Astrophotography advice

[Alanmads]

I have been attempting a little astrophotography with my canon 350d and my konusmotor 130, and before anyone starts....i know the konus is a big hairy bag of puppy poo! lol Please dont rub in the fact i didnt research enough before i bought it lol (although, as a starter i am still amazed at what i can see.........it has enabled me to fall in love with the night sky and want more!!!)

My issue is, i have been recently advised that although DSLR astrophotography can produce exceptional results, it is also incredibly dificult, specially when attemting to achieve focus and combined with the 'lovely' scope i have i am at the end of my tether and frustrated.

It was recommended that i try using a CCD or web cam as they are a lot easier when attempting to achive focus and generally all round a bit simpler to use but can provide even better results than a DSLR.

Is this true? and if so, can enyone recommend a cheap as chips option that will privide reasonable results?

Reason it needs to be cheap is i have spent (in my partners eyes) a small fortune already and my hobby spending in now being scrutinised by her lol

Any advice (other than dumping the Mrs which ive considered)?

*******just in case my mrs reads this.......................erm.............i sent this message on behalf of my mate Dave. Love you babe

[cosmojaydee]

Hi Alan , there is in depth discussions here Imaging - Tips, Tricks and Techniques, you will probably find all you need

[cosmojaydee]

oops sorry , so much for copy and paste

[Andy P]

Hi Alan

Sorry but I'm not familiar with your setup but what I would say is I'm new to astrophotography as well and had big problems with getting a good focus with my canon d600. I ended up buying one of these which now I can get a good focus easy within 5mins... You cam also make your own by downloading a template that suites your size scope but I'm not sure where to get that from.

Here's where I bought mine from http://www.firstlightoptics.com/bahtinov-focus-masks/starsharp-bahtinov-focus-masks.html

Sorry I can't help you anymore than this but I'm sure someone will come along soon that will.

Regards Andy

[Stargazer33]

Hi Alan,

The link on how to make your own bahtinov mask can be found here. There is a link on the page to the calculator that works out the exact pattern for your size of scope.

I am not familiar with your scope, but if it is difficult to achieve focus or the optical train is not particularly good then you will not achieve better focus simply by using a camera, of any sort.

Have you considered mounting the DSLR on top of the OTA and doing wide field astrophotography with a stock camera lens? I am presuming here that you have a tracking mount!

[Aenima]

Hello Alan,

From what I have seen the konus has a resemblance to orion or skywatcher in the design, but you will probably have more trouble due to size and stability of the mount than from what is likely a perfectly good telescope.

You have the equivalent of the skywatcher 130p and I'm guessing a motor driven eq mount, the motor is a great start if you intend to keep/use this set-up for photography - but as for which camera, webcams and dslr's are used for two seperate things -- webcam is for planets and moon, dslr is deepsky so it depends on the type of target you want to capture. With your set-up the moon is an easy and enjoyable target, and jupiter too. Webcams will pick up bright stuff whereas the canon dslr can be attached directly (with 130mm reflectors sometimes the actual focuser wont go inwards enough to achieve focus - if this is your problem you might want to research the issue further, its an old problem) to your scope to get faint deepsky objects, this is where you need motors and equatorial mounts to track things across the sky for long exposure photography. (piggyback on the outside of the scope also works well with driven eq mount)

A cheap webcam option is the philips - if you can track one down 2nd hand - spc900/880 which is excellent for planets, or converting something like it - ms lifecam cinema, - (a very cheap option is xbox live though quality will suffer) or logitech quickcam, ps3 eye cam - ebay is good for these.

And you already have a dfslr? Keep this if you can, they are brilliant devices for deep space imaging - and the technique is not too difficult once you read up on it. For your 350d to work the mount stability and weight limit are what is important, after making sure your scopes focuser gets the camera in the right ballpark.

HTH

Regards

Aenima

[glowjet]

Alan, you have been put on the trail of the Bhatinov mask to help assist in focusing your DLSR, before you spend even more of your hard earned pennies, a simple home made Y mask with the Y part at around 40° and the arms and leg to a width of 3.5mm to 4mm cut from a black plastic document cover should suit your 1000mm fl scope, this is used quite successfully by many as an alternative to a full blown Bhatinov, just hang it over the end of your scope and focus on a very bright star, this should result in a diffraction image of an X bisected by a vertical when focus has been achieved. I am sure your good lady will approve of the financial outlay

John.

[ollypenrice]

CCD cameras do greatly out perform DSLRs. DSLRs begin to approach CCD quality when used in very fast telescopes. However, CCD gear is phenomenally expensive and any astrophotographic setup begins with the mount. Those go from merely expensive to slightly boggling - as in three times the price of my present car when new. So... I'd say use what you have and see if you escape becoming an imaging addict. Focus is easy enough with a Bahtinov mask. I find Y masks potentially confusing in reflectors because the spider vanes also produce spikes but since they cost about 50P to make they'd be worth a try.

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=1793644788&k=r8HTK72

[Ags]

I can't imagine how a CCD would be easier to focus than a DSLR... You are still focusing the same optics. All the camera is doing is showing the results of your focusing efforts???

[ollypenrice]

I can't imagine how a CCD would be easier to focus than a DSLR... You are still focusing the same optics. All the camera is doing is showing the results of your focusing efforts???

I'd agree, assuming that you had the DSLR rigged up into a software giving FWHM. This is still the most accurate method for me at my site though some UK imagers find the reading can jump around too much.

Olly

[Tinker1947]

From my limited experience, i can focus my 1100D in a matter of seconds if it has a bright'ish star in its FOV, so it goes 2 stabs on the Liveview Mag button, the focusor it close to its focal point, centre the star in Liveview then focus, that's it, with my CCD i'm still very much learning, i have the focal point the focusor needs to be at, using FWHM i need to go back and forth from the warm room to the scope set outside (i can get out and back in the 7 seconds image time), so i have been setting a 7 second image and properly to dim a Star, getting a high FWHM below 10k and the low FWHM around 4, this i jig about up and down with the focusor, now to my mind a electronic focusor would really help, my SW suppiled focusor isn't really up tp it, it moves if i lock it up so and it its not locked the weight in it tube leads to slippage, the Moonlite CR2 is still a back-order. Add to all this the limited time weather and other Astro viewing (my main past time) and the Lodestar sent back and waiting for a replacement, i haven't spent more than a hour or so trying out FWHM or the CCD, but at the moment i would swing to the DSLR is a lot easier to focus than a CCD....