I got the camera, now what??

[toilandtrouble123]

My canon 350d arrived today, minus instruction manual, drivers and software, charger cable, and usb interface cable (oh and lens & body caps just chucked into the box without the caps actually on the equipmment - not great for damage/dust protectiong during shipping huh?). These problems easily solved....until I read the user manual online, to figure out how to set the ruddy thing to take photos at night. Too much technicky gobbledy-gook. One very confused Nat!

So basically, what I need to know is how to set what features to whatever degree/measurement/selection, that I need to. And the more I read the manual, and google "canon 350d night time settings aurora star trails" and try and get my head around it, the more I get confused. So what do I need to do in terms of focussing, the metering, white balance, aperture, the big lens thingy, file type (jpeg or raw)....and above all, how to go about this?!!??

jeez...and I thought going for an old beginners model would make things easier and less complicated.... *sigh*..... way outta my depth here, someone rescue me!

[JamesF]

The good news is that if you're putting it on the scope you can pretty much ignore the manuals

I think initially I'd get it all put together and try it out during the day. I think you said you had a T-ring adaptor and a T to 1.25" adaptor. Is that correct?

James

[atmenterprises]

So it depends on your target, but let's take the moon as a good starter example:

1. Put your camera in M mode.

2. Set your aperture to f/9.

3. Set your ISO to 100.

4. Set your shutter to 1/100.

Fire away. If it's too dark, slow your shutter to 1/50. If it's too bright, set your shutter to 1/200.

Use the live view on the back to focus on the moon so you can zoom in to make sure your focus is spot on.

[toilandtrouble123]

i got the t ring, just waiting on the t adapter. I'd also like to take just some scenic night sky shots of the constellations, and star trails too, but right now, i'm just button bashing (feels like i'm playing tekken for the first time again lol).

[JamesF]

Ah, right, ok. In that case there's a handy tutorial somewhere about taking wide field sky images. I'll see if I can find it. Do you have a tripod for the camera, or are you able to fix the camera to your AZ4?

James

[toilandtrouble123]

So it depends on your target, but let's take the moon as a good starter example:

1. Put your camera in M mode.

2. Set your aperture to f/9.

3. Set your ISO to 100.

4. Set your shutter to 1/100.

Fire away. If it's too dark, slow your shutter to 1/50. If it's too bright, set your shutter to 1/200.

Use the live view on the back to focus on the moon so you can zoom in to make sure your focus is spot on.

i dont have live view also, when researching aurora photography, there was a lot of mention of setting the camera to "infinity", how would i go about that with a 350d?

[toilandtrouble123]

Ah, right, ok. In that case there's a handy tutorial somewhere about taking wide field sky images. I'll see if I can find it. Do you have a tripod for the camera, or are you able to fix the camera to your AZ4?

James

tripod should arrive tomorrow. cant attach to the az4, as the dovetail clamp is on the side, therefore would push down on the buttons on the right. i have a shutter release for it, so i know what i should set exposure, aperture and iso to (and work out how to from manual fingers crossed) what about white balance, metering, and parameters and file type?

[atmenterprises]

Well infinity is the lens focus. There is a little sideways eight (the infinity sign) on your lens near the focus ring. Turn the focus ring all the way to where the tick mark rests at infinity.

But I think you'll find infinity won't give you focus - you'll probably have to out to infinity then back off it a little.

Since you don't have live view, take a shot, focus, take another shot, focus & repeat until the stars are as small as possible.

[toilandtrouble123]

Well infinity is the lens focus. There is a little sideways eight (the infinity sign) on your lens near the focus ring. Turn the focus ring all the way to where the tick mark rests at infinity.

But I think you'll find infinity won't give you focus - you'll probably have to out to infinity then back off it a little.

Since you don't have live view, take a shot, focus, take another shot, focus & repeat until the stars are as small as possible.

ah cheers, this i shall try. i was hoping my computer-savvy boyfr would help, but he took one look at all the long, unfamiliar words, and turned tail lol! thanks for the help guys, i really appreciate it

[JamesF]

Here's the tutorial:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/36308-basic-widefield-with-a-camera-and-tripod/

I'd recommend using RAW files wherever possible which means you don't need to worry about white balance because that's just for massaging the JPEGs. Exposure is wide open to start with, and assuming you have the kit 18-55mm lens, use it at 18mm. On a fixed tripod you can probably get exposures of up to 30 seconds that way, but do experiment -- that's what it's all about.

Using the above tutorial I took these images only a few months ago (first time I'd actually played at imaging with a DSLR):

http://www.tanstaafl.co.uk/2012/08/my-first-widefield-shot/

http://www.tanstaafl.co.uk/2012/08/another-attempt-at-a-cygnus-widefield-image/

The first was a struggle with the seeing as there was some haze and I was learning at every step, but the second I was much happier with. Regarding the software for processing, Deep Sky Stacker is free, and if you don't have Photoshop then try GIMP which is also free (but see if you can find one of the later releases that supports more than 8-bit colour).

