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Hi from Essex

Dwayne

By Dwayne
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Dwayne

Dwayne

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Hi all just joined last night and awoke with a headache after far too much reading . 

A little about what led me here , I have been a keen photographer for a few years now , mostly nature or landscapes with a newly found  passion for electrical storms .As I got older I'm 49 now you realise that life doesn't go on forever so I made a bucket list of natures great events I wanted to photograph , Aurora , lightning , shooting stars  the list is slowly getting shorter .

A full eclipse is always something that has fascinated me , I tried to get to the Pharoe Islands earlier on in the year , left it way to late , who knew eclipse watching was so popular I could get flights but no accommodation and all hire cars rented out . So I left essex at 4am and drove north till I hit clear skies and got some great shots of the transition . I shot with a Canon 5D3 with a 300mm lens and using a 7D and 400mm with a 1.4x extension I got the extra reach of cropped sensor , it was fascinating to see sunspots with my own eyes and a real wow moment to see valleys and peaks on the moon , " I want more of this "  Now that in my photography terms inevitably leads to the buying of a new lens  ..... I saw in someone's tag " helping  to boost the economy " yeh that's me.

Far from being disappointed with my shots Canons L series lenses really are great optics , I just wanted more reach and being a fan of timelapse I know I needed a tracker scope ,as the most disappointing side of the experience was not fully enjoying the spectacle to constantly adjust both cameras .  The thing that finally made me get the credit card out was the venus jupiter conjunction the 400mm combo really didn't do it justice .

  I am 99% sure to be off to Indonesia next march and hopefully kill two of the bucket list birds with one stone ,  a full eclipse viewed over an active volcano , oh man my stomach is all knotted up with excitement just thinking about it .Terrestrial and celestial in the same photo. May make that my sig .

Now I may have jumped the gun a bit in buying my scope , "how many people like me must come here and say " I wish I had found this site before I got my scope " hahahaha quite a few I reckon .

Anyway what's done is done and I feel this is only the start to my journey into the heavens so I'm sure I shall continue to  be an asset to the economy .

I bought a Celestron 8 evolution with t piece and adapter rings a set of celestron lenses ,and a dew shield and baader solar filter  .I will be getting a couple of books I have seen recommended on here .

So that's my introduction and I look forward to getting to know you all better . I have a question to ask as part of my introduction and some advice  that may well help a few of you like me in a damp climate , I'm lucky to live where I can leave the camera all night clicking away taking star photos to stack but always had a problem with dew , I remembered whilst in Norway for the aurora using the oxygen triggered heat pads to keep the batteries warm in the camera blanket , so I put them around the lens under the rain cover , dew problem solved . I don't like the idea of carrying extra batteries for the dew heater so will try using an emergency reflective blanket cut to size pop in a couple of heat pads and seal up with velcro  , good for 6 hours . of course this may well have been tried .

the question I have for you is , do I need a Celestron pro wedge , I kinda have a feeling I do .

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Dave grim

Dave grim

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Yes you will need a wedge with that setup to be able to do any astrophotography , you might be able to find one second hand on ABS or eBay which will save you a few quid . Welcome to the forum you will find this forum a friendly bunch with great advice.

Dave

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Dwayne

Dwayne

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Thanks for the warm  welcome guys , Dave thanks mate I thought I might need the wedge after reading through the forum a bit last night . it does seem like an expense new but I have just had a long awaited rise hence buying the scope , I will order one . I spent ages umming and ahhing about getting a rail for macro photography , such expense for a few screws and a camera mounting plate , but it opened up a whole new world in stacking macro photo's . No more ummming and ahhhing  :grin:

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Dwayne and welcome to SGL - If you've not already done so and you think that imaging Deep Space Objects (such as nebulas' and galaxies) may be your thing then can I suggest buying a copy of the book Making Every Photon Count. You can get it from the FLO website in the book section  - Link to FLO at top of page - it's something of an imagers bible and a book that all imagers should have sight of at some stage!

Look forward to seeing you around :)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Dwayne and welcome to the forum. Might be worth posting your question over on the beginners equipment section as more people visit that area than here.  :smiley:

Clear skies, enjoy the forum and hope you can take some great images of your trip, would be great to see some astro related ones here.

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