Backyard EOS (BYE) is commercial software by Guylain Rochon that controls your Canon DSLR camera and that will record AVIs from Live View that will open in AutoStakkert!, AviStack, Images Plus or RegiStax.

BYE controls most of the important settings, such as shutter speed, ISO, aperture (of a Canon camera lens), and white balance, through a single USB cable hooked up to your computer. In addition to capturing Live View for planetary work, BYE will also help you focus, and automate a series of still-frame exposures in an imaging session for long-exposure deep-sky imaging.

Three great things about BYE:

• It's inexpensive.

• It records Live View for planetary imaging, helps you to focus, and controls the camera for deep-sky imaging.

• It has a cool modern interface.

Figure 1: The Backyard EOS Opening Screen.

Before installing BYE, install the Canon software that comes with the camera first to be sure you have the correct drivers for the camera, so the operating system will see it when it is connected via the USB cable.

After installing the camera software, Canon's EOS Utility will open when the camera is connected to the computer and turned on. EOS Utility will control your camera, but it will not record Live View. You can simply close EOS Utility and launch BYE, or you can go into EOS Utility's preferences and set it so that it does not open when the camera is connected.

Note that BYE only works on Microsoft Windows with Canon DSLR Cameras.

BYE Step-by-Step Procedure for Planetary Imaging

• Turn off your camera.

• Turn on your computer.

• Connect the camera to the computer with the Canon USB cable.

• Turn on your camera.

• If Canon's EOS Utility launches, just close it. If another dialog box opens asking you what to do, just select nothing, and close that dialog box.

• Launch the BYE program.

• Click the Settings button (Figure 1, Number 1).

  Figure 2. BYE Settings dialog.

  
  

• Click the ellipsis (Figure 2) in the Settings dialog and select the Download Folder on your computer where images and videos will be stored. Make sure you have a lot of empty space on your hard drive because video files can be large.

• Connect the camera - press the Connect button on the main screen (Figure 1, Number 2) and the main imaging interface will launch (Figure 3). This is where you would program a series of still images if you wanted to shoot single frames.

Figure 3. BYE Imaging Interface.

• Press the Frame and Focus button on the main screen (Figure 3, Number 1).

• Focus on a star. See the section on focusing below.

• Press the Planetary button to go to the Planetary Imaging Center (Figure 3, Number 2).

• Go to the planet and center it in the field of view.

Figure 4. BYE Planetary Center.

• Press the 5x button (Figure 4, Number 1) so that Live View is magnified 5x and you get 1:1 pixel resolution.

• Adjust the exposure and ISO (Figure 4, Numbers 2 and 3) to achieve a correct exposure for the object.

• Set the White Balance to Daylight (Figure 4, Number 4).

• Enter the name of the target (Figure 4, Number 5).

• Enter the number of frames you want to record (Figure 4, Number 6).

• Press the Record button in the Planetary dialog box (Figure 4, Number 7).

• The top right corner will display the number of frames recorded and an activity indicator (Figure 4, Number 8).

The frames will then be recorded as an AVI file to the directory you specified during setup. You can open this AVI video file in a program like RegiStax, AviStack or AutoStakkert! to grade the frames and align and stack them.

Focusing with BYE's Focus Center

I recommend focusing on a star near to the planet you want to shoot. Using BYE's FWHM readout on a star in the Focusing Center will help you quickly and accurately focus your telescope. It is much more difficult to focus by eye on low-contrast planetary detail, especially in less-than-great seeing.

The numerical readouts will give you an objective assessment of the accuracy of your focus instead of a subjective visual guess as to what is the best focus.

Use a reasonably bright star as close as possible to the planet you want to shoot. This will minimize the chance of your primary mirror moving and throwing off collimation or focus when you move to the planet.

Figure 5. BYE Frame and Focus Center.

• Press the Frame and Focus button on the main screen (Figure 3, Number 1).

• Center the star in the field (Figure 5, Number 1). Yes, the star is tiny here and doesn't seem centered, but the left part of the frame was cut off so it would fit better on this page.

• Press the 5x button to zoom into 5x (Figure 5, Number 2).

• Figure 5, Number 3 shows the star in the zoom box. You can move the slider under the zoom box to the right to increase the magnification.

• Figure 5, Number 4 shows the star under the histogram plot for the star's brightness.

• Figure 5, Number 5 shows a histogram of the star's brightness.

• Adjust the exposure and ISO to change the brightness (Figure 5, Numbers 7 and 8) of the star so that it is not saturated. The peak of the histogram should not reach the top of the box.

  If you start out with a star that is grossly out of focus, you may have to adjust the exposure and ISO so that it is bright enough for readout measurements to be made. If the star is not bright enough, you may not be able to see it, and you won't get a FWHM readout.

• Focus and watch the FWHM numbers. The FWHM number is essentially the size of the star. A star is best focused when its size is smallest and you get the lowest FWHM numbers.

  After you adjust the focus, give the scope and camera a while to settle down.

  Keep an eye on the histogram as an initially out-of-focus star will get brighter as it gets tighter closer to focus. Adjust the exposure or ISO if necessary if the histogram hits the top of the histogram box.

• You can average a number of frames to smooth the star image in periods of less than great seeing. This is done in the settings dialog under the Live View settings box, set the number of frames for the FWHM average. The number of frames to be averaged is displayed in the Frame and Focus Center (Figure 5, Number 9).

• Don't forget to re-adjust the exposure and ISO for the planet after you have focused on a star.

Night Vision Mode

BYE also offers a night-vision mode with a red display.

The button that controls the display is at top right.

Figure 6. BYE Night Vision button.

Click this button (Figure 6, Number 1) to change between Daytime mode and Night-Vision mode.

Figure 7. BYE Night Vision mode.

Night-vision mode is seen above in Figure 7.