Trying to image M82 with 6" and 350d...frustrating

[lensman57]

Hi everyone - quick reply, more later - thanks for replies so far; I do have a win 7 laptop I use in conjunction with my ToUCam for planetary imaging but not used with my DSLR at all nor for slewing/finding/focussing/tracking etc.

Would upgrading to a Live View available camera help at all?

thanks

frank

liveview gets u close but not close enough, try and do it the right way from the onset. Look in the "imaging deep sky" forum, nobody uses liveview or planets for focusing and these guys know a thing or two about imaging. If you are not going to use software assisted  focusing then get a Bahtinov Mask and focus on a bright star if possible in the vecinity of your target. This is for good reason as the thickness of the atmospher alters the focus point at different part of the sky due to the light bending all over the place.

Regards,

A.G

[Chris]

I've used various Canons some with and some without liveview. I dont use a PC just the screen on the camera and I can promise you its dead easy Simply take a short 2 second exposure on a bright star, press the play button to put the picture back on the screen, zoom in on the star using the buttons on the top right of the camera, check focus, adjust focus, repeat previous steps until focused. I use a Bahtinov mask to quantify how good my focus is when using a DSLR.

I use this method even when I'm using a camera with liveview as liveview doesn't average out the seeing over several seconds like a 2-3 second exposure does! plus I find liveview only works on the very brightest of stars and the above method would work on much dimmer stars if you had to.

hth

Chris

[saturnalia2]

i don't think i've seen Backyard EOS mentioned here. it's got everything needed to control a canon. and it's only 38 bucks or so.

[Christopher Davenport]

My personal preference is APT, free to use until you want advanced features like telescope control. Only 15us.

For focus on a 350 you can setup a plan that takes 5 sec iso 3200, every 15 secs, then use fwhm to check focus. Also useful to check framing. Ie where is object and orientation.

Then when ready launch light capture plan and then stick laptop and cam in shed a run dark plan while you go to bed. just remember to set the sleep time on laptop to above dark run time.