Anyone into astrophotography?

[DIW35]

Was just wondering if you could recommend a decent telescope for taking moon photos and possibly planets. Currently have a cheap Russian made 4" reflector scope, but I have been unable to attach the camera in any way that will allow me to get any objects in focus.

I understand that reflectors are known to be a bit difficult in this respect, so was wondering if I upgrade the 'scope what I should go for.

[slartibartfast]

i am....how much money have you got? it's very addictive and very expensive when you get into it.BTW it's called astroimaging, not that it matters.

an excellent site to join is UKAI http://ukastroimaging.co.uk
there are lots of experts on here and they are really good with newbies, they're not pretensious either so don't worry if you know bugger all just ask them and they'll help although do search the forums because someone would have asked what you need to know.

heres what i've managed to capture so far....well, the ones worth showing! http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/paulj1969/te...
mine is a Skywatcher 200MM (8 inch) reflector, the most important part is the mount which in this case is a HEQ5 with goto, bascially it's a heavy duty mount which is computerised so that once i've setup and correctly polar aligned and star aligned i can then tell the handset to 'goto' what ever is in the sky at that time and then the mount will slew the OTA (optical tube assembly, the reflector) to that object.

in the beginning i used a webcam for capturing AVI movies and used a stacking software package called 'registax' to stack each frame to build one picture.
the webcam i use is a Phillips toucam II 740k model, this is aparently one of the best of the cheap ones although you can buy a specialised cam which is very expensive.
the toucam can have the lense unscrewed and a special adapter put inplace to fit where the eyepiece goes on the scope, you align the telescope to the object you want to capture say saturn then remove the eyepiece and replace it with the webcam, then sit down on a nice comfy chair and piss about for about 5minutes trying to get it to focus and get the exposure correct, then start filming, the more time spent capturing the AVI the more frames you'll have for the stacking software.

the other thing i use is my canon 300D with a T-adapter, this T-adapter is screwed in place on the eyepiece adapter so all you do is remove the lense on the 300D, remove the eyepiece and lock the 300D where the eyepiece was, focus as best you can and away you go.
this is brilliant because you can set the camera to bulb mode and capture long exposure photos of deep sky objects (DSO) such as the gas clouds around the severn sisters, M42 in orions belt or if you're really clever the horsehead nebula which is one of my goals this year.

hope this is a help to you.

Paul

[Zad]

I think step 1 is to get an appropriate adaptor for your camera. Even my cheap £50 Lidl / Meade 70mm refractor has a standard eyepiece, so I imagine yours probably will have too. To echo what has been said above, some amazing results have been achieved with CCD webcams. What sort of camera are you trying to use?

[DIW35]

Thanks for the info Paul - some nice images there.

Have already tried an adapter that allows me to place the camera where the eyepiece normally fits, and I can't get it to focus either with or without one of the eyepieces inserted in to the adapter. (Known as positive projection and direct objective respectively I believe.)

I know that astroimaging can be a veritable sink as far as funds go, which is why I thought I would start with something relatively simple like lunar images.

Ho hum, lots to learn.

Zad I have an adapter/T-mount for a Canon T90 35mm camera, but I have recently acquired a Canon DSLR which is why I am having further thoughts about trying astroimaging.

Edited by DIW35 on Wednesday 16th January 19:13

[AndyKH]

I could stare at pictures of the stars , plantets and the moon for hours on end. I'd love to get into this.

[stevieb]

Always been interested but never really had the chance to get into it!

Was looking at a Telescope before xmas but never brought it ended up getting a new lense for the camera instead..

What are you recomendations for a telescope in the £400 budget including the adpater for a Canon 350D

Thanks
Steve

[nick francis]

I bought a Meade ETX 125 PE http://www.meade.com/etx_premier/index.html and have been quite pleased.
Unfortunately the weathers been so bad since xmas that I've only had it out a couple of times.

