What am i doing wrong with photos

[kate16265]

I have been seeing some amazing things tonight with my Skymax 127 so have researched what setting to put my camera on and have been snapping away.

What i photograph isnt what i can see though, im not sure what im doing wrong, any advice.

Following pictures were of (first 2) the moon, bright stars etc

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Kathrine

[richardtheboffin]

I would say focus!

The point of focus for an eye piece and a camera is different, so if the image is in focus when you look through your scope, it will be out of focus when you put the camera on.

I assume you are attaching the camera to the telescope in place of the eyepiece and not trying to photograph through the eyepiece?

[Cornelius Varley]

Your photographs look out of focus. What sort of camera did you use and what method of photographing (prime focus, afocal or eyepiece projection) The exposure details could be useful too.

Peter

[kate16265]

I sort of thought that, but how can I focus the camera if it has no lens? I got advised by the shop I brought the telescope from to get a t ring adapter to go on the camera in place of the lens and then some adapter that screws onto that and goes not he scope instead of the eyepiece. I have an Olympus e500. Changed the settings to manual as per a website I looked on, so ISO was 1600, WB was the tungsten bulb etc. It's probably really easy and I'm being stupid but how do I focus? I'm looking through the eyepiece and getting my image in perfect view, then I'm taking out the eyepiece and slotting in the camera......

[kate16265]

And Thankyou for the responses, I'm itching to get back outside and take an amazing picture!

[richardtheboffin]

There you go! The telescope has to be re-focused.

with the camera on.

You will need to look through the camera viewfinder if it's an SLR or look on the lcd screen while you re-adjust the focus of the telescope.

Ideally you need a thing called a par-focal eyepiece which is an eyepiece that is set up with the same focus as your camera.

Getting the telescope in focus with the camera attached is a pain but keep at it!

[kate16265]

Thankyou, I will go try it now!

[bntwillis]

Post some pictures when you do.

[kate16265]

Wow it's hard to see if I'm focusing through the tiny window! And the display screen only shows the image once you have taken the picture, but it's looking more refined. However I have been beaten by the clouds so no stars in sight now. Will try again tomorrow night with a bigger target! (the moon!) hopefully I will get a good one to post. Thanks again!!

[richardtheboffin]

You should be able to switch the camera to some kind of 'live view' or 'mirror lockup' which will show what the camera is seeing on the screen. You can then zoom the image on the screen to get the focus set right.

[themos]

The eyepiece is a magnifying glass, essentially. It is used to magnify the image that the telescope produces somewhere inside the focuser tube. When you put the camera in the focuser you are trying to get the sensor of the camera right on that image. So you have to make the Skymax throw its focus point farther out, using its focusing knob. Reflectors and refractors have a fixed focus point, so their focusers are just a moveable barrel.

[sabana]

From what I remember the E500 has no live view. Herein is your biggest problem. Trying to gain accurate focus through a tiny 4/3rds viewfinder in nigh on impossible. I would recommend either taking video through an eyepeice without mounting the camera or upgrading to a liveview camera.

[Tinker1947]

You could use a Banotov mask to assist with focusing your camera, but if the stars are not really bright its not so good, i focus as best i can through the view finder, take a shot 30 seconds, look at the shot in the rear view screen zoom in if your camera has that option, then the plan it to find the out of focus point either side of true focus, say half a turn on the focus knob so you get it in the sweet spot nicely focused, i can do this in a couple of minutes with my camera you could also do with one of these items from e-bay this link is for a remote that says it suits your camera but will be posted from China, mine took 9 days post free, there may be uk supplies but the unit is well worth getting as you won't have to touch the camera when taking shots.....

Timer Remote Control O1 For Olympus SP-565 UZ SP-590 E400 E410 E420 E450 E500 | eBay

[Tinker1947]

Apologies if you know already but you will need to download "Deep Sky Stacker" so when you have mastered taking picture you will know what to do with them, that's were the remote control come in, take 20 X 45 second images the use DSS to put them all together, there is a good help file in DSS have a read then have a try....

DeepSkyStacker - Free

[brucen]

Kathrine, I took my first pics using a digital camera on Thursday. This is one of the moon which I am not too embarrassed to publish! I could not get anything when operating the shutter manually but things improved when I used the remote. Getting the focus right was a nightmare through the viewfinder but I just adjusted the focuser bit by bit and snapped away. I took about 50 and only 3 or 4 were half decent but thats the beauty of digital - you can just delete what you don't want and try again. Good luck!

[kate16265]

Kathrine, I took my first pics using a digital camera on Thursday. This is one of the moon which I am not too embarrassed to publish! I could not get anything when operating the shutter manually but things improved when I used the remote. Getting the focus right was a nightmare through the viewfinder but I just adjusted the focuser bit by bit and snapped away. I took about 50 and only 3 or 4 were half decent but thats the beauty of digital - you can just delete what you don't want and try again. Good luck!

Your pic is amazing, I'm going to keep at it and hopefully succeed as well as you!

[kate16265]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I will keep at it and hopefully do better! I'm also looking into the remote shutter thing. Also I have already downloaded the DSS app as I read it on another forum on here but haven't managed to take pictures worth using with it yet ! Thanks again

Kathrine

[michael8554]

For the moon I'd say ISO 1600 is way too high, this is what you would use for a 30 second exposure of a faint nebula.

Go down to ISO 100 say and try a range of exposures from 1/100 to 1/1000 sec. If you get best exposure at say 1/100 try again at ISO 400 and 1/500 exposure, this will reduce camera shake.

[brucen]

The picture I posted above was taken at ISO 800 for 1/5sec using remote shutter. I have had slightly better results since at ISO 200 but don't know if that was purely the settings or the fact that the moon didn't appear to be quite as bright. I think Michael is right, the best way is to take a range at different settings. Trouble is that they all seem to look good on the camera screen but not always so good when they go on the pc!

[Tinker1947]

This is a single image, taken with a Meade LT-6 and my Camera attached to the focuser, will try to look up the shutter speed ect, but the info should be in the jpeg/info

[kate16265]

Ok so i have been out for an hour tonight before my camera batteries ran out, have listened to everyones advice (thankyou again!) and got this far.... so much better but hoping to get pictures like the rest of you soon!!!

[Tinker1947]

Now that's better...

[kate16265]

Thank you

can't wait to get more camera batteries and get back out there. One thing I have discovered is I need to invest in some thermal undies, brrrrr it's chilly out there tonight!

Also why is my image blue and others are white/grey...

I did buy a moon filter but forgot in my excitement to use it.

Any other suggestions for a newbie, now I have figured out how to focus welcome!

Kathrine

[proflight2000]

Give you one ideal and it is warmer. Take your camera inside and take photographs of one of your lights in manual setting. Start at the top and work your way down through the shutter speeds until you see a photograph that best represents what youd like to see. It gives you an idea of the limitations and the expectaions of your camera, it also will give you at first hand how to deal with very bright objects, like earthshine etc.

The blue in your photos could be caused by the white balance setting on your camera if it has one as i dont know the particular model. Normally the white balance is automatic, try taking again some pictures of that light bulb and see what happens, you can normally change the white balance to a particular lighting scenario.

[barkis]

Hi Kate,

I have an Olympus E500 Camera, and I imaged the moon with it, albeit via a 6" f8 refractor at prime focus.

Here's the pic.

Ron.