tibbs1972

Hi,

Withe regards to M31, from my personal experience (limited), just looking through the scope won't show the full view of M31, you probably will se a large blob. Much of the galaxy can't be seen without photo processing.

I've only got a 130mm MIrror, so I see a small blob, and I haven't invested in any colour filters yet.

To get the full effect you need to take some shots with a camera and stack them on top of one another with software like deep sky stacker (free on the web).

Also, you're not going to get much colour unless you use separate colour filters for each shot and again stack them with the software.

Hope you have some luck, I look forward to the day I can make use of a 200mm MIrror (Jealousy creeping in again).

There are plenty of tutorials on this site that may help more than me, and some awesome images built up with Mirrors smaller than 200mm.

I'm sure you'll have succes with a bit of time an patience.

Good Luck !

Hi Isabelle,

I was going to have another go, but both had disappeared after I had uploaded this picture.

Neil

Thanks Isabelle,

I used a cheap 640 x 480 webcam with the lens removed, mounted directly to the scope using my Cannon Camera adapter and some electrical tape. The job cost me about £8. I then stacked the 30 sec AVI with Registax. I was surprised how simple it was to let Registax do all the work for me.

Regards

Neil

Sorry to here you've got technical issues, hope you get them solved.

I tried the 2" light pollution filter you suggested. Images look much better straight from the DSLR. I look forward to trying it when the moons not so bright. Thanks for the idea. Instead of an orange glow, most of the light is a slight blue. Looks much better.

Regards

Neil

Thanks, I think thats it for a while until the weather improves.

Thanks for the support, I managed to repair my tripod tonight and get the camera working again. As the cllouds have rolled in, I've have a look at getting the philips camera working.

Cheers

Neil

I Managed to process a small video of Jupiter and upload it to youtube.

Jupiter 1st Feb 2012 @18:31 - YouTube

As expected, not much detail. I can only just see two Moons. I didn't get the focus sharp enough and I need to learn how to reduce the glare.

I'll leave this for the time being until I have more time and patience, as it takes a lot of time getting the focus and alignment of the telescope correct.

It was worth the effort of setting up though, as I now know what is possible at a later date.

Thanks for the advice. I've had a go, but honestly, my tripod is rubbush. Its the cheap one that came with the Telescope "EQ2". With the extreme cold, the knobs snapped tongiht. Its causing me no end of problems trying a align the scope. I really need to upgrade.

I did catch a bit of footage of Jupiter and 2 moons with the webcam tonight, but I don't think it will be very good. I'll have a look and see if I can process anything.

I purchased the 2" Light Pollution Filter you recommended and will go back to trying widefield photography for a while.

At least I can have a play with the new filter on my camera.

If I make any use of the webcam footage, I'll post it on the board or youtube.

I'll, also see if I can flash the philips camera again.

Seems like I've given myself a lot of work to do in the evenings.

well done in getting it working, are you going back to using the philips webcam, it should have a better chip inside than the tesco one, ccd instead of cmos

Thanks for the support, I may go back to the Philips Webcam, but so far, after removing the lens, all I get is an alternating Yellow/Blue flashing screen at 10 frames per second. I'm not sure how to fix that issue. Maybe I should flash the camera again, I'm not sure.

I nipped out this morning about 5am before work and took 30sec exposures on my camera tripod, at ISO800. I then stitched them together. I was surprised how easy it was.

Thanks for your comments, I realise I need to work on my light curves etc. I'm still learning how to use curves.

I only just found out today that the cannon photo software has a user friendly curve adjustment tool.

The other problem is with uploading files to the web. The origional stitched files can be 100Mb. It takes a lot of detail out of the images when they are reduced to 1024x768.

Also, thanks for the idea about the 2" light pollution filter. I never thought of that for the camera lens.

Nice blog, interesting read.

Keep up the good work.

I really need to start a log, all I've ever kept are photos of observations. The only other evidence is my blog on this site, which could vanish at any time I suppose.

Nice pcture of Jupiter and the moons. I never seem to get the Moons into focus, they always seem to be slightly out of focus.

Shame about your lighting problems, hope it gets sorted.

I'm afraid so, never had much luck to the North.

Thanks,

I checked the settings last night, tt was actually a 3min exposure, ISO800 f5.6, lens set to 18mm.

I screwed the camera to the top of the telescope

and tracked with a single axis drive.

It took a few attempts and some patience to get the speed of the drive correct, but it was worth the effort.

Impressive sketches, they would put anything I sketch to shame.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Thanks

Hopefully in the future, I can improve on one 30 sec exposure.

Just had a look at the Baadar Solar Continuum Filter and some images on the web.

The sunspots definitely look sharp and clear with this.

As with everything in this hobby, all depends on cash.

Good Luck.

I think FLO caters for pre-made filters on their site for 12" scopes.

Never had a problem with heat, The filter film blocks 99.999% of the light.

Good luck if you do have a go. By the way, the filter film comes in A4 sheets from FLO.

Thanks for the info, checked out the site, seems to match with the image I took yesterday.

Thanks,

I've been advised I've over exposed again, and the focus looks out.

Still an amateur, I started the hobby last January, so I've still got a lot to learn.

I find it really diffucult to focus manually with a camera live view lcd screen, especially as mars only shows up as a faint dot on the LCD display.

Thanks,

Check out the latest blog, I got the filter film from FLO for about £15.

Took a couple of days to arrive.

I've just been over to youtube to see the video.

Very nice work, and an excellent scope you've got there. Really clear and sharp footage.

Neil

Looks like a really good starting point.

I look forward to the longer video and the rest of the track.