest to earth during its solar orbit. Closer means clearer, and larger. There are plenty of free programs that can be downloaded that track the planets Solar orbits.
Once I took the above situations into account, I became excited at the vast improvements in photo capture quality that was able to be achieved. I was actually becoming dishearted about astrophotgraphy until the above was factored into my photo shoots. The differences have shown themselves, and the rewards are obvious.
