Bright DSO Observing With DSLR

[Howie_Oz]

Not really using Video ala VideoAstronomy, but have been fiddling with DSLR's over the past year to 18 months with AstroToaster and posted up stuff on other forums. Kinda left SGL out. Sorry. It may be in the "wrong" section so I am sure the mods will move it as required. 

Herniated inoperable disks so turned to cameras 3 years ago. HEQ5 PRO with 200p f5 Newt, unguided, full spectrum modded Canon 650d, and unmodded 700d.

Single 30 second and 15 second small fine setting jpegs.

Been showing the technique to some astro clubs here in South East Queensland Australia, and shot a live desktop video capture out at their dark sky site to show members how it works. So far the Astrophotographers have shown a bit more interest than the visual guys. It is different to visual for sure. But for me, all I have done is replace the eyepiece with a camera as I cannot bend into eyepieces at wierd angles. The aim for me is still to slew to a bunch of objects in the couple of hours or so session, and marvel at them as I used to with eyeballs! Not to sit on one target and "image" the whole night away sitting beside the scope checking if the guide cam is still locked on. LOL. Nothing wrong with that if that's your bag

Anyway, maybe some SGL folk will be interested. Here's some cut and paste jpegs off the YouTube video as teasers, and the link below to the YouTube vid showing 45 minutes of live desktop video (excuse the way too long 7 minutes or so of intro) where I head off to 10 objects. Normally I spend at least half an hour looking up info on each object I get to, marvelling at the image I "see". But in this case it was (a) really for the astro club as a demo; and (b) the wind at the site just got worse and worse.

 

The link to my vid is ... https://youtu.be/85CYhrOU6WU

 

[beka]

Hi Howie_Oz,

This is very interesting. I am also doing some "casual" astrophotography with  a DSLR and liking that I can take single 5sec to 20sec shots that reveal features I do not see at the eyepiece, without any additional processing on a computer. Your setup goes a step further I guess. Another plus for me is that I have a better record of my observing session (as  in a picture is worth a thousand words  ). I feel that this is a kind of intermediate area between the dedicated astrophotography on one hand, and purely visual on the other that many may find appealing. 

 

[Howie_Oz]

Hi Beka, spot-on with your descriptions ... "between dedicated astrophotography on one hand, and purely visual on the other" .... and also ...  "better record of the observing session".