The word 'planets' is ancient Greek for wanderers.    Whilst the stars appear to stay in fixed positions relative to each other, the planets traverse the sky at different rates.   The further out a planet is in the solar system, the slower its journey through the constellations.   Saturn takes 26 years to orbit the Sun so you can learn its position and expect to see it in the general vicinity each year it appears from behind the Sun and into our night sky.   By comparison, Mars races through the Zodiacal constellations.  In 2002 we were treated to the planets grouping together  in our line of site.

If you are finding grabbing images of the Moon  tricky, getting close-ups of the planets take the challenges to a much higher level.   Start with wide-field shots using the camera alone.   

I  started with hand holding my digital camera (Casio QV3500) to the eyepiece of my telescope (Meade ETX105) .   The club's Nikon 995 has a coupling that allows you to fix it to the eyepiece.  You can then use the electronic remote control to operate the camera without shaking it.   Alternately you could borrow one of our two Toucam Pro webcams.  They can be held onto the 25mm Meade eyepiece on the ETX 90s with an elastic band as it has a recessed lens.   Alternately you can remove the webcams lens and attach it to the rear port of an ETX.   You can then centre objects in the eyepiece and flip down the mirror to expose the chip of the webcam.   The chip is very small so it takes a bit of fiddling to get it cantered.  Also, don't expect the image in the eyepiece to be in focus  at the same time as it is on the web cam.

The images get better down the page because they are in chronological order from my first goes at imnages to my latest successes.

I have hundreds of splodge images of Jupiter in my computer which were my first efforts, so don't worry if that's all you get to start with.  

A lucky shot of the moons of Jupiter.  It was hand-held at 1/2 a second!  Jupiter burns out if you get the fainter moons.	A typical shot of Jupiter that I first managed obtained.   There is some indication of banding but the noise is terrible.  A series of shots like this can be stacked with Astrostack.	A composite of the moons image and a stacked Jupiter.	A simulation using 'Starry Night' to show the expected alignment of the moons at the precise time I imaged them. 11 April 2002 21.56 GMT
Another go with the Casio, capturing an extra moon	A composite shot using a Philips Toucam webcam.	Here I've used 10 shots of Jupiter and stacked them in Astrostack
Another composite using a single Jupiter image	Here 15 images are stacked to get Jupiter.	Venus, Mars and the Moon.   The Camera was handheld to one eyepiece of  tripod mounted 9x63 binoculars.
With careful exposure it is possible to capture the planet and its moons in one shot.  You will need to split the raw image into two layers, process separately and merge by removing the over exposed planet on the Moon layer	Improvement in detail here, with the Great Red Spot showing on the Eastern limb.  5  shots stacked in Astrostak	I'm starting to get details of the main belts on this shot of 3 stacked images and some fiddling about in Photoshop
Three steps to produce an image of Jupiter
Three images stacked in Asrostack. Feature in the cloud bands are visible.  For science this is the best form, The colouring makes it look more attractive but will mask the structuree.   It is possible to analyse the original images  four times -LRGB- which you should try for as you become more skilled with image manipulation.	A single image used for colour information  (Ganymede  is to the left and Io to the right)	The final combined image using the monochrome stack and the colour single combined as separate layers in Photoshop
Saturn using a Toucam Pro.  The small size of the image formed at prime focus shows pixel grain.   You should be able to get even better shots using the club's Dobsonian on a good night.   Aim to capture the Cassini division	Try using a 2x Barlow lens to increase the size of the image	LX90 and a Toucam recording in AVI and stacked in Registax
Jupiter, Venus and a crescent Moon showing Earthshine.  Taken with the QV3500 resting on the top of my car.	Mars taken through an LX90.  This is the sort of view you can get through the Dob	Features labelled
PLANET LINKS Make your own planet and moon models  at Calvin J. Hamilton's site: Other planet sites:   . To search the NASA databases click their logo:   xx