Afocal photography - help with point and shoot camera

[DrNeb]

Hi all,

Im using a bracket attached to my eyepiece to get some very basic shots. We got a new camera for our honeymoon and i thought i'd give it a whirl on the bracket.

the problem being.. the camera seems to be far too intelligent for it's own good and takes lovely snaps of the secondary mirror! when i finally manage to get the moon in shot, you can see a dark muddy cloud in the center of the photo.

any advice regarding settings for the camera? it's a sony hx20v.

Any input would be very very welcome. on the few rare occasions that i managed to nab a photo you could easily see the difference in quality over my old one so i am very keen on getting this working.

many thanks all.

Ben

[Cornelius Varley]

If you have the moon focused correctly in the eyepiece the camera's own automatic focus should be able to focus on the moon.

Peter

[nightfisher]

I do A-focal and i have found the auto focus on most camera`s a right pain, i now use a pentax optio T30 point and shoot on the camera support bracket, the T30 has the option to manual focus, so stopping it from "hunting" it also has remote shutter that i use. Here is an example of my work, taken with the T30 and 80mm f11 vixen

[DrNeb]

really nice shot. I tried the manual option. but its just black. no picture on the screen. i will probably have to have another tinker with it.

cheers for your help.

[nightfisher]

what camera is it that you are using

Doh! you listed it in first post

Okay just googled the camera, and while its a superb camera, i would say its not best suited to lunar a-focal work, it has a huge lens, that will not work in your favour, just a suggestion but you could pick up a used pentax optio on feebay, for not a lot of money, and use it for a while to get used to the lunar work, no need to pay more than about £25 for one, then you have a dedicated lunar camera, that wont hurt if you drop it in the dark! hope this helps

[DrNeb]

Well i have an old Kodak - really low quality thought I will Google the Pentax! I was struggling with the hugeeee zooom on the sony. thanks for the tip.

[DrNeb]

This was the result from my little kodak.

would the pentax produce better results?

[nightfisher]

This was the result from my little kodak.

would the pentax produce better results?

Thats a pretty good shot, maybe stick with the kodak, and keep the other camera for days out and such, would not like to say if a pentax will better the kodak

[DrNeb]

Thank you Nightfisher for your help with this. I think i will stick with the kodak for now. on a slightly different topic, i noticed on your profile that you have a tal 100rs? I have been tossing and turning over getting that scope for over a year.. I saw that shot by luis using the sony a350? some were single shots?! not stacked and they looked tremendous.

How do you like the tal?

[nightfisher]

Thank you Nightfisher for your help with this. I think i will stick with the kodak for now. on a slightly different topic, i noticed on your profile that you have a tal 100rs? I have been tossing and turning over getting that scope for over a year.. I saw that shot by luis using the sony a350? some were single shots?! not stacked and they looked tremendous.

How do you like the tal?

If im totally honest the Tal100RS is a tremendous scope, i have a 180 pro mak that is stunning, but i tend to use the 100rs most, its a really good al rounder, it is not a magic scope, it will show a little false colour on Venus and Jupiter, and it will show a tiny amount of pale yellow at the edge of the lunar view/ image Yes that image from Luis is a stunner, i saved that to my laptop with his permission, if you have the money spare go for it, while FLO have them in stock

[DrNeb]

Thank you Nightfisher, I really appreciate your tips and experience. Great stuff.