what to get next

[Si Rollett]

As you can see from my signature below I only have the basics, been trying to work out what's best to buy next short or longer eps, filter barrow or a compact digital camera mount to give taking shots of the moon ago?

[Si Rollett]

As you can see from my signature below I only have the basics, been trying to work out what's best to buy next short or longer eps, filter barrow or a compact digital camera mount to give taking shots of the moon ago?

What to get everything I can out of this little scope

[Aenima]

Hello Si,

From my signature you can see I recently moved on from a small scope, and in the complete absence of any chance you could upgrade - as aperture is everything - then yes, I would suggest your idea of attaching a small digital camera via a £30 adapter would give you photo opportunies of the moon at least. Just be aware that it is a bit of extra weight so be sure you have a stable enough set-up first. With a small refractor like yours more powerful eyepieces would only out do the aperture giving you fuzzy views and frustration, so unless your budget allows a bigger scope taking a few choice shots of the moon (and occasional conjunctions of planets or big bright stuff like that) would give you something to be going on with.

Then you can try editing pics with a laptop and photoshop if you have it?

Good luck either way,

Regards

Jay

Edit - if your technically minded the modded webcam choice of photography is an amazing value and (once modified) the webcam is easy to use and lighter than a camera + adapter, plus it works instead of an eyepiece so it could improve your views. Just a thought..

[Si Rollett]

Hello Si,

From my signature you can see I recently moved on from a small scope, and in the complete absence of any chance you could upgrade - as aperture is everything - then yes, I would suggest your idea of attaching a small digital camera via a £30 adapter would give you photo opportunies of the moon at least. Just be aware that it is a bit of extra weight so be sure you have a stable enough set-up first. With a small refractor like yours more powerful eyepieces would only out do the aperture giving you fuzzy views and frustration, so unless your budget allows a bigger scope taking a few choice shots of the moon (and occasional conjunctions of planets or big bright stuff like that) would give you something to be going on with.

Then you can try editing pics with a laptop and photoshop if you have it?

Good luck either way,

Regards

Jay

Edit - if your technically minded the modded webcam choice of photography is an amazing value and (once modified) the webcam is easy to use and lighter than a camera + adapter, plus it works instead of an eyepiece so it could improve your views. Just a thought..

Got photo shop and was looking at the mods for web cams, but think I may need better eps before taking any type of photo's?

But think I will go for the mount first.

[Aenima]

Is it that your current mount wont carry a camera? I think out of the options in your first post the filters or EP's wouldn't upgrade as much as you'd like buut certainly wouldn't go amiss, if they are good quality. These will also be useful to keep if you get a bigger scope, to use later on.

With my smaller telescope the eyepieces didn't help as the max was already reach by using a 2x barlow, maybe a good barlow is an option?

I found i'd outgrown my scope very quickly, but money is always a issue.

Jay

[Si Rollett]

Is it that your current mount wont carry a camera? I think out of the options in your first post the filters or EP's wouldn't upgrade as much as you'd like buut certainly wouldn't go amiss, if they are good quality. These will also be useful to keep if you get a bigger scope, to use later on.

With my smaller telescope the eyepieces didn't help as the max was already reach by using a 2x barlow, maybe a good barlow is an option?

I found i'd outgrown my scope very quickly, but money is always a issue.

Jay

That's the thing money and also wish Id save a little more and get a better one to start but will get the most out of the one I have. Think the mount will hold the compact cam I have. Will get a mount then assess the eps that came with the scope.

[JamesM]

If you want to perform any imaging with the kit that you already have, I would suggest you go down the webcam route. It is the easiest way of gathering as many images in the shortest amount of time given that your mount has no tracking motors. You then subtract the poor 'frames' (out of focus & blurred) and stack the remaining good frames on top of each other, using some free software called 'Registax' to create a final composite image with plenty of detail. The thing to remember here, is that taking single exposures using a camera that is attempting to focus through all of the earth's turbulent atmosphere is extremely difficult and a bit of hit and miss affair. There are plenty of free software programs that you can use to enhance and improve upon the data collected, such as Sharpcap, Wx Astrocapture and Craterlet. In fact imaging this way can be performed on nearly any scope and is certainly the easiest way to capture details on our solar system objects.

Imaging deep sky objects (DSO's) such as galaxies and nebulae requires a slightly different approach and here the emphasis will always be on the mount and its tracking accuracy. As the mount's accuracy improves, so does the ability to perform longer exposures on objects that are extremely faint when compared to the planets and the moon. Hope that helps.

James

[Si Rollett]

Was going to try using the digital cameras video? Would that not work?