When it comes to planetary imaging, 2024 is a year of two halves. In this first talk of our series, Sky at Night presenter Pete Lawrence will explain why the observing prospects for Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn improve markedly in the second half of the year, and highlight how to take advantage of this. He’ll prepare the audience for the rich pickings by covering the basics of planetary imaging, from collimation to weather forecasting, and on telescopes setups using smartphones for afocal photography to lucky imaging with a planetary camera. Also looking at a typical processing workflow for planetary imaging, Pete’s talk will prepare you for taking great images of our Solar System neighbours.

In the second part of each of the Masterclasses, there is a Q&A with the Masterclass speaker, where you can submit your question throughout the masterclass and vote on your favourite question from the audience.

You will receive access to the Masterclass recording within 24 hours once the event has ended and will be able to watch this recording for a maximum of 10 times. Alongside this, you will also receive a free download of The Astronomer’s Yearbook 2024 a 12-month guide to the best stargazing across the year!

Save 20% when you purchase a series ticket and get access to all three Masterclasses in the Imaging the Planets Series, or pay £15 per individual Masterclass event.