That shot of M31 just blows me away! Absolutely beautiful and so clear. What camera equipment are you using?

3 hours ago, employee2-4601 said:

That shot of M31 just blows me away! Absolutely beautiful and so clear. What camera equipment are you using?

Hi,

Thanks! I'm using a second-hand Canon 1000d, which cost around £120, and a second-hand 55-200mm lens costing £60. I'm then using a home made wooden adapter to attach the tripod screw thread on the cam to the head of my EQ2. The adapter simply has 3 holes in it--one has a bolt with the right size of thread on it to screw into the cam, and the other 2 holes take the bolts on the mount head that screw into the scope tube rings. Because its wood, the adapter also helps dampen out vibration. My EQ2 has an RA tracking drive, and I use drift alignment (the EQ2 doesn't have a polar scope). I'm generally limited to 1 minute subs, but it appears that with enough subs, most objects I've tried come out well. If I remember right, the M31 image has about 35-40 subs, each of one minute and then a few 1.5 minute ones that I took as a test run the night before.

This is one of the subs for M31, I usually capture in RAW mode, as the camera doesn't compress the pictures then.

John

Hi,

Reprocess of M42, using 20X1 minute subs @ ISO800, and 10X10sec subs @ ISO 800 from last night as well as the old 35X51 sec subs as used above.

John