keeping hold of objects in FOV

[marshy123]

After much practice I have got a lot better at locating objects using the red dot finder and have so far managed to find the Moon, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Polaris in my Red Dot Finder then zero in on them in the eyepiece.

I can do this easily with a 25mm EP, a 10mm EP, and my SPC900nc which I believe is roughly a 6mm EP. The problem is I want to try my webcam with Barlow to get things like Saturn a bit bigger. Try as I might, I can't do this. I get Saturn (for example) in the RDF, hit it with the webcam, get it centered perfectly on screen, start the tracking, then remove the webcam and re-insert with Barlow and it is nowhere to be seen.

Does anyone have any tips for a better way to do this? I suspect I am moving something when I take out the cam and put it back in which is only becoming an issue with an effective 3mm EP of the SPC with x2 Barlow.

I have dimmed my RDF as much as possible and refine it occasionally- I think it's got pretty well aligned by now.

cheers

Chris

[daz]

Can you get the webcam working without the barlow?

[marshy123]

Can you get the webcam working without the barlow?

Yup, no problems at all. Done some imaging and stacking with much joy!

[KevG]

Had you adjusted your camera settings after inserting the barlow? the image will be much fainter via the barlow, hence you need increase exposure/gain and adjust focus accordingly

[marshy123]

Ah! Thanks, I will give that a try. I was using the same camera settings. Cheers.

[marshy123]

Ah! Thanks, I will give that a try. I was using the same camera settings. Cheers.

[Moonshane]

I am not an imager but maybe you could set up and then put the scope 'in front' of the object and wait for it to catch you up?

[knobby]

I am not an imager but maybe you could set up and then put the scope 'in front' of the object and wait for it to catch you up?

Love a bit of ' lateral ' thinking