Yet another question, different subject

[trudie]

Its me again,

Another one please, with a view to getting as good as possible DSO's within equipment limitations, if taking pictures through the e/p of my coolpix 5700 which has a fixed telephoto lens, 8x optical zoom, exposures times down to 8 secs , bulb and also macro,film sensitivity ISO 100-800,

1) is there an advantage in trying to get in close using the camera zoom along with a x4 barlow or would I likely get better results sticking to say F2 on the camera or macro ?

2) Can anyone suggest camera settings for say:-

Saturn

DSO's (If I can find them)

Regards and thanks

Trudie

[CELESCOPE]

A tall order Trudie , you are noiw entering whole new world with DSO imaging, the best advice i can give with that is for you to use the Camera piggy backed on the ED80 and take some exposures of 45 to 1.min exposures , but the scope would have to be Polar aligned pretty good else trailing will appear, if you can do this , then i think , you can begin to get some nice wide field images . but beyond that adapters to fit the camera on the back of the scope, will give you even better wide fields and a chance for deeper DSO,s , glob clusters should be easy to get this way at prime focus , but not sure about through the eye piece for dso imaging ,

As for Saturn you are better off using the Toucam pro , its one of the best you can get , 4 x image mate will be fine at roughly F28 , i would stick with that , get used to using it cus you have as much as anyone there to get good saturn images.

Another thing to be sure of , is whats the sky like there , if its like mine , light pollution will was a lot of detail out, so some good processing will be needed to pull out any detail you will get , dont be to alarmed at this as its a good way to learn processing skills , CCD imaging can deal a lot with this by the use of special filters . thats why i use b/w ccd imager then add the colour after , i have tried colour imaging straight from the camera at my location , and simply it does,nt work, a very good lesson learnt by myself , just as well thrown that £400 camera in the bin,

Rog

[trudie]

Thanks Rog,

That question was actually from Phil, hes the one who's into photography with a digital camera, I could'nt have phrased that question if I'd tried, I don't even understand it !!!!!!

Hope you are feeling better

Trudie

[The Warthog]

A lot of people do eyepiece projection for the planets, as they are pretty small at prime focus.