The aurora borealis in Scotland. You must be kidding right?! Nope Total Integration time : 10 second exposure Moon coverage : 0% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 As a kid, I always wanted to see the northern lights, but always thought I would never get a chance. I even thought I would need to travel further north to Iceland or Norway to see tan aurora, but how wrong was I! I spoke to some people who said this was the strongest geomagnetic storm for we had seen for such a long time. The Northern Lights from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland On October 10, 2024, a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun caused a severe geomagnetic storm that led to the aurora borealis being visible across the UK and North America, and most of Scotland, if you weren't clouded out that is, and we were treated to what I can only describe as, the most soul cleansing thing I have ever seen! So what causes these dancing displays of reds and greens and blues and purples? A large flare and filament combination left the sun in October, and the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) arrived at Earth in the 10th and 11th October and stayed for a few days or so after this fantastic visual treat. I had clouds after this one and didn't manage to see the Aurora that happened a few months before this one. Most people who are into space stuff use lots of space apps to help them plan or image things in space, ISS transit monitor, Aurora watch apps, weather apps such as Clear Outside and lunar calculators etc. These can help with planning imaging sessions or events, but as this was aurora event was pretty widely spoken about in the news, I didn't need an app to tell me the aurora was above my head. It was so strong, I could actually feel it and see it all around me. Yeah, I know that sounds really weird that I could feel it around me, but I seriosly feal that I was being engulfed by the aurora. This was my viewpoint looking towards zenith, the uppermost and highest part of the night sky and from about 11.30pm on the 11th October 2024, I stood outside in my garden just watching for about two hours and took the odd snap in between. I swear I could hear sounds too, but that was probably my mind playing tricks on me. Or maybe I can hear colour! LOL Some of the images you see in the gallery above were ever so slightly tweaked and the saturation was increased, but this is pretty close to what I saw with my own eyes from my back garden. I really hope you get a chance to see a display like this at least once in your life; it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I hope you see it in Scotland in your back garden.

NGC 7380 is a relatively young open cluster of stars in the constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula, which spans an angle of 25′. All nebulae are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but using some dedicated astronomy equipment, some filters that only let in certain wavelengths of light and my astronomy telescope, we can image vast objects like the one show below. This vast nebula spans approximately 100 light-years across. To put this in terms of our Moon’s size, which has a diameter of about 3,474 kilometers, the Wizard Nebula would be equivalent to around 2.88 trillion moons lined up end to end across its diameter. Total Integration time : 12 hours Moon coverage : 35% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 I took this image on 2023 using my one shot colour astronomy camera and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Sitting nicely on my Skywatcher HEQ5Pro equatorial mount. This was quite a tricky deep sky object to process and with a farily short integration time, it made it more difficult to reveal the Hydrogen gases around this nebula. You can see them here as I have processed them in a kind of rusty orange colour, but Hydrgoen is normally processed in red.

IC410 / NGC 1893 or the Tadpoles nebula is a cosmic collection of dust hurling through space and it looks like two tadpoles swimming! Can you see it? Total Integration time : 16 hours 40 mins Moon coverage : 25% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 This nebula is actually combined data from two different focal lengths of telescope, one at 1000mm and one at 750mm with the addition of the Starizona .75 reducer attached to the ZWO 533MMPro astronomy camera. The Tadploes nebula taken from my back garden. The Tadpoles nebula is located 12,000 lightyears from Earth in the Auriga constellation, and is nicknamed the Tadpole Nebula because of the tadpole-shaped ionised interstellar clouds of dust that appear to be swimming towards the centre of the nebula. The Tadpole Nebula is a region of ionised hydrogen gas spanning over 100 lightyears across that's carved and sculpted by streams of charged particles called stellar winds emanating from open star cluster NGC 1893. These pillars of dust and gas are huge! Really huge. They are estimated to be at least 10 light years in length; a light year being 9.4 trillion kilometers in disance. It would take 730 million earths laid side-by-side to span this distance. I am pretty sure that anytime amateur astronomers and astrophotographers look at this stuff it blows their minds, it certainly does me!

