How does planetary imaging work? – Telescope Live Help Center

With Telescope Live you can obtain stunning images of solar system planets.

Planetary Imaging is very different from Deep Sky Observations (DSO) of galaxies, nebulae, or star fields.

While in DSO imaging we use very long integration times of the order of tens of minutes to capture the very faint details of distant objects, with planetary imaging we take very short exposures as the reflected light from planets quickly saturates the chip.

The instrumentations is also different. CCD cameras are mostly used for Deep Sky Observations, while CMOS are preferred for planetary imaging. This is because only CMOS cameras allow for the very short integration times needed for planetary imaging.

High image resolution is also paramount to obtain stunning planetary images such as the one shown above. High image resolution is obtained through a combination of excellent local atmospheric conditions, outstanding instrumentation, and clever post-processing techniques.

At Telescope Live we provide all of this.

Planetary Imaging is available at our 1-m telescope, the largest telescope in the world available to the astrophotography community. The telescope is installed in one of the driest regions in the world, in Chile, offering sub-arcsec seeing, ideal for observing planets.

We offer planetary imaging through two different observing modalities, through Live Sessions with Advanced Requests and through Pro Datasets.

Watch the video below aired on 23 May 2021, with special guest Damian Peach, in which we launch the new observing modality for planetary imaging, and we explain how it works.