iandownunder

Thanks HK Lovely photo atom.

Just a very basic question as this is all new to me....... when i attatch the camera to the telescope to image the Nebula, should I have the mount setting set at Sidereal ? and then align the scope and enter M42 ? Ian

Just the basic 18 - 55 camera lens. As you know the scope is F10 and I am not able to buy a focal reducer so I will just try the prime focus method and see how that turns out. When I took photos of the Milky Way on a tripod I could only manage around 20 seconds before the stars trailed, so when I have a try at the Orion Nebula at prime focus I think I may need to limit the exposures to 10 seconds, but like you say trial and error.

Thanks for the comments, weather permitting tonight I will do as suggested and start at 30 seconds and work backwards, the Orion Nebula is unavailable at the moment ( too low and only comes up in early hours at the moment and the moon comes up as well ) but when it is up high and there is no moon I would like to take some test shots and see what happens, not sure if my set up will show anything other than a bright star but will see what happens. Cheers for the Link, will read it now. Thank you all, Ian

Thank you. Am I correct to assume that the closer the object I choose to image is to the South Celestrial Pole the longer it takes for star trails to show? i.e 30 seconds at the SCP and less the further away you go?

Hi Everyone, First of all I will state the obvious, Fantastic Thread!. I would very much appreciate some guideance, I have a Nexstar 6SE, wonderful little scope, and a Canon 450D camera. I would very much like to try AP on the Great Orion Nebula, you guys have posted some wonderful images, absolutely amazing! Now for me to image this nebula I take it that I should attach my camera to the scope with the prime focus method? Without a Barlow or anything? My second question is, with this scope and the camera at prime focus, what would be the max exposure time that I could achieve before the stars star to trail? Additionally if you have any suggestions as to what I could do with this very basic set up please let me know, such as what to image, use a EP or not etc. Any suggestion and guidance would be very helpful. Ian N.B Thus far I have only used my camera on a tripod for the Milkyway.