I imaged this huge galaxy from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. It is more commonly called The Pinwheel Galaxy. The Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier in 1781. Total Integration time : 6 hours 15 mins Moon coverage : 1% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The galaxy is approximately 25 million light-years from Earth and spiral arms are filled with star-forming nebulae and young, hot, blue stars. The Pinwheel galaxy can be seen with a small telescope, and is best viewed in June, which is when I took this image. The galaxy has been the site of several notable events, including a type II supernova in 2011 and a luminous red nova in 2015 as well as the supernova discovered in 2023 by a Japanese astronomer. See below. Here are some more details about the Pinwheel Galaxy: It has a mean radius of 85,000 light-years and it has a magnitude of 7.9 so it is is fairly dim and not possible to see with the naked eye. It fills a region in the sky that's one-fifth the size of the full moon. The Pinwheel Galaxy : I took this image of this huge galaxy in June 2023 using my astronomy equipment. This galaxy is famous due to a star that went supernova. The closest supernova to Earth in five years was discovered in the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101, on 19 May 2023 by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki. See my image below for the exploding star. The actual explosion lasted a few weeks or so but I was one of the lucky ones who managed to capture it in an image. Copy below from BBC Sky at Night magazine: Spectral analysis indicates the explosion was a Type II supernova. These are catastrophic explosions that occur when a massive star with a mass between eight and 40 times that of the Sun no longer has enough fuel to support itself against gravity and collapses to form a neutron star or a black hole. The close proximity of SN2023ixf gives a unique opportunity to study these stellar explosions. The supernova occured in the southwest region of M101, close to prominent star-forming region NGC 5461. Previous studies of this area found it contained three clusters of young stars, which are common places to find the supergiant stars that eventually go supernova. A 15-solar-mass red supergiant identified in Spitzer Space Telescope images of M101 taken between 2012 and 2019 could potentially be the origin of the supernova, although this star didn’t exhibit the typical fluctuations seen in a pre-explosion star. Further analysis will be required to establish if it is actually connected to the supernova. Hope you enjoyed reading this post about the Pinwheel galaxy.

I imaged this huge galaxy 11 million light years away from our Milkyway galaxy, using my dedicated astronomy camera, my HEQ5Pro equatorial mount and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 2 hours 40 mins Moon coverage : 50% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 M81 or Bodes galaxy : Messier 81 is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M81 is to the righ of the plough as you can see in the iamge below taken from Stellarium on a Mac. M81 is actually the very first galaxy I ever took an image of. The image above was the second time I had tried to image this galaxy. I first imaged it in 2023, using my slightly older EQ5 Pro mount and my previous colour astronomy camera, the ZWO 294MC. The first time I imaged and procesed for the first time was such an amazing feeling. Seeing some of teh details appear around the sprial structire of this galaxy was so cathartic. Even though my imaging and processing experience was very limited I will never forget the feeling of taking an image of a distant galaxy and processing it. My memory of processing Bodes galaxy for the first time will always stay with me for a very long time. Going from a black screen in Photoshop with some white specs for stars, to an image of a galaxy so far away, was mind blowing! Processing this galaxy was actually a little easier to be fair than processing Triangulum galaxy. Bodes galaxy, being so far away meant there were actually less stars to resolve in the image which oddly made processing this a little easier. I do intend to reshoot this galaxy using my monochrome camera setup using some of my LRGB filters. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at my Bodes galaxy image

I imaged this huge emission nebula, the Rosette nebula - a skull in space that sits around 5200 light years away but still within our Milkyway galaxy. I imaged it using my dedicated OSC (one shot colour) astronomy camera, my HEQ5Pro equatorial mount and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 6 hours 75 mins Moon coverage : 25% Location : Monoceros Region of our night sky Bortle : 4 The Rosette Nebula is a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light years across and located 5,000 lightyears away from us. It can be seen in the Monoceros constellation in the winter months, located between stars Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and Procyon in Canis Minor. Some people think, me included, that this star forming region of space looks like a skull and I definitely think so too. This time I decided to go for a sligthly more vibrant version of Rosette nebula and bring out some of the colours you might not see processed into this particular deep sky object. This time I was also able to image and process a vey special object called a Herbig-Haro object. Meaburn and Walsh reported in 1986 that an ionised trail in the Rosette Nebula has a velocity contour that shows a dramatic tilt. A 2010 study suggested that the Rosette Nebula contains an HH jet with a source 30′′ NW of the jet. I have highlighted this object in my zoomed in image below. It clealry show the ionised tail behind the star. HH objects are bright patches of gas that form when a newborn star ejects jets of gas that collide with nearby gas and dust clouds. They are transient and usually last for a few tens of thousands of years. HH objects are often found in star-forming regions and can be aligned with a star's rotational axis. The brightest HH objects are usually found at the ends of the jet, where the material collides with the surrounding molecular cloud. Sources:Wikipedia/NASA I hope you enjoy finding out more about the Rosette nebula and Herbig-Haro objects.

