Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

G'day from Australia (pics)

leemr

By leemr
in Welcome

Recommended Posts

leemr

leemr

Posted
Posted

Hey everyone,

Although I bought my first telescope a year ago, I'm still very much a newbie. Life got in the way of first usage--I was buying a new house, moving and getting married right when I bought it, so it was some time before I even got to look through it, although looking through it was never my real intention. I've had an on-again-off-again hobby with photography and astrophotography was my intended destination from the very beginning.

Problem after problem arose; with every new hardware acquisition something went wrong. Problems with the handset requiring the return of first handset, then handset and mount, problems with my focuser, problems with my first CCD, then different problems with the "fixed" CCD.

It's been a long road, but now I have a working mono CCD as of a week ago (Atik 314L+), a short tube refractor (SW ED80 Black Diamond), an eq mount (CG5) and a blumming good focuser (Moonlite).

Next things I need on my adventure are guiding (I'm thinking guidescope over OAG at the moment), a colour filter wheel and a new scope more suitable for photographing my primary interest: galaxies. I'm heavily undersampled right now and trying to shoot tiny, dark subjects with a wide scope and no guiding, so I'm still very limited by hardware. Best I can manage right now is 90 second exposures with minimal throw-aways, but I've found that difficult to replicate since the first night. Maybe just beginner's luck!

Anyway, here's a couple of my images taken from my first night with a mono CCD and my first use of PixInsight, and my first attempt at photographing/processing a nebula (with a Nikon D5100, DSS and Photoshop).

Cheers,

Lee

6f0cd35cb664cf1b9b901d11dae872f9.1824x0_

e0afbb998d49c6305fead0e99feb3af3.1824x0_

0b149f94e76a779061897c267eaac455.1824x0_

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 26
  • Created
  • Last Reply
swag72

swag72

Posted
Posted

Cracking images!!! Welcome to SGL!!!

If galaxies are your bag, with a couple of exceptions, they are pretty small. You want a decent focal length scope for them. With that comes a whole host of issues as to whether your mount is up to it, you'd be better off with an OAG guiding a longer focal length - Those two just for starters!

Look forward to seeing you around :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
leemr

leemr

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have a d5100 also. Backyardnikon is a great camera control software in Beta 2b now. I use at and works. Interfaces with PHD if you guide.

http://forum.otelescope.com/post/backyardnikon-v1-beta-02b-is-ready-for-download-6974182

-Jack

Thanks Jack :-) As the D5100 doesn't do bulb over USB, what are you using to enable long exposures?

Cracking images!!! Welcome to SGL!!!

If galaxies are your bag, with a couple of exceptions, they are pretty small. You want a decent focal length scope for them. With that comes a whole host of issues as to whether your mount is up to it, you'd be better off with an OAG guiding a longer focal length - Those two just for starters!

Look forward to seeing you around :smiley:

Thanks mate :-)

It's quite the dilemma, really. I've heard that at longer focal lengths OAG is the way to go, but then I've also seen people selling their OAG because it was too hard and they couldn't get it to work. I was thinking of starting out with a guide scope, which would be well suited to my short tube, and then maybe grabbing an OAG later on and using the same camera but with a longer FL scope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alan potts

alan potts

Posted
Posted

Hi, Lee and a big welcome to the Forum, there are a few members down under that spring to mind but I have not seen any with photos of M42 like that one, stunning, well done. I hope you enjoy your time here and one day I hope I can take an image that is something like yours.

Alan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.