Could use some advice on photography / drifting & other stuff

[dav1d]

Hi there astronomers,

I'm about three days old with astronomy having bought a Sky-Watcher Heritage 130p from scopes & skies last week.

I've been having a whale of a time so far but there are a couple ofthings that I'm finding a little annoying that I hope you can help with. So here goes...

First off, everything I focus on zips out of shot within a few minutes. I am aware that the earth is rotating, but it seems awfully fast, how can I tell if it's the earth rotating or the telescope slipping and sliding?

Second, Mars and venus are too small to see any detail with my 10mm or 25mm. A 2x Barlow is 'to follow' from scopes n skies, so while waiting I found a youtube tutorial on how to adapt a webcam with the aid of a film canister to make a digital imaging thingy. I've taken (what I think are) some wicked shots of the moon such as this one: http://seasidenews.org/hiddenstuff/2012-03-26-200649.jpg which at least proves it works. But the planets are far too bright to see anything of interest. Yes I'm in a built up area, but the glare is coming off the planets themselves and is ferocious. The absolute best I've managed, with the brightness turned right down on the webcam software, is this: http://seasidenews.org/hiddenstuff/2012-03-28-212614.jpg

I know that this is a £140 scope & not the HST, but I've seen pics produced by other people on the forum with a 130 reflector & they're pretty damn good.

In short, I'm after some basic things I'm missing, which will help me achieve better results.

[Tribal-Wolf]

It will be difficult to get good shots with a push dob but people do get them. I don't know what cam you're using but both your pics seem over exposed to me. If you are using sharpcap then copy and paste your settings so people can comment and maybe help you with that. You mention a barlow, make sure it's a half decent barlow or you will be wasting your time if you want reasonably sharp images, the TAL barlow is about the best bang for your buck. At high mag the image will cross you field of view in a couple of seconds which is why auto tracking is very helpful and to a point a necessity for astro photography. You will get some nights better for seeing then others for planets like Mars and it will never fill your EP unless you have a secret code to get into Hubble. Try to walk before you run and read as much as you can, there is a book called Making Every Photon Coun which people recommend although I have not seen so can't vouch for it myself.

[dav1d]

Thanks tribal wolf. It's a £7.99 Trust webcam from Wilkinson & the default 'Cheese' webcam software that comes as standard with Easy Peasy Linux. I've just downloaded wxastroCapture, which will let me change the exposure, but to be honest, I'm not expecting great things from the webcam. The anticipated Barlow is supposed to come as a free gift with the telescope, so I have no idea until it arrives.

I see what you mean about objects crossing the FOV in a few seconds on high mag, with the de-lensed webcam in, it's about twenty seconds tops.

I'll experiment over the weekend if the w**ther holds...

TBH, I think it would be easier and possivly yield more viewable results if I moved towards afocal photography rather than go through the whole line it up with the 10mm; quickly swap the lens out and replace with the webcam; refocus by shortening the flextube barrel; attempt to snap before the object moves out of the FOV.

With that in mind, is THIS worth buying?

[dav1d]

FYI, I have replied to this at some length, but the post is being moderated for some reason. Just posting this so you don't think I'm being rude by not replying...

David

[marshy123]

Right, first attempt at posting help so apologies if it's rubbish. Being also new to this I feel your pain. Glad you are also enjoying yourself though. Great isn't it? Here's what has helped me, if it's way off I'm sure someone will jump in and warn you!

First off, everything I focus on zips out of shot within a few minutes. I am aware that the earth is rotating, but it seems awfully fast, how can I tell if it's the earth rotating or the telescope slipping and sliding?

Try a lower power (bigger number) eyepiece. Worked for me. With my 10mm EP everything zooms past but with the 25 I get things in view for much longer. Helpful because it takes me ages to do stuff as I am new to this.

Could also be balance. Never set up a dob but balancing slowly and carefully really helped me. I balanced mine in daylight (well away from the sun) by focusing on a lamp post way off in the distance. Once this was in the centre of the EP I left the RA and DEC locks totally loose. I knew it was balanced when the lamppost was still there half an hour later. Took pretty much a whole afternoon.

Second, Mars and venus are too small to see any detail with my 10mm or 25mm. A 2x Barlow is 'to follow' from scopes n skies

I think a Barlow will most likely make everything rush past even more quickly, I wonder if the key is to expose for longer rather than get closer? Tracking nightmare though. Lack of detail could also be lack of focus which I think is my problem. Keep 'em peeled for an update on a DIY super- low budget micro focuser which I'm working on at the moment.

But the planets are far too bright to see anything of interest

If you have a toucam/philips type webcam, might be worth getting one of the 'proper' eyepiece adaptor kits. Mine was about a fiver. This has a threaded end which lets you put filters on it, for example I have a polarising lunar filter that was just under £10. You stick it on the webcam thread and you can twist it to block out more/less of the light/glare. Not had much experience with it yet but it helped a bit on the moon.

I know that this is a £140 scope & not the HST, but I've seen pics produced by other people on the forum with a 130 reflector & they're pretty damn good.

Yeah man, know that feeling. I'm trying to be patient. I'm absolutely new to this but it seems the slower I go and the longer I spend on things the better the results. I've already seen an improvement in the last week just by simplifying and slowing down. Perhaps that's just me though!

BTW that moon pic was cool. Quite bright tho, which a lunar filter would probably help with? Also probably turn down the gain and/or brightness and/or shutter a bit??? WcCtrl (freeware) is pretty sweet for this.

That's my two penneth. You might want to wait for a grown up to chip in first though, I could be way off!!!

Good luck dude and stick with it.

Chris

[marshy123]

p.s. I'm such a noob I had to look up HST. Where do you buy those?