I imaged this huge galaxy 2.3 million light years away from our milkwyay using my dedicated astronomy camera, my HEQ5Pro equatorial mount and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 27 minutes Moon coverage : 50% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 M33 or Triangulum galaxy : The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. Source Wikipedia M33 has a relatively bright apparent magnitude of 5.7, making it one of the most distant objects that observers can see with the unaided eye, but only under exceptionally clear and dark skies, definitely not from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. Although a telescope will start to reveal some of M33’s spiral features and dust lanes, the galaxy is actually easiest to examine with low magnification and a wide field of view, such as a pair of binoculars or a dobsonian telescope. It is best observed in November which is when I took this image in 2023. The image above was the second time I had tried to image this galaxy. I first imaged it in 2022, but my equipment was slighty inferior to what it is now and my slightly older EQ5 Pro mount and my previous colour astronomy camera, couldn't quite cut it. At the time I did have a Baader coma corrector which was a big help for my newtonian scope, but it still wasn't enough! The thing that made the biggest difference, was the addition of the Starizona .75 reducer to my image train and the addition of a CNC spider vein which was a massive help with the collimation of my newtonian telescope and that was astro-life changing to now see how sharp my astro images would become. Oh and collimation to within an inch of my telescopes life! Now in all honesty, processing Triangulum is a bit of a pain as there are so many stars in this galaxy, it is estimated that there are approximately 40 billion sun like stars, in this massive galaxy, so by the laws of probability, there will absoultely be some form of intelligent life in there somewhere, but it is just so far away that even travelling at 99.9% the speed of light would take 5.6 billion years to get there and back and I had to use chat GPT for that! But after reading Brian Cox's book 'What is E=mc2 and how does the affect us' I now understand that time dilation would affect the traveller too and so even though 5.6 billion years had passed on earth, the traveller would have experienced 244,000 years of time passing. Time goes slower for the traveller than that of time on earth, or so I believe or at least from the perspective of the traveller! That's relativity folks! LOL. My goodness that went off on a tangent fast! Anyway I hope you enjoyed looking at my trianglum galaxy image.

I imaged this huge emission nebula from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. It is more commonly called The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888. Total Integration time : 2 hours Moon coverage : 1% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888 : The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. I swear I couldn't believe this was only two hours of exposure time, using my colour astronomy camera, the ZWO 533MCPro. I nearly fell off my little astro chair processing this image. This emission nebula is known for its similarity to a brain. I can definitely see that for sure. William Herschel had originally thought that the crescent nebula was a double star, but it is actually a Wolf-Rayet star, which are the hottest stars in the universe. The Wolf-Rayet star at the heart of the Crescent Nebula is called WR 136. This star is 5.1 times larger than our Sun, nearly 10 times hotter, 21 times as massive and a huge 60,000 times brighter! Stars don't burn or are on fire. They fuse hydrogen to helium under immense gravitational force. And it’s WR-136 that caused the nebula to form. Some nebulae are easy to image and this one was no exception. It is quite bright in the night sky so that makes it slightly easier to image. It is thought that the Wolf-Rayet star at the centre of the Crescent Nebula - known as WR-136 will eventually end its life in a dramatic stellar explosion known as a supernova explosion. I hope you enjoyed looking at my brain in space image.

