First Afocal Attempt (Not good!)

[vyeshaun]

I realise they arent that good. But I just wanted to share my absoloute joy i felt with taking these. Tonights the first night in ages its been clear and although I couldnt be out for long I quickly grabed an opertunity to take my first look at the Moon through my SW 130! WOW! The detail I saw was incredible. Every eyepiece delivered well above my expectations and blew me away. And I thought I would try my hand at taking a few snaps with my samsung WB600 Compact too. Ive realised that my scope may have some collimation isssues but Im so chuffed I thought I would share

[lunator]

They are good for a first go

Keep taking the pics and I look forward to seeing the next pics

Cheers

Ian

[MorningMajor]

They're not bad. Afocal shots are very hit and miss. but well worth persevering with, I got a great moon shot quite by accident after taking loads of duff ones (far worse than yours) - and it was a great feeling, so stick with it!

Welcome and enjoy

[Neil McRae]

vyeshaun

I see you are from Dorset and I am in New Milton Hampshire and also went out to try a few moon shots. Your first attempt is pretty good and as mentioned by lunator keep taking and trying various settings. Just food for thought but have you thought about using a ccd webcam plus an adaptor . Sharpcap is free software to control the camera and stuck into a barlow lens gives great results at a cheap price.You then use Registax to stack all the frames together (again free software) This is a shot I took tonight using the above mentioned setup and a 30 second capture.

Good luck and clear skies

Neil

[chemtom24]

Neil, I cant help but notice a slight 'noise'?? pattern on the left hand side of the image - I only ask because I have a neximage camera which does exactly the same thing. It isnt always noticable but is always on one side.

Do you or anyone else know why?

[Dave]

A cracking start.

Keep it up.

Dave

[Bumfluff]

Those are good pics for your first attempt! This is the best of my bunch of pics I took through my scope at the end of last year! My first and only attempt . SO far!!!!

I just used my camera phone held over the eyepiece to take this pic. I can't wait to upgrade my kit to allow better quality piccies

I know exactly what you mean about how much joy you get when you finally take a good pic!

If anyone's interested I used my 127 SW mak and a sony cameraphone for this pic.

Greg.

[Rover]

They are pretty good for your first attempt. That was the first thing I tried as soon as I got my scope, kodak afocal shots of the moon. I took loads over and over again and I still have the best one as my avatar which is untouched by image processing.

I have taken more moon shots after getting a new camera which are better but I am still keeping that one as avatar because it was first light with my first ever telescope and means so much more to me.

Keep up the good work and the images get better and better over time.

[Andyfx]

One of mine.

[Bumfluff]

Thats a great pic Andy.

[Andyfx]

Thanks very much

[Revs]

Nothing wrong with those bud. All I can advise is that you try an even shorter exposure, just a little darker than the two darker ones you took. That might bring out even more detail

[spaceboy]

Try getting yourself one of these as they help no end ScopeTeknix ScopeTeknix Universal Digital Camera Adaptor ST98

This is my 1st attempt at the moon using a similar camera adapter

[Demonperformer]

Those are not at all bad for afocal images. You certainly deserve you 'absolute joy'. It is always difficult getting good results by holding the camera to the eyepiece, and you can get an attachment which will hold the camera in place, and this would make things easier and improve the results further. Alternatively, a webcam, as already suggested, would also be a good route forward.

Looking forward to seeing more.

[EDIT: Must learn to type faster ]

[Ursa Major]

Yeh, you should be able to increase the shutter speed (make the exposure shorter) by turning to the sports mode on your camera (I think it should have one). That should stop the ghosting of thr moon aswell as show more detail.

[vyeshaun]

Thanks guys. I am actually Ordering a Phillips SPC880 pre-flashed on Friday Cant wait to try out imaging with that. To be honest though I think I will still take the odd Afocals. Or atleast keep trying.

Andy and Bumfluff those images are awesome! Lets hope I can achieve something similiar.

Thanks again to all Will post some more soon.

[Neil McRae]

Chemtom

I notice the noise when I start using the "Wavelet" settings in registax. I dont know if its amplifying noise that is in the original avi but if I really wind up the settings I get loads of lines accross the image. I will try messing about with a single frame to see if I can find the source.

Neil

[Neil McRae]

Chemtom

Here are 2 extreme examples(Contrast and Brightness pushed up in Photoshop) from the same avi

I stacked one and the other is stacked and wavelet applied.

I see the noise in the wavelet one so maybe registax amplifies or adds noise patterns when using wavelet setting.

Perhaps someone has an answer

Neil

[Luke]

Off to a good start, good luck with the webcam, hopefully you'll find the wecam as much fun as I do, it's really cool to see it live on the screen!

[bm1980]

Nice first afocal shot thats how i started then also went the spc 880 route, trust me you will see some great results with the philips webcam, i look forward to seeing your captures.

Regards

Ben

[Canholder]

Great first images here is my first attempt at the moon

Keep it up mate

Paul

[NickK]

Here's a hand held 3GS iPhone video frame through my Baader Hyperion 3.5mm on the Pentax, the result is 192x magnification. I had the Baader Neodymium (LP) and UV/IR cut filter stacked on the EP too.