c3po

just back from work (yes work, on a sunday!!) only to hear this news. what a tragedy, a terrible loss and one that can never be replaced.

just joined the club and attached my SETI, Einstein & Milkyway accounts to it...oh, and my numbers are in my sig.

I would have added this to one of the numerous FLO threads on the reviews forum but it seems I can't reply to them...

Anyway, I'd really like to thank FLO for absolutely fantastic service - not to mention the fastest delivery I've experienced with any supplier!

Ordered a TAL 2x Barlow around 3pm yesterday (7th March), got an email around 5pm to say it was despatched, only to find itself on on my door mat in less than 24 hours after I clicked "checkout" now THAT'S service...

I used to use a bridge camera, and it worked (not sure I could find them now...). The quality was never on a par with my SLR... the biggest issue I had with it was focusing... it's bad enough trying to focus an SLR when you can manually tweak the focus point... but with my bridge camera, it was just an on screen option, adjusted with an arrow (up or down)... so really really hard to do. Of course, other cameras may have better implementations. As for a shorter exposure, you will capture less information. Having said that, if AP is something you want to aim at, the processes involved are generally the same, so it's all a good learning experience.

Hi John, excellent info. Many thanks for that! I've gotten to know the camera well having used it (a Fuji S7000) for shooting many thousands of daytime RAW images (all shot using 'full manual' mode) at air shows on and such over the past few years and am now quite attuned to its quirks and limitations - hopefully AP will teach me something new about it after all this time!

a great tutorial John, very handy and will most certainly come into use over the next few weeks with me as i'm just getting started in Astronomy.

You mention using a DSLR, and although I agree that they will give the best images, what could beginners expect from 'point & shoot' or 'bridge' cameras following the tips you posted?

Are there any special settings to use? Would a shorter max exposure (15 seconds for example) be detrimental to the overall photo detail?....

Thanks,

C3PO