right... first time out tonight with my camera!!!

[danccat]

It'll be mounted on my az eq6 and attached to my nexstar 8se. I've got a corrector/reducer (f/6.3) and five various filters in a wheel. Now, my question is, what camera setting should so go by?

It's a modded Canon 1100d...

[danccat]

Cannot wait for tonight... Here's some pics (very excited!)

[Starlight 1]

Start with ISO 800 at 30s if the sub look ok up the time 45s still looking ok go 60s , then try again at ISO 1600 see how that looks . Try to find the best setting for your sky is the best you can do. edit I just see your setup set 1100d to M and do Raw.

[danccat]

Star, thanks for the input but I've never used the camera before! I'm guessing what you said is easy enough to find though?!?!?

[Tinker1947]

The 6.3f FR needs to be 105mm from its rear lens to the DSLR Sensor, a bit less is ok, a bit more is bad.....

[Starlight 1]

IF you are going to use a laptop download APT.

[glowingturnip]

Juan at cheapastrophotography recommended ISO1600 for my new modded 1100d and I must say I was pleased with the result (my firstlight thread has scrolled off of page 1 now).  As Starlight says, start off with some short ones and see how long you can go before you get trailing showing.

I wouldn't bother using any filters for your first try (and I suspect there's a whole can of worms discussion to be had about filters with a DSLR but let's not go there)

Good luck with it, and enjoy.  I shall be trying to polar-align the school obsy tonight (attempt 3)

[lensman57]

Cannot wait for tonight... Here's some pics (very excited!)

Very good but do make sure that you block that large open area ( where the wheel is exposed ) so that stray light does not ruin your images.

BTW what is the filter wheel for? Are you using 2" LP filters in there as 1.25" will cause vignetting with a DSLR sensor.

A.G

[happy-kat]

Star, thanks for the input but I've never used the camera before!

At the weekend why not use the camera in the daytime to familiarise yourself on where the settings are you would use at night.

You should turn off in camera noise reduction particularly if you are going to take darks.

Hope it goes well for you tonight.

[Starlight 1]

Forgot to say put the camera histogram on look for subs that come up with the RGB at about  1/3 up from the left will be your best subs .

[danccat]

I'm looking through the camera screen as it's viewing m42, my concern is that I can't see anything... No stars, nowt. Should I be concerned?

[happy-kat]

Take a 10 second exposure and see what you get

[Davey-T]

Try Jupiter, should show up in live view, nothing will be visible until you get near focus, is your RDF aligned with the scope ? if so you should be able to find Jupiter and wind focus in and out.

Don't have any filters in the view.

Dave

[Carina Lass]

Getting initial close to focus can be a nuisance with a dslr.

Centre on sirius or planet initially and look through the eyepiece.

[danccat]

Thanks for your replies guys, I'm afraid that last night was a disaster after 1 hr, 45 trying to capture m42, and seeing nothing but darkness I decided to end the shoot and stack the images, sadly to no result. It was a learning curve however and all will be used to ensure smoother future attempts.

[Davey-T]

Have a go in the daytime.

Dave