The Planets

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus

These are the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus as photographed through my telescope, using a home-made video camera. Jupiter's four largest moons are also visible. Three of the planets can be seen in the video below. Eyepiece projection was used, where the eyepiece is focused so that it casts an image onto the camera sensor. This gives greater magnification than using the camera in place of the eyepiece, but makes the recording more wobbly as a result. The Earth's atmosphere also causes the image to shimmer.

I once almost managed to film Mercury as it set behind the neighbours' hedge, but an owl got in the way.

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