Skywatcher Evostar150 and Canon 1000D DSLR Help Please

[MustangMarkF]

Hi All,

After lots and lots of saving and lack of a holiday for a couple of years I finally got enough cash together to get a Skywatcher Evostar150, a HEQ5Pro goto mount, a revelation eyepiece set inc balow, and a EOS adapter and T piece. This is my first scope - though I have been spending the last few years using bins to feed my star gazing needs! But essentially I am a complete noob to this.

Ive already set up the scope and seen some gobsmacking views of the sky - despite being cursed with cloudy skies almost every night since I got the scope! Tonight there was a lovely view Jupiter and its moons that I would have loved to have shared and there in lays my problem.

I know long term I will be looking at a laptop and a webcam for producing decent images but after sepnding all my hard earned on the scope etc - that will have to wait. At the moment I would just be happy being able to produce some so so images through the scope.

Ive tried twice now - once at the moon (figured it was a bright big thing that even I couldn't miss) and once again tonight at jupiter. On both occasions my intention was to remove the lens from the DSLR and screw in the adapter and T piece and place it were the eyepiece was - then to use the screen at the back of the 1000D and focus in on the target and then use the zoom buttons to gain a closer look and fine tune the focus. However, the problem is the screen is just showing black - nothing on it at all - so nothing to focus in on.

On both occasions I've moved the focus wheel all the way back and forth to see if it pics up anything without luck. Ive then removed the diagonal and put the T piece in the end of the scope to see if that has any effect - again without luck.

• Is my methodology wrong?
  
• Does my camera really need to be modded? (hope not as I do a fair amount of normal photography and would like to keep the camera for that)
  
• Have I got a setting on the camera wrong? (am trying at ISO800 and 1600) Havent got as far as setting apature of fiddling with shutter speeds yet.
  
• Or am I missing something else and just being a complete noob??!
  

Thanks for taking the time to read - and if you can provide any tips I'd be very grateful! In the meantime Im going to warm up with a rum!

Cheers (searches smilie list for rum like icon and sees only coffee - devasted!!)

[Bizibilder]

Have you enabled "live view"? You have to set this first and then have the camera in the correct mode (not auto - I think, just manual). You should then see an image on the screen. It's all explained in the manual, if you don't have one let us know and we can put the instructions here for you.

[MustangMarkF]

Hi Bizi - thanks for taking the time to repsond

Yep live view enabled and the little white square indicating its on is showing. You are right - live view doesnt work in any of the auto modes just manuel

[Bizibilder]

This might sound daft but are you sure that you had the Moon in the field of view? It is actually quite easy to "miss" it! (Not that I would ever have done that when I was starting out)

[MustangMarkF]

LOL possibly not 100% of the time!! Seriously yes I checked the view with the eyepiece and the finderscope prior to removing the eyepiece and then again through the finderscope when I had attached the T piece.

This evening there was no moon so after not seeing jupiter through the live view- I moved the scope about a bit and tried to see some (any) of the stars around the area of Orion - nothing at all - not a fleck

PS Ive been looking at your sun pics for some time - VERY impressive! Maybe I should point the scope and cam at the big yellow ball - see if it picks that up! (I do have astrosolar filter!)

[MustangMarkF]

Just a quick update...

Last night was the first night its been relatively cloudless and the moon visible so I took athe scope and camera out again and had a good ol fiddle with the camera settings while pointing the scope at the moon.

Eventually I saw a very faint disk of light through the live view- so faint I nearly missed it completely. After a bit of focusing the light became brighter but still very out of focus. I then tried taking out the diagonal and putting the T piece directly through the lens and voila...

I still cant see any stars or planets via the live view yet but at least I have some progress.

[Bizibilder]

Well done! Things will start to progress more rapidly once you are used to operating your equipment.

[MustangMarkF]

Cheers Bizi!

Im not sure what the next steps will be- maybe some more practice on the moon before i try to aim the scope at some planets. Need to clean out the grease in the focuser too - getting a fine focus is a real pain.

Not sure why i cant see any else through live view yet... but i shall keep playing. Thanks again for the help

[Bizibilder]

Try taking 30-60 shots of the Moon and stacking them (In Registax5) - you will notice the difference!

[MustangMarkF]

I was thinking of doing just that!! Though given the forecast it may have to wait a while!

[Shibby]

Hi Mark, glad you got a result in the end!

Live view can be quite faint, only the planets and brightest stars are visible normally. Just make sure the finderscope is well aligned to the main scope and you should have no trouble getting planets within the FOV of your camera. If you believe the focus to be about right but still can't see anything, take a quick 15s exposure - you should see plenty of stars.

• Does my camera really need to be modded? (hope not as I do a fair amount of normal photography and would like to keep the camera for that)
• Have I got a setting on the camera wrong? (am trying at ISO800 and 1600) Havent got as far as setting apature of fiddling with shutter speeds yet.
  

The only real reason to mod the camera is to capture more of the ha band of light given off by emission nebula when doing long-exposure DSO photography. So you will probably be wanting to do this in due course, but it won't make any difference to the planetary and lunar imaging you are currently having a go at.

I modded my 450d, but replaced the internal filter with a Baader one. AF still works well and I use it for normal, daytime photography as well as AP.

ISO800 or 1600 should be fine, but you can't change the aperture - this is now determined by the scope which is now your lens, so 150mm in your case.