Planetary Astrophotography Guide: How to Photograph Jupiter, Saturn & Mars

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/SwRI – Jupiter as captured by the New Horizons spacecraft. Amateur telescopes can reveal Jupiter’s cloud bands and Great Red Spot. Public Domain.

Why Planetary Imaging Is Different

Planetary astrophotography is fundamentally different from deep-sky imaging. Planets are bright but tiny — even Jupiter, the largest planet, spans only 30-50 arcseconds (about 1/60th of a degree). The challenge isn’t gathering light; it’s overcoming atmospheric turbulence (“seeing”) to resolve fine detail at high magnification.

The technique that revolutionized amateur planetary imaging is lucky imaging — recording thousands of video frames and keeping only the sharpest ones, which caught moments of steady air.

Equipment for Planetary Imaging

Telescope

For planets, you want long focal length and decent aperture. The best planetary scopes are:

• Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT): 8″ f/10 gives 2,000mm focal length. Celestron C8 or C9.25 are favorites.
• Maksutov-Cassegrain: Excellent optics in compact packages. The Sky-Watcher Mak 180 is superb for planets.
• Newtonian: An 8-10″ Dobsonian can produce excellent results with practice (manual tracking is challenging but doable for short captures).

Camera

Dedicated astronomy cameras (also called “planetary cameras”) are small, fast, and designed to capture video at high frame rates:

• ZWO ASI462MC ($300): Excellent sensitivity, especially in near-infrared. A top choice for Jupiter and Saturn.
• ZWO ASI224MC ($200): Budget-friendly with great performance.
• Player One Mars-C II ($250): Newer competitor with IMX662 sensor — very low read noise.

Barlow Lens

A 2x or 3x Barlow doubles or triples the effective focal length, increasing the image scale on the sensor. Essential for planetary work — the TeleVue 2x Powermate ($190) is the gold standard.

Capture Technique

1. Focus precisely: Use a Bahtinov mask for initial focus, then fine-tune using the live video feed. Focus on a planetary limb or moon until it’s sharpest.
2. Record video: Use free capture software like FireCapture or SharpCap. Record .SER or .AVI format at the camera’s maximum frame rate (usually 100-200 FPS for planetary cameras).
3. Capture 2-5 minute runs: Planets rotate — Jupiter completes a rotation in just under 10 hours, so features smear in runs longer than ~4 minutes. Saturn can tolerate slightly longer.
4. Shoot multiple runs: Capture 5-10 video files to pick the best seeing moments.
5. Use an atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC): When planets are low, the atmosphere splits their light into a rainbow fringe. An ADC ($100-200) corrects this.

Processing Pipeline

The standard workflow is completely free:

1. PIPP (Planetary Imaging Pre-Processor): Centers and crops each frame, discards the worst ones.
2. AutoStakkert! 3: Aligns and stacks the best 10-30% of frames. This is where the magic happens — stacking hundreds of sharp frames dramatically increases signal-to-noise ratio.
3. RegiStax 6 or AstroSurface: Apply wavelet sharpening to bring out cloud bands, ring structure, and surface detail. Go slowly — over-sharpening creates ugly artifacts.
4. Final adjustments: Color balance, rotation, and slight curves adjustment in GIMP, Photoshop, or similar.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute – Saturn as imaged by the Cassini spacecraft. With good technique, amateur telescopes resolve the ring divisions and cloud bands. Public Domain.

Planet-by-Planet Tips

Jupiter

The most rewarding planetary target. You can resolve the Great Red Spot, equatorial bands, festoons, and all four Galilean moons. Best near opposition when it’s closest to Earth. Jupiter’s fast rotation means features change visibly within minutes.

Saturn

The rings are breathtaking even in processed images. Look for the Cassini Division (the dark gap in the rings), cloud bands, and the shadow of the globe on the rings. Saturn’s largest moon Titan is easily visible as an orange dot nearby.

Mars

Challenging because it’s small except near opposition (~every 26 months). When it is close, you can resolve polar ice caps, dark surface features (Syrtis Major), and occasionally dust storms. Mars is best imaged in infrared to cut through atmospheric turbulence.

Next in our series: Understanding Telescope Mounts: Alt-Az vs. Equatorial