M42, Andromeda Orion with first go with CAnon 500D and C8

[Gerhard]

Hi all,

just wanted to share my first try at AP with telescope. Yesterday was a good night, and my friend was available with his telescope, so I hurried over and we had an AP session, which was a bit hasty (it was late on a worknight), but IMHO, very satisfying for a first time out!

I wanted to try various kinds of objects (to see which works best with our hardware), and kind of managed to do so: M42, Andromeda, Pleiades, and a try at the horsehead nebula. Jupiter rose too late and was also blocked by a building, otherwise I would also have tried that.

As you can see, the results are what they are, but I'm very happy to get this on a first try.

these are all unstacked photos. I made 10 subs for M42, with darks and bias, but DSS wasn't happy with them and approved only one sub, so no joy there.

Andromeda was a mess, as you can see. still have to figure out if it was an anomaly, or if  the C8 cannot manage 3 minute exposures. 1 of the 10 subs of M42 also had the same type of traces as the andromeda sub...

I do not attach the pleiades photos, because the C8 magnifies too much, and so the open cluster becomes 3 or 4 of its main stars...

The third photo should have been of the area of the horsehead nebula, but after some researching I'm guessing I have to shift more to the side where the very vague nebula can be seen. I turned up the blues (no pun intended) in an exagerated way to try to see the "cigarette smoke" better. Until now I did not know that Orion is FULL of nebulae!!! :-) Very cool to see this!!!

Cannot wait to have another go!! Will try lots more different subs, exposures, etc... Focusing will be tricky: I had to do with either the viewfinder, or the liveview to see if the stars were in focus...

Glad to receive feedback! :-)

Gerhard.

[Axeldude]

Nice work Gerhard, it's a good start!

If I recall correctly the C8 is better used for planetary/lunar/solar photography rather than deep sky objects due to it being rather on the slow side (f/10.0).

I suggest on getting a faster APO refractor later on if you want to get more into deep sky objects.

Focus on your polar alignment so you can get longer exposures, meaning more data!

For the focussing problem, I'd suggest using a Bahtinov mask, I can say it made my life easier!

Clear skies.

Axel

[redmoo]

Do you know what mount you were using? That has a huge effect on the length of sub you can get! If you are using an alt/az mount, then you will be limited to about 30 seconds. If it is an EQ mount, then you can do longer exposures, but without guiding, it will still be limited to approx 2 mins without significant trailing.

I have to warn you, AP can get very addictive! 

[Gerhard]

Thanks for responding Axel! :-)

In fact, I know about the C8's prediliction for planetary... That's also what my friend (the owner) says. But, hey,don't blame me for trying! ;-)

I really did not expect to get such a "good" shot of M42, but when it popped up we both got a nice surprise!! 

You're correct, our polar alignment was not optimal yesterday evening... Had some trouble setting up, and hurried along because time was not our friend...

Have to do better next time. Butit's a learnign curve, and a fun one!!

Will definitely have a look at a bahtinov mask, although some huff at them... :-)

Gerhard.

ps: I want a setup like yours! Just need to get the money together.... sigh.... :-)

[Gerhard]

Redmoo, consider me hooked already! Even before buying the hardware....

The C8 is on an old (30+ years) forked mount with wedge, motorized. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/C8_smaller.jpg/220px-C8_smaller.jpg