James

[foundaplanet]

You are best setting it to take your images in RAW if you plan to play with a bit of processing. With regards to setting focus at infinity, as atmenterprises mentioned, wind it beyond and back a tad.. If you can find a distant light it will help.

[toilandtrouble123]

should the white should just be on like "daylight" or something then? xx

[foundaplanet]

I don't think WB really matters on Raw files.

[JamesF]

I don't think WB really matters on Raw files.

Indeed not. The white balance processing only gets applied to the JPEG images, not the RAWs. I've never even thought about what I have mine set to, to be honest. I generally only ever use the JPEGs for quickly scanning through the images to pick out any clearly bad ones because they display much faster than the RAWs.

James

[JamesF]

Since you don't have live view, take a shot, focus, take another shot, focus & repeat until the stars are as small as possible.

This is probably the best you can do, I'm afraid. If you can control the camera from a laptop then that makes life a bit easier, but I'm not sure what the situation is regarding the 350D. You may need the USB connector and a serial connector to control the shutter. Easier to use the remote you already have for the moment, anyhow.

James

[VigdisVZ]

The best idea is just to get used to handling it. Dont use the Auto setting, try going for the semi auto programs like aperture priority. Also read up on the different terms like ISO, F-value and stuff.

Most importantly, have fun with it!

If you want to start taking starry widefields just plunk it down on a tripod and point it towards a clear piece of night sky and do the following:

*Full manual mode.

*Set ISO to 1600.

*See if there is a mirror delay setting (otherwise dont bother).

*White balance "auto" (tungsten for a blueish nice tint).

*Set focus to manual so you can twist the focus ring on the lens.

*Point the camera at a bright star or jupiter or the moon.

*Enter live view (if you have this, otherwise try lookign at something bright far away through the view finder and ignore the next few steps).

*On the screen use the small buttons to zoom in on the screen so you "zoom up" on the star. Dont zoom the lens, just the screen if you follow.

*Twist the focus ring until the star is as sharp as it gets and non fuzzy.

*DONT TOUCH THE FOCUS RING after this step.

*Close live view and return to normal.

*Zoom out max on the lens so you get the widest field.

*Set aperture to lowest (probably F/3.5 in this case).

*Time to 15 seconds.

*Press shoot quickly and let go. (Hopefully you have mirror delay, mirror lock or a 2 second delay so your vibration of pushing the button.)

*Wait 15 seconds.

When the camera shuts the mirror you should have a pretty nice widefield. That's atleast roughly how I do it. This migth be a bit over your head right now, but revisit this later when youve played around and got a few basics down.

Best of luck with your new toy! And always resist the urge to shoot in auto mode!

[JamesF]

I forgot to add the little I know about star trails.

I've never done one as when the sky is clear enough I've always been up to other things. Because our house is on a slope I can set up a camera at the top of the garden and should be able to pretty much see the horizon above the roof line. I think that would make quite a cool star trail image, so I'm keen to do one.

It seems one way to do it is to take lots of 30 second exposures and then stack them all together using this piece of software. Hopefully that will give you some ideas about how to proceed. Please do post your results if you give it a try.

James

[toilandtrouble123]

Thanks guys, my camera tripod just arrived, all that I'm waiting for is my t-adaptor. Then, payday, I'll start looking around for a SW EQ3-2 mount and motors, and a MS lifecam and webcam tubing (housemate refused to let me sacrifice the xbox vision cam). So, in the meantime, petrol and weather-permitting, I shall be getting myself re-aquainted with my scope, and learning about my dslr. :-)

[JamesF]

Are you in a fairly light-polluted area then? (I'm getting the impression you have to travel to get reasonable skies?)

James

[toilandtrouble123]

yeah, i live in banbury, and the light pollution is horrendous. i cant drive either, so boyfriend is chauffeur too, as well as computer and technological mastermind. we tend to go up to burton dassett hills, and set up on the north side of the country park, to avoid light from the nearby army barracks and motorway from the south and west. havent really found any other nearby alternatives tbh.

[JamesF]

Ah, I can understand the problem. There are so many towns around that area that there must be someone on SGL who knows of some other decent observing sites local to you. I think some of the astro groups (Chipping Norton? Witney?) go to the Rollright Stones, but that's hardly local for Banbury. At least you have somewhere to go though.

James

[toilandtrouble123]

chippy have an astro group?? i might have to think of some way to co-erce the boyfriend into attending one night, maybe. how to get him to agree...? hummmmm..... watch this space lol!

[JamesF]

They do indeed: http://www.cnaag.com/

James

[JamesF]

Looks like they're doing a few events for Stargazing Live next week, too. What better excuse could you want?

James

[steppenwolf]

This is probably the best you can do, I'm afraid. If you can control the camera from a laptop then that makes life a bit easier, but I'm not sure what the situation is regarding the 350D. You may need the USB connector and a serial connector to control the shutter. Easier to use the remote you already have for the moment, anyhow.

James

The 350D is a very capable DSLR for astro purposes and I enjoyed using one with this software as it made focusing and subsequent image capture a doddle. Sadly, it does mean having a laptop outside with you but it is soooo worth it!