Editing What Telescope (section)

===== Planetary =====
----Planetary imaging is an entirely different barrel of monkeys to DSOs, as you may be beginning to realize. As the acquisition and processing are totally different (DSO focuses on long exposure with tens to hundreds of frames whereas planetary focuses on short exposures with thousands of frames), it requires a different type of camera entirely. For this reason DSLRs are generally not recommended for planets.

One of the most prevalent planetary camera manufacturers is ZWO, who make the generally low-cost ASI range of cameras. These offer high framerate captures and good sensitivity. Other options are available but this is what I use so it's what I can recommend. A good example of these cameras is the ubiquitous ASI120 which is used by many imagers on the subreddit. Planetary can even be done with modified cheap webcams such as the Microsoft lifecam, as recommended further into the guide. Since high framerate is desirable, USB3 is a good thing to have on your planetary camera and laptop.

Planetary cameras come in mono and color, depending on how much effort you want to put into imaging. Mono has the advantage of sensitivity and some can also be used as effective guidecams for your DSO imaging too. They also allow you to shoot in high IR wavelengths such as CH4. The downside to this is that each channel must be processed separately then combined and colour calibrated, meaning about 4x as much work as taking a single video in color and processing that directly.

DSLRs tend to not be recommended for planetary. It is possible to take pictures of planets, but the only way DSLRs are able to get high enough framerates is using planetary mode in BackyardEOS which records via live view. This is usually not 1:1 pixel resolution as the sensor is resampled, and this means a lot of detail and definition is lost. The Canon DSLRs which can natively do a 1:1 region of interest are the Canon 60Da, 60D and 550D. DSLRs also tend to have larger pixels than planetary cameras which means the image will appear smaller with the same focal length.