My First Attempts at AP

[wilburforce83]

Hi All, 

Newbie here.

I have a Celestron TS70 which is ideal size wise for me as I live on a boat so space is a premium!! I have recently modified a lifecam studio 1080p;

- Bought it new.

- Ripped it apart.

- Felt guilty.

- Shed a little tear for it.

- Unscrewed the autofocus.

- Desoldered the lens - I heard of people breaking the CMOS here, I can see how it would be possible, but for anyone weary of tryign because of this, don't be - if you are firm but gentle it will be fine .

- Blacked out the power/tx LED, this was a pain in the a@* - I used tipex and black humbrol in the end - the new lifecams have a           seriously bright LED.

- Housed it all in a 1 1/4" tube with an IR filter.

It seems to work very well with the exception that the TS70 mount is quite weak making focusing well a bit hard - I am in the process of building a very sturdy tracking equatorial mount for it which should allow me to image M42 and Andromeda quite nicely (albeit on a small scale, but I am happy with it - it is all about compromise).

Anyway here is my first AP attempt; the Moon captured using SharpCap 2, split using PIPP then stacked using AS!2 (150 frames). A bit blurry, but overall I am happy.

Cheers

Will

[Astrosurf]

Good job! Wavelets in Registax would have helped make it a bit sharper and more contrasty or The GIMP (freeware) if you don't have Photoshop. It's a wonderful feeling when you get your first astrophoto. Onwards and upwards!

Alexxx