I first imaged this deep sky object in 2023 using my one shot colour camera, and I remember the seeing being very good that evening. This is my longest integration so far on this object in our night sky! But the image below was taken in 2024. Total Integration time : 23 hours 25 min Moon coverage : 80% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The heart of the heart nebula : The Heart Nebula or Melotte 15 is an emission nebula, 7500 light years away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. Other object sthatare in this contellation include the Pac-man nebula and more. Melotte 15 was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. It displays glowing ionised hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes. Source Wikipedia I absolutely love this deep sky object in our night skies. The details I have managed to tease out from over 23 hours worth of image time is crazy. The dark dust structures, the faint dark nebulous details and the gaseous pillars simply blows my mind! The indiviudal images shown below are what are called master lights and these are output from the astro software. I will then combine these to produce the image that you see above. The blue colour tends to signify oxygen, the red, hydrogen in the visisble spectrum of colours, and I am pretty sure there are a vast range of colours in here we can't actually see beyond the visible spectrum. UV, IR and more! Shown above are what the individual master images or master lights look like when I process them in Pixinsight. These individual master frames were produced by digitally stacking lots and lots of exposures to combine in to one master frame. When I combine these master lights they make one full colour image as you can see on the last image above. I then process this image to produce the deep sky image you see below. It all sounds very complex, but once you get used to using the software for a while it gets a little easier to do. Promise :-) Pixinsight does have a huge learning curve however! The image above is a close tight crop on the same object, Melotte 15 but cropped and processed again using something called drizzling which essentialy increases the overall images size. I then use a feature in the Pixinsight software called drop shrinking which then reduces the overall pixel size to make the image feel sharper overall. I was so lucky, as this image was picked for image of the day on the ZWO astronomy app! I hope you enjoy seeing my space images.

I imaged this galaxy from my back garden in 2023 using my one shot colour camera and my light pollution filter and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 9hours 25 min Moon coverage : 60% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The Sunflower galaxy or Messier 63 : The Sunflower galaxy was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain and was the first of 24 objects that Méchain would contribute to Charles Messier’s catalog. The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has an apparent magnitude of 9.3 and appears as a faint patch of light in small telescopes. The best time to observe M63 is during May. Source NASA Shown below is an image in SkySafari showing the location of M63 in our night sky. Some other objects that lie in the same region of space include the Whirlpool galaxy, and I have also imaged this galaxy. This was the fourth Messier object I imaged in the summer months of 2023 - I think I managed to get around 10 Messier objects that time. The summer nights were particularly warm with ambient temperatures around 15 or 16 degrees which is actually pretty warm for Scotland, but I soldiered on nonetheless, with my cooled astronomy camera, to try and get more objects from the Messier Catalogue, of which there are 110. See here for the full list. I hope you enjoy seeing these images.

