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Clear Skies and my first look


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We finally have some crystal clear skies tonight so I got out the scope. It's not much more than a toy, Powerseeker 70 with and EQ tripod. Trying to get oriented and figure out the controls on the tripod was , well challenging. I did mange to get things situated enough where I could find the Orion Nebula as well as Jupiter and a few moons. I think there were four showing, but I'm not real sure. It was chilly, but I did have a good time. Even with a cheap scope the view is much better than with the naked eye or even binos. I was amazed that even with this scope the number of stars that can be seen. Trying to find the Orion Nebula was an experience because I couldn't see the star patterns with my naked eye to line up with what I was seeing in the EP.Has anybody noticed there are lots of stars? :shocked: The sky is a pretty amazing place.

I did experiment by attaching a Canon 600D (T3i) just to see what would happen. I have it set so the mirror is open to try and avoid camers shake and avoid getting streaks instead of dots. It's better than a telephoto, but not by much. I think I'm getting movement when the shutter closes. Almost any camera would probably be too much for this scope and tripod, but it sure didn't cost anything to try.

I see better scopes, a good tripod and probably a web camera in the future.

Thanks to all of you that have posted. There is a ton of reading and learning to be had here.

Jeff

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Great read Jeff. Glad you're out there enjoying the dark. And dont regard your scope as a toy, many times the best scope is the one that's easier to use.

Regarding photography, as you might have read already you need a motorized tracking mount to take pictures of fainter objects, but with your current setup you should be able to take good pictures of the moon, and have a go at filming jupiter in crop mode, especially if you can attatcha barlow in between you should be able to have a chance at getting some material you could stack in Registax.

We all want better scopes, but we shouldn't be discouraged to try doing stuff with what we already have.

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Glad you had a good night Jeff, there are soooooo many stars out there...

Good to hear you having a go at AP, you dont know what will happen until you try it :) To be honest, your mount probably isnt up to the job of carrying that sort of weight... There are so many other factors why your image probably came out the way it did, like polar alignment and tracking, but they are all things that you will learn and get sorted along the way.

Keep enjoying them clear skies

Keiran

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Hi Jeff, yeah, the number of stars you can see, compared to the naked eye is amazing isn't it! Thanks for telling us your experiences, it sounds like you are someone who is prepared to just 'have a go' and try things out, which goes a long way in astronomy in my experience. Clear skies! CW

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Dave:

Here's a couple of images from last night.

They are of Jupiter and four of its moons. The second is the Orion Nebula. These were shot with short exposures under 10 seconds. ISO was either 800 or 1600.

I did take a short video of a random star as well. When I started recording there was a lot of movement but it settled down after about two seconds. The star "moved" diagonally over the screen, so maybe the streaking in the below photos is due to earth movement. Just more stuff to figure out. Love it.

http://istover.com/stars/jupiter1.jpg

http://istover.com/stars/img_0062.jpg

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