First Attempt At Photography... not entirely successful. Advice Please!

[basisdnb]

Can anyone give me some advice on photography? I tried taking some photos of the moon today with a digital camera attached to my telescope for the first time and they didn't come out all that well. I found it extremely hard to focus in on the moon.

Is there anyway of using any of the lenses I have? Or can I just photograph with the camera attached to the t adapter attached to the telescope?

I have a Canon EOS 400d attached to an Astromaster 130 EQ. I'm not really familiar with the camera I'm using, I'm borrowing it off my sister.

I'm new to all this, any help would be really appreciated.

This was taken on auto with the t adapter lense removed and replaced with a moon filter.

This was taken on auto with the t adapter lense replaced.

[basisdnb]

So how can I get sharp photos, that's basically what I want to know.

[Ags]

Leave off the moon filter - that is only needed for visual use. The camera can adjust for the brightness by shutter speed.

It is hard to focus on the full moon as there are no high contrast features. If your camera has live view, use that to zoom in on the moon's edge - when the edge is sharp you are in focus. I'm assuming the camera is attached to the scope by the t ring, which is te usual way to do it.

The moon will not seem perfectly sharp even if your focus is perfect - remember you are shooting through the entire atmosphere! The sharp pictures you see online are composed of hundreds or thousands of images taken with a high frame rate camera and then stacked together using software. But you can get lucky with a DSLR... On lucky nights the rippling air turns to glass :-)

[BlueAstra]

Use live view if it has it and manual focus. Tweak the focus and try to take some shots at different focus settings, with luck some should be sharp.

[Velvet]

focus is very difficult with camera straight into OTA. I found with only a tiny adjustment i went past the focus point and did not even notice

It needs very fine adjustment to get it right. Very tiny adjustment and it took me ages.

Perseverance is the answer and very very tiny focus adjustments, Live view helps

Velvet

[g7vhj]

On A very similar note, I tried using a dlsr tonight with a t mount on an olympus e500.

I can't get even close to focus, the t-mount is inserted fully into the scope and with the focusing rack all the way down I manage to get a very blurry view.

i don't have live view so having to focus through camera eyepiece.

Scope is also a celestron 130eqmd.

it is as if I can't get the camera mirror close enough to the focuser rack.

Any ideas please, and I'm happy to have pm's sent so I don't hi jack this thread.

I tried using the camera A focal with no lens just the nose of the adapter and held against a 10 mm eyepiece the image was fantastic

regards Pete.

[allcart]

You could connect the camera to your laptop if you have one and use the big screen to help you focus. You need EOS utility installed.

[g7vhj]

Thanks Allan but I'm not sure that will solve the focus issue.

But will give it a go as i have pinched my sons camera for now and I know he will want it back!

[rowan46]

The 130 eq by celestron is the same scope as the skywatcher 130p (or nearly) many people have reported problems with focussing a dslr on the 130p and skywatcher have addressed this by releasing the 130p ds. I don't think this is anything you are doing wrong I think it's the scope. you may get better photo's using a cheaper camera and going afocal or even better a webcam.

[g7vhj]

Thanks for the reply. I do normally use a webcam but as i had the adapter i thought i would give it a go.

A focal is something i have been playing with and achieving fairly good results.

I am almost at the point of thinking that i should maybe go through a barlow lens to see if that improves things but then i would not get the full disk of the moon.

Regards Pete.

[Astrosurf]

I focus using a Bahtinov mask on a bright star like Vega, lock my focuser (if you can do that on yours) then go to the Moon. I did that with a webcam but it's the same with a DSLR. I zoom in on liveview with my DSLR to see the B mask spikes better. I don't know if that would work with your set-up! Give it a try maybe??

[glowjet]

As you have live view on the camera you can try a simple mask, without going to the expense of purchasing a Bahtinov mask you could first of all try a basic black plastic Y, cut from a black plastic document case cover, cut the Y not more than 4mm wide for both the arms of the Y and leg, the Y part should be about 40° apart, cut the Y large enough to fit centrally over the aperture of the scope, focus will be achieved when after pointing at a bright star, the diffraction pattern of an X which should show on your screen is bisected by a vertical. Or, if you just want to see if it will work, then get some thick coat-hanger wire and make into a Y pattern, if the wire is about an 1/8" thick you should get the same effect as described above HTH

John.

[g7vhj]

thanks both but reading through another thread on here it seem that my particular scope suffers with prime focus issues.

I had problems initially with a web cam but managed to get around it by getting the sensor closer to the focuser.

regards pete.