Image above by Jorge Segura - probably one of the best planetary imagers I know! Astrophotography can be divided into a few main types: Planetary imaging Deep-sky imaging including widefield imaging Bightsky landscape including Milkyway images Let me try and focus on the fist two; planetary and deep sky. While planetary astrophotography focuses on capturing images of objects within our solar system, such as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, and the Sun, deep-sky astrophotography allows amateur astronomers and astrophotographers to image distant celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. Each branch of astrophotography requires slightly different software to process the images to get the best images of the data taken. Software for astronomy processing and planetary images Planetary astrophotography would typically involve capturing high frame-rate videos of planets and then using software to select and extract the sharpest and best frames to then 'stack' them together to produce a high-quality image. I'll run through a few of the different types of software available to you to help with the process of getting amazing images of planets and deep sky objects. Most of these I have used and still use on a regular basis. RegiStax Best for : Planetary and lunar image stacking and sharpening RegiStax is probably one of the most popular software programs for processing planetary images. It allows you to stack video frames and apply sharpening to bring out the finer details of planets, the Moon, and even the Sun (DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE without appropriate filters). Key Features - Free to use - Sharpening tools for fine detail enhancement - Multi-point alignment for improved stacking accuracy Why Beginners Like It RegiStax simplifies planetary image processing by offering easy-to-use stacking and sharpening tools. Its wavelet sharpening feature is especially useful for bringing out surface details on planets like Jupiter or Saturn. This software is only available for PC and not Mac computers. AutoStakkert Best for : Automatic stacking for planetary and lunar images AutoStakkert is designed to automatically choose the sharpest frames from a video and stack them into a final image. It is often used in conjunction with RegiStax, where AutoStakkert handles the stacking, and RegiStax is used for sharpening. Key Features - Free to use - Automatic frame selection and stacking - Multi-point alignment for improved accuracy Why Beginners Like It AutoStakkert makes the process of stacking pretty simple, allowing beginners and experts alike to produce clearer planetary images without needing to manually select frames. It’s a great tool for anyone capturing video of planets. Siril Best for : Processing both planetary and deep-sky images Siril is a hugley versatile astrophotography software package that can handle both planetary and deep-sky image processing. For planetary imaging, Siril can convert video files into frames and then stack them, offering tools for post-processing as well. I have used this software a few times and I know a few friends who swear by it. Key Features - Free and open-source - Video-to-frame conversion for planetary processing - Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) Why Beginners Like It Siril provides a user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate. It’s also one of the few free programs that can handle both planetary and deep-sky image processing, making it an excellent option for those looking to try both types of astrophotography. FireCapture Best for: Video capture for planetary and lunar imaging While FireCapture is technically a video capture tool, it’s worth mentioning for planetary imaging because it offers specialised settings tailored to capture high-frame-rate video files of planets like Jupiter and Saturn etc. You can then export these videos to software like AutoStakkert! and RegiStax for processing. Key Features - Free to use - Capture videos optimised for planetary photography - Automatic tracking and stabilisation during capture Why Beginners Like It FireCapture is often used by planetary astrophotographers to ensure they capture high-quality, high-frame-rate videos. This software works seamlessly with AutoStakkert! and RegiStax for the next stage of your astro image processing workflow. Software for Processing Deep-Sky Images Deep-sky astrophotography involves capturing long exposures of distant celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. This requires stacking multiple frames to reduce noise and enhance detail. Below are some of the best software tools for processing deep-sky images. DeepSkyStacker (DSS) Best for: Image stacking and noise reduction for deep-sky objects DeepSkyStacker is a widely used software for stacking deep-sky images. It combines multiple exposures to reduce noise and improve detail, making it ideal for capturing objects like galaxies and nebulae. Key Features - Free to use - Stacks light, dark, flat, and bias frames - Basic post-processing options Why Beginners Like It DSS is known for its simplicity and effectiveness. It automates much of the stacking process, allowing beginners to focus on capturing quality images and letting the software handle noise reduction and detail enhancement. This software is also only avaulabel for PC and I use it a a lot. AstroPixel Processor (APP) Best for: Complete deep-sky processing workflow, including stacking and calibration— AstroPixel Processor (APP) is designed for astrophotography and offers an all-in-one solution for stacking, calibrating, and processing deep-sky images. It supports advanced features like mosaic creation and multi-band processing, making it versatile for both wide-field and detailed astrophotography. Key Features - Complete stacking, calibration, and post-processing workflow - Tools for multi-channel processing and mosaics - Batch processing capabilities Why Beginners Like It APP is user-friendly and allows beginners to perform all necessary post-processing steps within a single platform. Its powerful features make it a great option for both novice and intermediate astrophotographers. This software is available for mac and PC users. PixInsight Best for: Advanced deep-sky image processing PixInsight is considered one of the most advanced tools for deep-sky astrophotography. While it has a steep learning curve, it offers complete control over the entire processing workflow, from stacking and calibration to noise reduction and colour adjustment. Key Features - Advanced tools for stacking, calibration, and noise reduction - Powerful post-processing options - Batch processing and scripting capabilities Why Beginners Like It Although Pixinsight has a steep learning curve it offers precision and flexibility unmatched by other software. Beginners who are serious about improving their deep-sky images often turn to PixInsight as they gain more experience. StarTools Best for: User-friendly deep-sky image processing StarTools is the new kid on the block and designed specifically for astrophotography and offers a range of tools to make deep-sky image processing easier. It provides modules for noise reduction, sharpening, and colour correction, with an interface aimed at making complex tasks simpler for beginners. Key Features - Specialised tools for deep-sky image processing - Modules for star removal, sharpening, and noise reduction - Free trial available Why Beginners Like It StarTools simplifies many of the technical aspects of astrophotography image processing, allowing beginners to enhance their deep-sky images without needing in-depth knowledge of astrophotography. Adobe Photoshop (or Affinity Photo ) Best for: Fine-tuning deep-sky images with detailed editing While not specifically built for astrophotography, both Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo are powerful image-editing tools that can be used to fine-tune deep-sky images. I find myself sometimes using Photoshop's built-in Theycamera Raw to reduce the noise a little more when I export my images from Pixinsight. Photoshop and Affinity Photo also provide detailed control over colour, contrast, and sharpness, making them perfect for the final touches on my astrophotography images. Key Features - Layer-based editing for advanced workflows in astronomy image processing - Extensive tools for brightness, contrast, and colour adjustments - Supports advanced post-processing techniques like star reduction and noise removal Why Beginners Like It Both Photoshop and Affinity Photo offer immense flexibility for beginners and advanced users alike. Affinity Photo is a budget-friendly alternative to Photoshop, offering similar features at a one-time purchase cost. My preference is towards taking images of deep sky objects, but whether you're focusing on planetary or deep-sky astrophotography, the right software can make a huge difference in the quality of your final images. If you're a beginner I would suggest starting with simpler programs and gradually beginning to explore more advanced options as you gain experience. Pixinsight has probably the largest learning curve, but no matter which type of astrophotography you choose to undertake, the key is to experiment with different software packages, practice consistently, and enjoy the process of bringing your amazing images of the night sky to life through your images. Other software is available for planetary imaging and deep sky stacking and processing and include: StarTools , Winjupos which is de rotation software and mostly used for planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, Sequator , AstroPixelProcessor

