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basic photos throough 200p dob?

philipw

By philipw
in Getting Started With Imaging

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philipw

philipw

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Sorry if I am asking a question asked before. I have used my new 200p dob tonight for the first time. Very very happy chap here1

From threads I saw when choosing my scope I gather taking a photo through my dob is virtually impossible?

I don't want to do anything that will win awards! A very basic pic of the moon or a planet would be great for my own enjoyment. I triend tonight, putting my digital camera, and phone camera up to the EP but nothing.

Is there any way, without buying loads of expensive equipment (I would spend maybe up to £100) I could take some simple pictures through my scope?

Thanks!

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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Yes! You can just hold a camera up to the eyepiece to get some basic moon shots. Maybe even some planetary ones if you're quick enough before it goes out of shot!

Beyond that you can adapt a webcam. I took apart an old 20mm eyepiece and glued it to a webcam and stuck it in where the eyepiece would go. Then hooked up a laptop and recorded what I saw with some free software. You can buy ready-made solutions too like adapted second hand Toucam pro webcams and planetary/guide cameras with nosepieces. Bear in mind that the focal point will be very different from an eyepiece though so it will take some fiddling to get focus, but with 200mm of aperture you should be able to see how good the focus is in real time on the laptop screen. You can insert the webcam via a barlow too for extra zoom.

I'd say they were the easiest ways of doing it. If you have an SLR you can buy an adapter to fix that directly to the focuser, but there isn't always enough inward travel in Dobson to achieve focus this way. And unless you have live view you could take forever viewing pictures and inching the focuser backwards and forwards to focus on anything!

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catman161

catman161

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Before I mounted my 200p on an NEQ6 Pro mount I used to use my iPhone to take pics at the eyepiece of the moon and it worked well. Just have to get the angle right. You can also buy cradles for your smart phone to attach to your eyepiece so that it eliminates the shake that your hand produces when holding it to the eyepiece. It's definitely possible :) keep trying.

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philipw

philipw

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They are fantastic pics I would love to do that!

When I tried tonight, I got Jupiter in view, and when I put my iphone up to it, I couldn't get anything. I  was doing something wrong I think! with the moon it was just an unfocused bright white light.

I will certainly keep trying and have a think about the webcam jobby.

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catman161

catman161

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I didn't adjust it at all-it did it all by itself. As for the technique and actually getting something to show on the iPhone screen I found it worked best to move the camera across the eyepiece and you will see there is a "sweet spot" where it picks up the light coming through the eyepiece.

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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The moon and planets can easily overexpose when you hold a camera up to the eyepiece. They take an average brightness over the whole screen and expose for that. Even with the moon in the eyepiece it only covers a small amount of the screen when it's an image projected from an eyepiece so it will consider the image to be mainly black and overexpose the important bits. Some cameras can be adjusted to take an average from the centre of the screen (I had an old fuji point-and-click digital camera that was pretty good at that) but it's always a bit hit and miss. I found that I got better images using this method when I used a x3 barlow - it drastically reduced the brightness of the image and the camera didn't overexpose. So it would seem that cheaper eyepieces that cut out lots of light are a good thing in this case!

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jarlaxle2k5

jarlaxle2k5

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on my HTC I have to zoom the camera then hold it (tape or tie it to the lens) There are some snaps in my Gallery. The DSLR route is an option, but the images are smaller?

yeah i am not getting great result with Jupiter and my canon 1100D even with stacking 2 barlow lens 2x the images are small.

Videos with dslr.....well another fail because my canon pick the ISO automatically and jupiter is just a shiny blob :)

Last night i tried for a bit to connect my laptop to the canon through the 2 barlows and i used the freeware program EOS Camera Movie Recorder. 

This program record in .avi whatever you see through the camera and finally i managed to have a huge image of jupiter using the camera zoom in live view (camera was set in Manual mode), but still the result wasn't good because also the poor seeing condition.

At least i managed now to adjust the ISO and the brightness through that freeware program :)

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philipw

philipw

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PhillipW: how the hell did to manage to take that pic through your iphone? To be fair I haven't tried it on the moon, but I've tried it on other things and it's so sensitive :-/

It took a while, But once I got it, I could get it again and again. Got a Cohen f nice clear pictures. I found pulling the phone away from the eyepiece ever so slightly reduced the brightness and encouraged focus.

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Nadine2704

Nadine2704

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I have a 200P Dob too, and I was disappointed when I was told that AP would be an issue.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when I held my phone (Sony Xperia Z) and my cheap compact camera to the eyepiece.  With a bit of perseverance I managed to get images that I was happy with (they won't be winning any astrophotography awards, but I'm content with them!)  If you're happy with just a simple picture of the moon, or a not-very-detailed picture of a planet, then you can definitely achieve that without spending any extra money!

Taking photos using my phone was slightly trickier, as I had to move the phone around a bit before it would pick up the view from the eyepiece, but it still worked and I was extremely pleased!

Moon


Jupiter and the Galilean moons


Moon


15


Moon and M45


Moon


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miabs

miabs

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I have a 200P Dob too, and I was disappointed when I was told that AP would be an issue. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I held my phone (Sony Xperia Z) and my cheap compact camera to the eyepiece. With a bit of perseverance I managed to get images that I was happy with (they won't be winning any astrophotography awards, but I'm content with them!) If you're happy with just a simple picture of the moon, or a not-very-detailed picture of a planet, then you can definitely achieve that without spending any extra money!

Taking photos using my phone was slightly trickier, as I had to move the phone around a bit before it would pick up the view from the eyepiece, but it still worked and I was extremely pleased!

I saw your photos on twitter .... Awesome !!
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Charic

Charic

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I have a 200P Dob too, and I was disappointed when I was told that AP would be an issue.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when I held my phone (Sony Xperia Z) and my cheap compact camera to the eyepiece.  With a bit of perseverance I managed to get images that I was happy with (they won't be winning any astrophotography awards, but I'm content with them!)  If you're happy with just a simple picture of the moon, or a not-very-detailed picture of a planet, then you can definitely achieve that without spending any extra money!

Taking photos using my phone was slightly trickier, as I had to move the phone around a bit before it would pick up the view from the eyepiece, but it still worked and I was extremely pleased!

The Moon is so vast and bright, its probably the easiest target in the night sky. As all the other planets are so small, unless largely magnified, then you will have problems trying to track the object without blurring your images. You Dob Images are just fine

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Paulo83

Paulo83

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I tried snapping a few pictures of Jupiter and the moon last time I was out with my Galaxy S2 and the results were pretty awful. Will try again under higher magnification.

Some nice pictures posted. Am rather jealous! They'd look good posted on my Facebook if I could take similar.

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