RayGil

Bahtinov Mask

Focus Test -

My Imaging set up.

My M31:

Well done Neil :-)

To focus the scope correctly I find a near bright star to the object and then fit a Bahtinov Mask, focus correctly, then go back to the object under study, the masks are cheap, and simple to use, guaranteed correct focus.

Ray

The Jupiter shot is just a short exposure from the canon 350D, single image no stacking, any longer and it over exposes the planet and you loose detail, for best images you need to stack video to get a high resolution detailed image. The Andromeda and Swan nebula are stacked images from between 20 - 40 images stacked in deep sky stacker.

Thanks for the comments :-)

Ray

Usually from 00:00 - 02:00

The Canon 350D is on Manual focus, depending on the NLC brightness ISO200-800 and exposure times from 3-10 seconds.

Hello Isabelle:

Good first attempt! I have yet to image it through the scope, I will have an attempt soon, perhaps over my next long weekend off, I think it will take some doing though. Good one you for having a go, I will let you know how I get on with the 200p and eq5 mount.

Ray

you should watch this, ISS with scope: YouTube - ‪Imaging The International Space Station ISS‬‏

Well done Isabella - It's a wonderful sight, I never tire of the ISS :-))

Nice image Isabella, Lovely Image, enjoy your Holiday

Hello:

Well you will need a tripod for anything over 10x50's, simply to hold them stable enough to view over long periods, or to make out any real detail of your objects. My friend John is really into binocular astronomy, perhaps he could point you in the right direction: The Night Sky With Binoculars Tonight | Astronomy Central

Ray

I'm in the UK, Cumbria - N/West Coast

That's very profound Isabella :-)

Hello John.

Yes light pollution is a real pain, but bear in mind it's spring/summer the sky does not get really dark, when I'm imaging I have to start at 00:00 to allow long exposures and end about 02:30 after that the sky tends to lighten. The larger aperture does help. I image with my 120mm refractor and visual with my 200mm reflector, M51 under dark skies is very good, but still a struggle in the 200mm, can you travel? I have to! I live in a town and the only thing I can image from here is the Moon. To view or image DSO's I have to go to my dark sky site. In autumn things will improve for you darker skies and crisper seeing conditions. Don't give up! Try M13 the Great globular cluster in Hercules and M57 the smoke ring in Lyra, your larger aperture should bring out the detail.

Ray

Hello Pat & Isabelle.

Thanks for the comments, I will look at adding bias sub's thanks for the info, up to now it has been a work in progress, and a lot of trial and error, I have to travel to my dark site for photography, so it means setting everything up from scratch each night. At present I'm just allowing the mount to guide, have made lot's of adjustments and learnt various tricks to get decent tracking, to really improve I will be getting a autoglider at some stage, the Skywatcher stand alone one looks the best option for me, will allow less gear to be taken. The autoglider will allow longer exposures and bring out the detail of the DSO, but that's for the future, for now I will have to keep the images unguided and short exposures. I have only used the 120mm refractor for imaging, being wide-field it's easier to track, my 200p suffers from star trails in the images, but this is where the autoglider will help.

Pat: good luck with the 250mm reflector I hope you get one!

Ray

Thanks again Isabelle I have some DSO's on my blog and my messier list if your interested:

Ray's Astro-Photography Site

It's an ongoing project, but keeps me busy :-)

Thanks Isabelle, it's difficult to capture being unguided but it was certainly worth a try!

Inverted Image:

Which company? I have had a few dealing with Scope's and Skies, with out of stock goods! I only use FLO or Sherwoods now. Great scope, and i'm sure it will perform great as your grab and go!

Clear Skies

Ray

Great Image for the Iphone, well done, Afocal photography is not the easiest to do! great start and look forward to more images in the future.

Ray

Hello Cozzy and I'm also going out Sat if weather is fine! but won't be until 23:00 after work. Work on the Railway.

Ray

Ray's Astro-Photography Site: Camera Adapters for DigiScope Method at Telescope.

Or this?

Ray's Astro-Photography Site: 32mm Eyepiece and DSLR Camera Adapter

Maybe something like this?

Nice one! that should produce some great images :-))

I have a EQ5 + SynScan+ skywatcher 200p,

I have upgraded the firmware in the hand control unit, only done it once and it was successful.

Argos:

I think you need to post this in the Beginners section? you may have more luck.

Well welcome to the Star Gazers Lounge and Astronomy, Unfortunately I don't know the scope.

But as it's a 8" scope I would expect great views of all the inner planets, and some great DSO's like clusters and galaxies, although most will be just fuzzy blobs? A camera will bring out much more detail though, but that's a whole new ballgame.

Good luck with your venture, and yes Saturn is the coolest planet I have viewed also, I've been interested in astronomy for over 20 years now and I still love looking at Saturn.

Ray

I am interested if anyone has any information about the orbit of planet X (Nibiru). There is lots of speculation on the arrival of this planet/comet in the year 2012.

First of all, stop watching YouTube Video's!

Secondly: Welcome to astronomy, it's a great hobby.

I have the same scope as yourself, which I use for solar observing, with the appropriate filter fitted.

I have a feeling that you may be disappointed with the views from that scope? Even though it's a GOTO scope, because of the size of the scope, it will only give a slightly better view than a pair of binoculars.

Even so, you should get small views of Jupiter with it's moons, again don't expect great things here.

Any DSO - Deep Space Object is going to be very very faint indeed, just a smudge.

On the plus side it will give great images of the Moon.

My blog is at Ray's Astro-Photography Site

But don't get to disheartened and learn the night sky, every thing takes time.

Ray