Ivana's amazingly detailed image of Mars from her back garden As winter approaches, so do opportunities to image the planets in their prime. For planets of the outer solar system, time around their respective oppositions is a chance to catch them at their seemingly biggest and brightest. Whether you are a seasoned deep space photographer or just starting out, planetary astrophotography can be fun and incredibly satisfying when it all goes well, so here is a very simple guide to making the most of this planetary season! Planets take up an incredibly tiny portion of the sky, so to be able to capture detail, you will want as much aperture and focal length as you can realistically get. However, if you don’t have the space or the cash for large instruments, a simple 5” Maksutov-Cassegrain like Skywatcher’s universally beloved Skymax 127, or a 6” Schmidt-Cassegrain like Celestron’s Nexstar, could get you started off right. Planetary imaging requires no equatorial tracking, so the mount can be Alt-Az, and there’s no need for guiding, or calculating for correct backfocus as there’s no need for a flat field. All you want are good conditions – which is sometimes a tall order! A planetary camera is best suited for the job because of their small sensors, fast framerates, and good sensitivity. DSLRs unfortunately don’t have the bandwidth for this type of imaging – not that they won’t produce results, but it won’t be the best the telescope can give. Similarly with dedicated deep space cameras, as they often don’t have the framerate and small enough regions of interest. Framerate is important for planetary imaging to beat the effects of seeing and atmospheric turbulence, as well as to allow for as much data to be captured in order to stack and reveal the detail. Some come with an already built-in UV/IR cut filter and some don’t, so if yours is the latter, you will need to add one to the imaging train. A Barlow lens is a useful addition for those great nights of good seeing, when you can increase your reach to capture a bit more detail. The magnification will depend on your particular setup. TeleVue Powermates are a popular and more expensive option, which offer a bit more brightness, and are parfocal, making it easier to slot anywhere into the imaging train.   Another helpful addition to the imaging train for times when planets haven’t risen above around 30 degrees, is an atmospheric dispersion corrector, or an ADC. They can lessen the effects of atmosphere and correct the blue and orange fringe caused by diffraction. When it comes to capture software, the most popular and often used ones are SharpCap and Firecapture. Both will allow to use a tight region of interest necessary for bringing framerate up, sharpening tools, and even track the object if it drifts across the sensor.   For stacking and processing, the best software to start with, if anything due to the sheer amount of tutorials and guidance available online, are Autostakkert and Registax. Autostakkert will analyse and stack best frames from the capture, while Registax splits the stacked image into six layers for targeted wavelet sharpening and denoise. It can also correct color balance, and fix some stubborn RGB misalignment.   The easiest target to start with are Jupiter and Saturn, which are bright and have clear features. Wider views and higher exposure may reveal some moons, which can either be captured together with the planet or layered afterwards. Sky and Telescope offers a handy tool for following moons around both of the planets, as well as planning transits and shadow transits. Among many handy tools, there is also a very handy tool to help plan for when the Great Red Spot will be visible on the surface of Jupiter. https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/interactive-sky-watching-tools/  For a more detailed dive into particulars of the equipment, setup, and process, I have assembled a few YouTube videos showing all the details of how I create planetary images:  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdmGLeiqmqJYul8Fk2sF6aDfECzdxH8UE&feature=shared