Obtaining reasonable images without tracking.

[NIGHTBOY]

Now I'd love to set my ISO too 100, shutter to bulb and take some really long exposures of things but as my scope doesn't track this is just not possible.

I've been browsing pictures on here most of the afternoon and I've seen some cracking images taking with non tracking scopes. How is this possible???

I was out last night and found I had to have the iso set quite high and if the shutter was set to near one second it would result in blurring.

How do you guys do it??

This is the best I could do with Orion's Nebula...

[Leveye]

You will never be able to image anything at that focal length without some trailing unless the mount is guided or unguided and tracking no matter the iso or exposure length. If all you have is a tripod use a wide angle lens say 16mm use iso 1600 and about a 15-25 second exposure it will come out nice. Welcome to astrophotography!

[LeeWilky]

give this a go mate  

[smudgeball]

Hi

The trailing won't happen straight away.

I've imaged Orion with a barn door tracker and my dslr with 50mm prime lens and obtained some reasonable results.

You obviously have to counter the rotation to avoid the trails at some point.

I got the imaging bug a year back and have slowly upgraded my kit, but you CAN manually track with patience.

It depends on what you want to achieve, unfortunately (and every imager on here will tell you) imaging gets very addictive and you need deep pockets to satisfy your habit.

This is my orion using a barn door tracker

Perhaps something else to try ?

Regards

Neil

[NIGHTBOY]

Whats a barn door tracker?

[NIGHTBOY]

give this a go mate  

Thanks Lee, that guy can get awesome shot of Andromeda with no scope!

[Tinker1947]

Whats a barn door tracker?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=barn+door+tracker+plans&rlz=1C1GIGM_en-GBGB542GB542&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=FROaUuWSCtKShgeZzYGwBw&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1074

[smudgeball]

It's basically two pieces of wood held together with a piano hinge at one end.

A bolt then separates the two pieces of wood.

You then mount the bottom piece of wood on a tripod and mount your camera on top.

By turning the bolt, you increase the gap and move the camera, as if you were tracking.

Lots of examples online of how to make one.

I'll dig out a photo of mine

[smudgeball]

here you go.

Only thing you have to make sure of is thread size and distance from hing as you need to get the angle right for best results.

I did a fancy one and put a cheap finder scope on the hinge to "polar align"   but you just need to get the hinge in line with polaris for it to work.

A ball joint attachment is handy to get your camera in the right position.

You need to do one full turn of the bolt per minute so a watch with a second hand is handy to have.

But it'll cope stationary for around ten seconds so you don't need to be that accurate.

I managed 40 seconds without trails.

[Leveye]

400 light frames. Think about that. It will get really tiring after awhile. Plus he is using what looks to be a 1000 dollar Canon 200mm lens. Save the money and invest in a tracking mount as soon as you can. The barndoor project will be fun i'm sure! The results will be much more rewarding. Also he is using Lightroom to edit this shot don't forget. I have been at this point trust me.

[NIGHTBOY]

400 light frames. Think about that. It will get really tiring after awhile. Plus he is using what looks to be a 1000 dollar Canon 200mm lens. Save the money and invest in a tracking mount as soon as you can. The barndoor project will be fun i'm sure! The results will be much more rewarding. Also he is using Lightroom to edit this shot don't forget. I have been at this point trust me.

Ha, mate I'd be happy with a tracking mount and some nice single frame images!!