Unable to capture the moon

[daren88]

I am very new to astronomy and astro photography. I have a nexstar 4se and a Nikon d200 dslr. I get very good images through the eyepiece but when attaching my camera directly to the back of the scope all I get is an over exposed mess with no detail. I am obviously doing several things wrong but would love to capture the moon like almost everyone else does. Big time operator trouble I know but need help.

[D4N]

Have you tried reducing exposure time and ISO?

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[ronin]

The moon at f/15 should be something like ISO 200 and 1/250 or 1/125 second, I would go with 1/250.

I assume that everything is set to manual.

[pyrasanth]

I'm making the assumption that your attaching the camera body to the telescope using  a T-ring. Most DSLR cameras see a telescope as a custom lens. I assume that you can take a picture through the telescope with this arrangement as you say you get an over exposed mess. Set your camera to either aperture or shutter priority and experiment with getting the moon to look reasonably okay with a live view (don't know much about your camera but I assume you can see a pretty accurate image before you take the picture). To do this you will need to alter the aperture or shutter speeds or a combination of both. The beauty of the DSLR is that you can "see" the image before taking the picture so get the moon looking how you want on the camera view before taking the picture.

I think the fault if any is that you may be trying to shoot the moon with the camera in automatic mode & it struggles to meter as it does not understand the "lens" (your telescope) that's it's coupled to. Give that a try above & let me know how you get on. Please post an image-good or not-and the forum will offer advice from there.

I recently tested my Sony A77 DSLR with my celestron & I had to set a custom setting even to get to the stage of being able to press the shutter button!

Happy moon shooting!

[daren88]

My scope is f/13 and i was on manual. Not sure what ISO I used but when I used quick speeds the camera had no image. Went with slow and was overexposed blurry mess which I did expect on slow shutter speed. I'm going direct onto the back of scope with t ring and adaptor not through eyepiece.

[Alien 13]

The position of the focus point with a DSLR will be different to that when using a diagonal and eyepiece so use the camera liveview to make sure you have a focused image 1st then its a matter of setting ISO and shutter speed to suit.

Alan

[ronin]

You "simply" have a manual f/13 lens attached to the camera.

Plonk the normal lens on, set the metering to centre spot, set the ISO to 100 or 200, set the scope to Aperture priority, set the aperture to f/13, aim at the moon and hold the Go button half down and read what the camera say for the speed in the dispaly.

That way you have what the exposure should be for the ISO and that aperture of f/13.

How are you taking the shot?

A remote cable or the self timer?

A lens of that focal length will give a huge amount of shake if you are simply pressing the button by hand.

Another aspect is simply set the thing up for ISO 100 and 1/250 and take a shot, if too dark try 1/125, if too dark try the next slower speed or ISO 200. Any that do not come out simply delete. By the time you have tried say 6 you should have nailed it. Digital cameras are ideal for trial and error. Any error and Delete the image, modify the options and try again.

[daren88]

Nice one I will give it a try

[bruno]

try this http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/astronomy/MoonExposureCalculator.html it will give you a rough idea of how to set your camera

[daren88]

Sounds good Thanks for the link I will give it a go

[mikehab]

Sounds to me like you're not focussed properly for the DSLR - as someone mentioned above the focal point for the camera attached to the back of the scope is completely different from the focal point for the eyepiece,  so if you're looking through the eyepiece and have that nicely in focus then the camera focus will be way off and you'll just end up with a white blob with no surface detail.  You'll need to look through the DSLR eyepiece (or better still use liveview) and re-focus the camera.   Just a thought...

Mike

[davefrance]

Might need a 50mm extension between telescope and t ring in order to focus correctly.Maybe the picture was blurry because at a slow shutter speed the moon will show movement?. 

[daren88]

Hi guys thanks for the advice. Since I last posted, the moon has not showed its face so still no progress. My dslr (Nikon d200) does not have live view so I guess I will have to look through the view finder.