first attempt at imaging

[chris2411]

Hi to you all, This is the result of my first imaging session. The telescope is a sw130p on a supa trac mount using 2x Barlow and cannon 400D.

Could anyone tell me what I could photograph using this kit.

Many thanks

[Langy]

Imaging usually requires a very good mount which costs the pocket a lot of money. I'm fairly new myself so can't comment on your actual kit but can give some suggestions on what and how to test.

If you have very good tracking then there should be no limit as to what you can photograph, however if you have MD's which track objects fairly well then you can still get some reasonable exposure times.

The like of the moon and Jupiter require very short exposure times in the AP world. Almost anything else and the exposure times increase quite a bit. I know my scope doesn't track very well but I still try various things pushing it to its limits.

If I was in your position I would look for another bright object like Pleiades or the Orion Nebula. Get focused well which can be done on an even brighter object. Then start taking various exposure times and checking the results for star trailing, increasing the exposure times as you go along. When you find your limit then you can take multiple lights, darks and bias frames to stack in something like the free Deep Space Stacker software. Just also be aware that the further you get away from the pole star the movement is much bigger, so the exposure times you get from taking something by the polar star will not be achievable for something further away. Even starting with 5 seconds and moving upwards will give you a good gauge.

You will need very good polar alignment and the RA speed to be spot on to get good exposure times. With more expensive kit you would have a tracking scope that would adjust the motors to keep everything lined up.

It would also be a good idea to get a copy of Make Every Photon Count if you want to get on with more other than planetary or lunar imaging. 

[toxic]

hi there chris

i have a supatrack mount with the 127 mak (focol length = 1500) and the most i could get it to track for without star trails was 20 seconds so with your scope you should be able to get upto 40 seconds to 1 minit if you balance the scope with the camera so some of the brighter dso's are not out of reach and all the planets, but i would add a webcam for the planets.

plus with the supatrack you will get field rotation on anything over 90 seconds.

so if you want to go for longer exposure time then im afraid you need to go for a better mount oh and get a copy of Make Every Photon Count no matter what you do it will help, wish i did before i spent money on the wrong stuff but btw nice pic of the moon.

 

[chris2411]

Many thanks for your comments

chris