Small scope Luna challenge

[nightfisher]

I have been having the usual set to with registax so ended up with a single frame from this morning using ED80 and 1000D, i had to pull the nosepiece halfway out of drawtube to get focus, had visions of my 1000D ending up in bits on the paving slabs

[Mr Spock]

Very nice Michael, you should do more Luna imaging, and now you have a new camera all the more reason 

The D7200 manages 60fps in HD video so hopefully I can use that to good effect.

[johnfosteruk]

Lovely shots chaps. Jules why not tie the camera strap around the tube for security. 

[Aussie Dave]

Still pushing the Tasco 60mm frac, this time with an Orion Expanse 20mm EP and some optical zoom with the Fujifilm compact.

[Scooot]

That's nice Dave. You've really created an impression of brightness whilst retaining detail.

[Aussie Dave]

On 18/09/2016 at 20:18, nightfisher said:

I have been having the usual set to with registax so ended up with a single frame from this morning using ED80 and 1000D, i had to pull the nosepiece halfway out of drawtube to get focus, had visions of my 1000D ending up in bits on the paving slabs

Do you have a 2x Barlow Jules? A shorty would be best by the sound of it. Unscrew the lens off the Barlow and use it as an extension tube. It may save some tears in the future. The only negative to doing this is you may get some droop with the weight of your DSLR.

[Aussie Dave]

Here's another shot from this morning with just some sharpening, cropped and resized to 80%

I've found in all my shots doing afocal with a compact digital camera that I can get only certain parts of the moon in reasonably good focus and that's along the Terminator, however around the edge and down the bottom, focus is poor. Would a field flattener be of any use to me with afocal? I'm assuming the problem is with the small lens design of the camera I'm using.

[nightfisher]

7 hours ago, Aussie Dave said:

Do you have a 2x Barlow Jules? A shorty would be best by the sound of it. Unscrew the lens off the Barlow and use it as an extension tube. It may save some tears in the future. The only negative to doing this is you may get some droop with the weight of your DSLR.

I think the problem is with the point and shoot camera trying to auto focus on a mainly grey area, i use my pentax optio in manual focus

[xtreemchaos]

heres some i took on the 20-9-16 11pm with my ed80, 1200d in 1:1 crop mode iso 100. now you may be thinking that these are the same pics posted in the moon sec, but your wrong, these are entiley new ones which i hand sorted from a set i took from a different set i took 15min before the ones i posted in the moon sec are you with me " . if i had to only have 2 scopes it would be the little ed and my 200p, amazing little frac for its size. thanks for looking. clear skys, charl.

wide

closer crop.

extra closer crop top

extra closer crop bottom

[johnfosteruk]

Stunning Charl 

[Astro Imp]

WOW, so much detail, excellent, well done charl.

[ArmyAirForce]

Three pane mosaic from 09:59 on Friday morning, shot through thin cloud. ASI120MM-S with Astronomik 742nm IR Pass filter on my Evostar 80ED.

[johnfosteruk]

Lovely

[Bobby1970]

The moon this evening. Sony A57, Skywatcher ST80, handheld, single frame.

 

[Astro Imp]

Nice one Bobby I've been looking at this earlier 'til the moon disappeared behind the neighbour's roof.

[johnfosteruk]

That's a cracker Bobby, well done sir.

[ArmyAirForce]

The Moon was a tricky find tonight at just 2 degrees altitude above the horizon - yes, it is there!! 385795Km from Earth, 64.5% illuminated, 9.63 days old. A single RAW Nikon D3200 shot with the x2 teleconverter and Tamron 70-300mm lens.

A couple of hours later, I shot a 1 minute MOV video with the camera balanced on the lounge window sill, and got this.

Tomorrow, DHL should be bringing me a Celestron 76mm Firstscope for my daughter. I'll be interested to see what I can get from that with the ASI120MM camera.

[ArmyAirForce]

Permission to engage smug mode !!

First light for the Celestron Firstscope 76mm tonight, both visual and imaging. Unfortunately by the time the clouds had cleared, little legs had gone to bed after a tiring school trip, so I didn't wake her. Anyway, all tests done from the uncooled scope on the lounge window sill, with all the warm air rushing out around me - so far from ideal conditions. Focus with the single speed focusser is delicate, especially with the 4mm eyepiece, but under the conditions, gave very acceptable views for a 300mm focal length beginners scope. It's a long way from my Evo 80ED and 200PDS, but so is the price!

As with many newtonian scopes, focus wasn't possible out of the box with a camera fitted. However, unscrewing the plastic 1.25" adapter from the top of the draw tube, gave me an extra 1/4 inch inward travel for the ASI120MM-S camera, though it had to be held still with Blu-tac to keep it centred and still. But, first image achieved, from just 50% of 394 frames, with cloud drifting over the Moon. The combination of poor seeing from both the sky and operating location, plus clouds didn't encourage good results, but hey, look what it managed!

Armed with this knowledge, I plan to make an alternative focusser which will hopefully have enough travel for imaging and visual.

[Bobby1970]

The moon from last night, 11/10/16.

Skywatcher ST80, Star Adventurer, Altair Astro GP Cam Colour with focal reducer.

Couple of minutes video, Registax and Photos on my macbook.

 

[Bobby1970]

Mare Imbrium area. 

ST80, Star Adventurer, Altair Astro GP Cam Colour.

Used the "ROI" feature in the Altair capture software. Couple of minutes worth of video, Registax, Photos (macbook).

 

Thanks for looking

 

[johnfosteruk]

A selection taken over the last month or so using my Skywatcher 102.

The main purpose is actually to put together a sequence showing the cycle but it shows off the scopes abilities (which I'm surprised at for an achro) nicely.

Best viewed at full size.

[ArmyAirForce]

I tried a month of phases in 2015 with my Evo 80ED. I did fairly well for all shot in one month.

[johnfosteruk]

1 minute ago, ArmyAirForce said:

I tried a month of phases in 2015 with my Evo 80ED. I did fairly well for all shot in one month.

That's a fantastic effort

 

[ArmyAirForce]

99.8% illuminated Moon, 357755Km from Earth, 14.78 days old, altitude 12° 57', apparent diameter 33.40'. Another with the ASI120MM camera on my daughter's Celestron 76mm Firstscope. 25% of 2000 frames stacked in Autostakkert!2 and wavelets in Registax v5.1. Also shown is my, ahem....."Imaging Rig" !!!

[Aussie Dave]

Great setup Stephen and results from the little reflector, love it.