[stevieb]

I was looking at the ETX 105 AT.. whats the diff between that and the PE version? any ideas

[slartibartfast]

to be honest i would advise against the Meade ETX range, sure they are good in the sense that they're computerised BUT their power is limited.
search around on ebay for something like a reflector or refractor with a powerful mount if you want to do some serious astro imaging.

Paul

[stevieb]

slartibartfast said:

to be honest i would advise against the Meade ETX range, sure they are good in the sense that they're computerised BUT their power is limited.
search around on ebay for something like a reflector or refractor with a powerful mount if you want to do some serious astro imaging.

Paul

I was reading that one of the above is poor for astro images not wure which on though Refractor/Reflector

[DIW35]

I haven't had any luck in getting my camera to focus when attached to a reflector. I understand from a small amount of research I have done that this particular problem can only be solved by moving the rear mirror higher up the tube, which isn't an option with my 'scope.

[stevieb]

DIW35 said:

I haven't had any luck in getting my camera to focus when attached to a reflector. I understand from a small amount of research I have done that this particular problem can only be solved by moving the rear mirror higher up the tube, which isn't an option with my 'scope.

What telescope do you have?

[slartibartfast]

DIW35 said:

I haven't had any luck in getting my camera to focus when attached to a reflector. I understand from a small amount of research I have done that this particular problem can only be solved by moving the rear mirror higher up the tube, which isn't an option with my 'scope.

you might need to collimate the thing, do a wiki on collimation. (think i spelt it right)
collimation aligns the primary mirror (in your case 4 inche) with the secondary mirror which 'reflects' the image to the eyepiece.
but if you can focus ok when looking through an eyepiece then the chances are that it's a problem with the adapter that you use to mount the camera.

am i correct in thinking you have a T-adapter? or are you mounting the camera over the eyepiece?

Paul

[slartibartfast]

stevieb said:

slartibartfast said:

to be honest i would advise against the Meade ETX range, sure they are good in the sense that they're computerised BUT their power is limited.
search around on ebay for something like a reflector or refractor with a powerful mount if you want to do some serious astro imaging.

Paul

I was reading that one of the above is poor for astro images not wure which on though Refractor/Reflector

Stevie, if i remember correctly i think the refractor (the one with loads of glass lenses) is only good for Deep space objects (DSO) where as the reflector (newtonian type, the one with the large mirror in the bottom that reflects light to the secondary mirror which reflects it to the eyepiece) is good for both planetary and DSO's.

although having said all that a reflector which is the dobsonian type I.E. none powered but moved by hand, is no good for long exposure photography.

basically what ever you go for it MUST have tracking capability otherwise you can only do an photographic exposure of about 2 seconds without motion blur....you'd be surprised how fast stars,planets or the moon moves when there isn't any power to tracking motors.

search ebay for HEQ5 mount.
i paid £900 for mine abot 2 years ago, it's huge and takes 20mins or more to setup which is all well and good if the clouds suddenly roll in and cover the sky for the rest of the night.....which they often do!
then theres light pollution from street lights to contend with if you are taking pics.
frost and dew on the OTA (Optical tube assembly)

BUT after all the pains in the asses, blood sweat and tears, you do often get a night when all goes to plan and you're out there til the early hours of the morning looking at some INCREDIBLE things, M42 orion nebula, M31 Andromeda Galaxy, the moon, SATURN! my god how could i forget Saturn, the first time i saw saturn through my 4inch reflector i nearly cried!!!!!
she REALLY is that beautiful!

Paul
(no longer a newbie and instead happily helping newbies)

[V6GTO]

Just been looking at some astro shots on another forum. At ISO 1600 he was using 60 X 300 second exposures! 5 HOURS!

M.

Edited to add link

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php...

Edited by V6GTO on Thursday 17th January 20:12

[slartibartfast]

thats AWSOME!

using a small 4inch telescope with a powerdrive you can get some long exposure photos aslong as you get the speed spot on otherwise you get bluring, you can also just mount the camera on the side of the camera and take some long exposure shots that way, in my photobucket gallery there are some i've done.

Paul