basic AP

[scotttumsh]

Hi guys just a newbie question is it possible to take basic photographs of moon,planets. orion nebula by using a Dslr attached to my evostar 120 on an EQ3-2 mount?.  its not a motorised mount. just would like to dip my toes in to astro photography. any thoughts would be great thanks.

[jgs001]

I think the mount will be the biggest challenge here... I suspect it's a bit light for that scope and dSLR. And without motors I don't think you'll be able to image anything other the moon. The planets will be too small in the FOV, the Moon will be a nice fit though. For Deep Sky, Orion Neb, you must have tracking, the more accurate the better, at any focal lengths longer than really short (at 18mm you're limited to around 25 to 30 second exposures)... a rule of thumb for untracked... exposure time = 400/(focal length)... so for a 50mm... 400/50 = 8 seconds.

[scotttumsh]

thanks for the reply, may just have to keep trying with the iphone. i thought it was a long shot. i got good images of the moon with the scope and my home made phone holder.

[happy-kat]

O would look to get a cheap webcam search on xbox. This will give a start to Moon and Jupiter imaging with what you have and the image will be bigger then the dslr.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm not much into imaging. I have however mounted my DSLR on a camera tripod and took images of the Moon, Orion, Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter. I took many short exposures (say 20 images of 8 seconds each) and then stacked them using DSS (deep sky stacker) software. I really only stacked the Orion and Andromeda images. My Moon and Jupiter images were really only single shot exposures. My Jupiter image i was so happy with. It was tiny in the image but i magnified it by a factor of 10x with digital zoom within the camera while taking the image and then heavily cropped it in post processing on my computer later. I'll try to find it and post it but i think i deleted it. 

[scotttumsh]

once again thanks for replies, i never thought about a webcam. is that easy ish to try? i was thinking about buying a canon 350d for pictures. what kind of webcam would be the way to go? because of the mount i wouldnt spend big to be honest. again just would like to try taking some basic shots.

[jgs001]

Thinking about it, you could use the mount as a complex barn door ... Put a dSLR on the top, use a short focal length, and in theory, although you'd need to investigate, you ought to be able to adjust the axis with the slo mo controls, and get a reasonable length exposure (over 30 seconds). That would only need a dSLR and kit lens.

If you can pick up something like a Philips SPC900 (although they are getting rarer than hens teeth) one of those is easily modded for astro, and works well for the moon and planets.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Barn door mounts...........they work amazingly. Even the home made ones give great results. 

[scotttumsh]

what is a barn door mount? never heard that before.

[jgs001]

A very simple sort of eq mount that uses manual controls to track.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[happy-kat]

This is a popular one to read.

http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/52To

try a webcam an inexpensive xbox webcam about £5 and either make a nose cone or buy one about £12.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/131246-xbox-livecam-mod-cliff/page-70

[LukeSkywatcher]

what is a barn door mount? never heard that before.

If you google http://astrotrac.com

it will show you what is essentially a "barn door" mount. A barn door mount is a home made version of the astrotrac.

[theghettostylus]

Its not the best solution and I'm still very much a beginner but as my laptop battery won't hold charge I found a USB webcam app so have been using the webcam and phone to take the videos, it works pretty well as a back up till I get a battery sorted. The best part is I can attach the phone to the back of the scope.

[jgs001]

Here's the wiki page for a barn door mount  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_door_tracker

[kens]

I think you've got a few options if you just want "snapshots".

As mentioned you are better off with a webcam for planets.

For deep sky objects you could try mounting the DSLR on the mount alone. Depending what lens you use (I'd recommend between 100mm and 300mm if you have one) you could get exposures of a few seconds. With a motor drive you could get exposures of a minute or more. This works for brighter objects that show up on a single shot but for fainter objects that require multiple shots stacked together you are flying blind - you won't know if you are pointing at your target.

I have a setup similar to this but made a bracket so I could also mount a finderscope.

For longer exposures you could piggyback the DSLR onto the scope and manually guide - this doesn't seem to be in fashion these days but it used to be the done thing with film. This also requires a motor drive with the manual part being the small corrections. Also needs an eyepiece with cross hairs so you can guide accurately. Thinking about it, I recall some instances where I tracked entirely manually but it is tedious.

Prime focus photography using the scope as a lens is probably beyond the capabilities of the mount. You've got a 1000mm focal length so any errors in tracking or corrections and any vibrations are going to stand out like the proverbials.

[scotttumsh]

Many thanks for the replies. and thank you Tommohawk!

[Tommohawk]

hi Scott

Just a couple of afterthoughts. Not sure how much youve read up on this, but you will also need an adaptor for your camera. I'm not familiar with your scope but generally the 2" adapters are better than 1.25" - they give a sturdier mount. I think you also need a camera scope adapter.

Theres a thread on this here

When you have that, youre ready to go. You might want a reducer to give less mag (bigger field) for larger DSOs. I think the reducer acts as a scope adapter too, so if you need an adapter probably worth giving that some thought now. Using a reducer means you gather more light so dont need such long exposures, so tracking is less critical.

At some point you might also want a barlow to give more mag for planets.

Are you planning to control the camera using a laptop? If not you may want a remote control, or intervalometer. There are Canon clones for <£15.

Which Canon did you go for? They vary a bit in what they can do.

Also remember the motors will need batteries or a 6V supply.

For software I suggest you get Stellarium for checking where everything is, DeepSkyStacker for stacking multiple DSO images. 

For planets/lunar, get PIPP for converting Canon's .MOV to AVI format, and Autostakkert for stacking planet or lunar .AVI images. You might also want to try Avistack - its not so good for stacking I think but does wavelet post processing quite nicely. All freebies, but take care to download from safe site.

That should keep you busy for a while! Dont want to swamp you with stuff, but hopefully that puts most of the info you need in one place.

[scotttumsh]

thanks for the advice Tommohawk! very much appreciated. i am getting the canon 450d, with t-ring. i have 2 barlows that have threads to attach them to the t-ring, hope they work. ye a focal reducer is pretty much needed for my scope as its a long focal length. also i have stellarium on the iphone and the laptop i use it alot to find my way around.

i will download software for imaging as well, deepskystacker, has alot of users, i will look into the others, any advice really is welcome so anything else please say. cant wait to give it a go now!! can i use a 6v adapter with the motors or does it have to be batterys?

[Tommohawk]

I only ever used batteries with the motors, but a 6V DC supply should do so long as polarity is correct and rating is OK. Not sure how much current is required.

I forgot that some barlows have threads for T ring - very useful. On the SW barlow you can remove the last cell on the barlow to leave just the adaptor, and then connect camera unbarlowed direct using the scopes 1.25" EP holder. Hope that makes sense!. However, most folk prefer to use a 2" adapter just because its more stable.

Sound like you're on the case!

[scotttumsh]

i have been reading and searching through this great site, iv got a fair bit of kit as well. ye i may just stick to batteries for the motors as i dont want to do anything silly. i have a 2" Ed barlow that i could use for an adapter as well, again the lens cell screws off, just keen to get going. well when the skies clear!