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Newbie from Monkeytown up North

monkey

By monkey
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monkey

monkey

Posted
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Ow do. Was directed here by a friend who sports an 8" Dob. I've only got bins at present and am feeling my way around.

Had success locating Comet Holmes and the Pleiades. Don't look too bad in the bins but this Christmas I'm hoping to get a 6" Dob as a starter.

Years ago had a friend at school who sparked my interest but the Temple of Mammon, Memsahib and offspring overwrote it until now.

Regards

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barkis

barkis

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How do Monkey. Welcome to SGL, and I hope you have a good time.

I can't live too far away from your place I am over on the west side in Carlisle. The sort of slightly warmer coast you know.Well, 20 miles to the Irish Sea bit of the Atlantic. :D

Ron. :D

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monkey

monkey

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Hi buddy. When I say Lancs I mean Greater Manchester but I was never happy with that change of borders.

I'm about equidistant from Bury and Rochdale and my house is virtually South (front) to North oriented which helps in star hopping.

Just been weighing up Perseus again and Mars was well visible but is now obscured by cloud.

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  • 4 years later...
frank88

frank88

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Hello :rolleyes:

This is my second try at astronomy. Even with some medical excuses that make me somewhat of a klutz, I really want to dabble in astrophotography.

At least temporarily I will have to use my cameras picked for other reasons than astrophotography. But a test yesterday seems to indicate that my Nikon P500 and my Lumix LX5 seem okay for some camera only stuff.

I would appreciate advice as to adapters, tricks, etc. to help me achieve a stable connection for shooting A-focal.

My scope is in shipment and is a inexpensive iOptron R80 GPS. I considered other scopes but I have to keep the eyepiece low as sometimes I have to use a wheel chair. Maybe I need red headlights :)

I look forward to joining the group and learning all I can, especially the little things I may be overlooking as potential incompatibilities.

Thank you and pleased to meet everyone.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Frank and welcome to the forum. Astrophotography can be divided into two distinct targets, solar system (planets and moon) and deep sky objects (DSO's) such as galaxies and nebulae. To image the solar system, requires only a simple webcam to capture many 'frames' very quickly, rejecting the poor ones and with the decent ones being stacked on top of each other using free software called Registax to create one composite image which will contain a lot of detail. The key here, is that because these objects are very bright, you don't need to perform long exposures to gather sufficient data to construct an image which in turn, would necessitate getting an very accurate mount. With DSO's (being further away and very faint) will mean that your imaging should focus on the mount, and one that is capable of carrying all the gear along with accurate tracking in order to secure enough time to gather the necessary data to create the final image. You will notice (on the imaging section) that many imagers have at least a HEQ5 mount to perform the above task which has one additional advantage over many other mounts, which is that it facilitates 'auto guiding'. As part of setting up the mount to track the stars, you will need to ensure that the mount is calibrated correctly with the earth's axis. Although fairly straightforward, it can be an onerous task for those who don't have an observatory and who need to set up their imaging 'rig' each time. By way of a solution, auto guiding is an additional tool that can be used to help guide the scope through those long exposures. The guide scope is attached to the main imaging scope and is accurately focused on a nearby star to the the target object and it sends micro adjustment signals to the mount's motors to ensure the reference star is held precisely within its crosshairs and by default, keeps the main imaging scope on its target too. The great thing with the HEQ5 mount, is that it is simply a matter of plugging this guide scope into the mount and you're away. Many other cheaper mounts although fairly accurate in themselves, do not permit this guiding facility and so can only rely on the original calibration with the earth's axis (polar alignment).

So as you can see, it isn't simply a matter of sticking a camera on to the scope and away you go. Issues concerning tracking accuracy, turbulence of our atmosphere (taking single exposures of the moon a very hit and miss affair) and finding the desired objects (HEQ5 has GOTO to help you find very objects that can't see) all together make for some quite serious considerations of what is the most appropriate kit to use on different targets and with it, a realistic budget. To help you further, you might wish to consider obtaining a copy of Steve Richards' "Making Every Photon Count"(FLO £19.95) which will provide you with a very comprehensive overview on what kit you need and more importantly why you need it to take good consistent images. Many new people starting out naturally believe that they can 'reinvent the wheel' with various alternatives solutions. Although it is true that there are different ways of achieving good images, it also true that if a method is fraught with inconsistencies, the process of imaging will eventually be more about hard work than the end result. Therefore in the longer term, will make imaging an onerous activity rather than one that is fun, exisiting and hopefully satisfying. Hope that helps.

Clear skies

James

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