My first light disorientated moon pic

[Chris]

Hi guys,

This is my first post on SGL and my first attempt at Astrophotography:)

I thought I would leave the Moon Upsidedown as I think it makes Tycho pop out at you a little more:)

[Quatermass]

Great Shot Chris the moon is a wonderful subject for astrophotography what did you use to take the shot?

[Chris]

Thanks:)

I have justed put together a basic imaging rig consisting of an Antares 80mm f/6 Revelation refracter on a basic RA driven eq5 mount, plus an un-modified Cannon D1100 SLR. The shot was taken with a 2xbarlow 1/1000 second exposure and ISO 400.

I've only had this setup for about 5 or 6 weeks, but I'm already getting the urge to upgrade the mount to a HEQ5 syntrek as I'm only getting about 20 seconds accurate tracking at the moment with the mount levelled and what I think is a reasonable polar allignment with the polar scope, although my power supply is D cells and not a powertank which can't be helping

[Quatermass]

You have pretty much the same mount set up as me try running a mains supply to your ra drive with an adapter that certainly improves tracking i never use the battery pack any more.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

[Quatermass]

I also use the Skywatcher t adapter Barlow with a canon T Ring which is great for doing mosiac shots of the moon.

With the single axis ra motor drive I use a multi adapter

The multi voltage adapter is cheap to buy and can be plugged into an extension lead from your house or shed. It keeps a constant voltage supply and is far more reliable then the battery pack which gave me star trailing problems every time.

If you can swop the battery pack for an extension lead from your shed and then the multi voltage adapter you will find tracking improves. I also move my telescope weights down slightly about half an inch to insure the gears on the motor bite well and this stops star trailing. You need to move them only a little bit to insure they grip.

Hope that helps a bit

[Chris]

Hi Quatermass,

Thanks very much for your advice:) I do have a multi voltage adaptor somewhere so I will be digging it out and buying a long extension lead, might have to get that barlow on order as well, would love to do a mosaic of the Moon:)

p.s. I like your "fly me to the Moon pic", with the orientation of the plane it really does look like its on its way to the Moon he he, how did you get the shot, did you spot the plane heading that way and quickly setup?

Regards Chris.

[Quatermass]

Hi Quatermass,

p.s. I like your "fly me to the Moon pic", with the orientation of the plane it really does look like its on its way to the Moon he he, how did you get the shot, did you spot the plane heading that way and quickly setup?

Regards Chris.

It was share luck Chris I was coming home when I saw the moon was out early so quickly put the telescope up and wacked the camera in. I first saw some Rooks flying past and hoped I could get a few of them in then when I took a shot noticed the plane in the bottom right corner. Wondered what it was at first.

I then saw two other planes flying higher up and managed to swing the telescope on them and got a few more shots of just the planes.

Practice for when I have a go at the space station which will move faster then them I suspect.

[Quatermass]

Here is the sky at night moon mosaic page for you..

How to image the Moon | Sky at Night Magazine

[Chris]

Cheers for all your help

really enjoyed the imbedded youtube video on Mosaics, there is quite a lot to it but the end result is more than worth the time.

Right I need to get my self a webcam!

[Quatermass]

You can do it with out a webcam if you use a barlow with the thread on it and just put your camera on that it will get you nice and close and you will then only need to take about 8 shots to stitch together but a webcam would be cool heres a good one

Buy Philips Pre flashed SPC880 CCD webcam bundle at Morgan Computers