First steps in DSLR imaging

[tekkydave]

I've had my Celestron 127 SLT for about a year now and have done some basic imaging of the Sun and planetary observing. I want to do some more sophisticated imaging and to see what I can do given the limitations of the AZ mount and slow scope. I have purchased a Canon 1100D as my Sony A200 has no live view and no software support. I have a T2/eos adapter and Windows 7 laptop with the full version of APT installed. It connects to the Canon via the supplied usb lead and seems to control it with no problems. I have connected the scope hand controller to the laptop via a serial cable for the scope control. I have controlled the scope previously from Stellarium without any special drivers but to get APT to connect I had to install the ASCOM platform v6 and Celestron unified drivers. After a bit of fiddling it connected and now I can slew the scope around. All I need now is some clear sky so I can try it all out. Hopefully I'll post some images in due course - I'm planning to use DSS for post-processing. I know I don't have the best scope & mount for DSO imaging but I've seen some images posted by others that look quite encouraging.

[kenny k]

Goodluck with your imaging Dave,i too am being drawn to the dark arts of AP.

Kenny

[tekkydave]

Skies cleared tonight so set up all the gear outside - took about an hour to connect everything up and align the scope. Tried to skew the scope to various bright stars from APT but no luck. Couldn't work out what was wrong and spent another 45m fiddling with the scope, camera and APT. Decided to cut my losses and just take some shots of the Moon as it was nice & clear. The scope wouldn't track it properly despite selecting lunar rate in the handset menu. It seemed to be going in the opposite direction to what it should have done. I then noticed Jupiter had popped up above the tree line so asked the scope to goto Jupiter. Weird thing was it ended up pointing exactly 180 degrees off. The camera was at the Jupiter end and the scope was pointed at the ground. It explains why it wouldn't track the Moon and why it wouldn't skew to the stars I selected. I definitely set the mount up correctly - it must have made the wrong calculation when I gave it the 3 objects to align to. One was the Moon so maybe it confused it. I wonder if anyone else has ever had this happen with the Nexstar controller.

[Gosport_Graphics]

Had my 1st attempt at lunar photography at 06:30 this morning.

I now know that what looks sharp on the 1100D Live view screen doesn't necessarily look sharp in any software........

I was desperately trying to get my shots in before the moon became hazy.... Will run APT directly now on when using the Canon on my Skywatcher 200P.

Massive, slightly out-of-focus shots aren't that impressive!

Lesson learned!

Mark

[tekkydave]

Here's the only successful shot from last night's session. After the time I spent fiddling with all the gear I got this one just by pointing the scope at the Moon and pressing the Canon's shutter release with my finger. Oh well, at least I have something to show for it.

[Gosport_Graphics]

Here's the only successful shot from last night's session. After the time I spent fiddling with all the gear I got this one just by pointing the scope at the Moon and pressing the Canon's shutter release with my finger. Oh well, at least I have something to show for it.

That still better than I managed this morning Dave............

Clear sky's tonight, so I'll be using APT and a lot of tea this time around 

Mark

[tekkydave]

Good luck. I just googled 'Moon' to make sure my image was the right way up. It's the same as everyone else's so I think I'm ok

[Scott]

A wise old imager once told me (or did I read it in a book?) that THE most important step in setting up is focus. Most things can be dealt with in post processing (to a point), but not poor focus. If your focus is out then you may as well scrap your subs. 

Having said that....when you've not had a chance to image for weeks, it's hard not to try and rush things for fear of the weather turning on you .

[Gosport_Graphics]

A wise old imager once told me (or did I read it in a book?) that THE most important step in setting up is focus. Most things can be dealt with in post processing (to a point), but not poor focus. If your focus is out then you may as well scrap your subs. 

Having said that....when you've not had a chance to image for weeks, it's hard not to try and rush things for fear of the weather turning on you .

The EOS adapter only arrived yesterday, so yes I was desperate to get some shots in. My eyes are apparently 20/20, so I relied on them and the 2" screen instead of firing up APT on the laptop....

Not making that mistake again tonight!  (I'll make some different ones just to add some variety  )

[tekkydave]

It also helps if your scope isn't pointing at Australia

[Alien 13]

Another tip if for shooting the moon is allways slightly under expose, you can allways grab a bit more dark info during processing but not any oversaturated bits.

[voeole]

I've had my Celestron 127 SLT for about a year now and have done some basic imaging of the Sun and planetary observing. I want to do some more sophisticated imaging and to see what I can do given the limitations of the AZ mount and slow scope. I have purchased a Canon 1100D as my Sony A200 has no live view and no software support. I have a T2/eos adapter and Windows 7 laptop with the full version of APT installed. It connects to the Canon via the supplied usb lead and seems to control it with no problems. I have connected the scope hand controller to the laptop via a serial cable for the scope control. I have controlled the scope previously from Stellarium without any special drivers but to get APT to connect I had to install the ASCOM platform v6 and Celestron unified drivers. After a bit of fiddling it connected and now I can slew the scope around. All I need now is some clear sky so I can try it all out. Hopefully I'll post some images in due course - I'm planning to use DSS for post-processing. I know I don't have the best scope & mount for DSO imaging but I've seen some images posted by others that look quite encouraging.

I have the same scope and camera and want to find cable for connection scope to computer as you did.And want to ask you,where you bought it?

[tekkydave]

I bought it on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Celestron-12m-NexStar-PC-cable-serial-to-USB-Adapter-/280709376015?pt=UK_Telescope_Adapters&hash=item415b95280f

If you search on ebay for 'NexStar PC cable' there are lots of differing lengths, some with serial to usb adapters which you will need if your PC doesn't have a serial (com) port.

Dave