AFOCAL NOOB

[redgiantjohn]

So I'm going to attempt some afocal astrophotography on the next clear night(hopefully tonight but not looking good).because I'm new to astronomy I'm only looking at lunar shots for the time being I have a celestron ps 127 on a german eq mount with slo mo tracking(no motor drive) I have also invested in a bresser universal camera adaptor for my fujifilm finepix f500 exr digital camera it has 8 second exposure and lots of other bells and whistles that I don't fully understand:) any tips from anyone who has had experience with this scope or any tips at all would be greatly appreciated thx john.

[virtualpilot45]

Haven't got any of the equipment you do but I can only do afocal while I dream of dSLRS . The advice I can give is, set focus to Infinity (∞) and focus the telescope correctly (the camera focuses differently than the eye).

The moon won't need long exposures, I usually use about 1/80 or 1/100 at ISO 50. Once you've got your image, put it in an image editing program (Photoshop if you're rich/a pirate or GIMP if you're an open source geek (like me!) and apply a gentle 'unsharp mask', which, paradoxically, sharpens the image.

However, if you're taking pics of stars or DSO's have max. exposure time and ISO, for max light. Lowest power is most advisable, as it means there will be the least trailing. If star trails appear, lower the exposure time and, if possible, raise the ISO.