Unable to Focus

[Doug64]

Hi,

I have a Skywatcher 80ED and on the drawtube I have removed the Skywatcher drawtube fitting and have fitted a Baader click lock for the 80ED.  (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-click-lock-2956256-m56-celestron-skywatcher.html).  I also have a Canon 550d which has a Canon T ring attached and to this I have the Skywatcher 0.85 reducer for the 80ED (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-85x-reducer-flattener-for-ed80.html) and to this I have attached a FLO 2" attachment ( https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-2-inch-t-mount-camera-adapter.html.

When I attach this to the drawtube using the Baader attachment I can image the moon and sun but I am unable to focus on any starts etc.  I think the Baader click lock may be extending the optical train so I don't have enough inwards focus.

Is anyone using the above set up, if you are, can you reach focus on the stars etc.  I'm trying to rule out the Baader Click Lock being the reason why I cannot reach focus.

Once I get clear skies I'm going to attach the 0.85 reducer directly to the drawtube to see if this will allow me to reach focus.

I'm using Backyard EOS to operate the camera and take images.

Doug

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Knighty2112]

I think if you can focus on the moon the stars should be no problem too as the focus settings for both theses objects using the same equipment will be the same. In fact sometimes it is better to focus on the Moon first to know you've got the scope in sharp focus first, and then got to other objects/stars after this. I do this with a normal scope, so in reality I don't see why the focus on the camera cannot be achieved if you can focus successfully on the Moon. 

[Doug64]

I'm at a loss also,  last night I got some nice images and video footage of the moon using my DSLR, I could view the image on my computer using Backyard EOS.   I then turned the scope to look at some constellations / clusters but I could not see anything even though I increased the ISO From 100 through to 1600.  As I could not see anything I then tried to re-focus but it made no difference.

When I turned the scope back to the moon and turned down the ISO I was able to focus on the moon again and again I could see it on the computer.

 

Does anyone know what I may be doing wrong.

Doug

 

 

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Have you got a focal reducer fitted? You probably won't see anything via a dslr (especially without a reducer) unless you're pointing at a bright star. What software are you using for image capture? You may need to expose for several seconds or more to acquire a suitable image to check focus.

Louise

[Alien 13]

As already said if you can focus the Moon and have some focus travel left in both directions you should have no problems with any object that is at infinity. I dont use a laptop myself preferring the camera screen but to get a bright enough image you may have to temporarily up the ISO to near max and change the shutter speed to 30 seconds, zooming in on live view helps to.

Alan

[higgins]

I'm not familiar with canon but on my nikon d5300, changing ISO does has no effect on liveview unless i go into the movie settings and change to manual movie settings. This is inconvenient as when ready to take images i must change settings back or  I'm limited to 1/50 sec exposure. Maybe your canon has a similar annoyance.

[Thalestris24]

4 minutes ago, higgins said:

I'm not familiar with canon but on my nikon d5300, changing ISO does has no effect on liveview unless i go into the movie settings and change to manual movie settings. This is inconvenient as when ready to take images i must change settings back or  I'm limited to 1/50 sec exposure. Maybe your canon has a similar annoyance.

Iso settings do affect liveview on Canons. Find it strange that liveview isn't influenced by iso on a nikon.

Louise

[feilimb]

I suspect it is that your exposure length is too short, and that the live view function on Canon DSLRs will only show you very bright stars (which may even be washed out if the moon is nearby).  Try using an exposure time of eg. 15 seconds at ISO 1600 to pick up some stars.

[Doug64]

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi

Have you got a focal reducer fitted? You probably won't see anything via a dslr (especially without a reducer) unless you're pointing at a bright star. What software are you using for image capture? You may need to expose for several seconds or more to acquire a suitable image to check focus.

Louise

 

Hi and thanks for the reply.

I have the Skywatcher 0.85 focal reducer specifically designed for the ED80 fitted to my set-up.

I use Backyard EOS for image capture and this is specifically designed to work with Canon cameras and I control everything that the camera does and how the image is captured via the software.

I can focus on the moon and take images however when I turn the scope to a cluster etc I see nothing, I can use liveview via the software and zoom in to 5 X but still nothing, when I increase the ISO like I did last night from 100, 400, 800, 1600 etc I still saw nothing just xome noise on the screen generated by the camera. 

Doug

 

 

[Doug64]

56 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

As already said if you can focus the Moon and have some focus travel left in both directions you should have no problems with any object that is at infinity. I dont use a laptop myself preferring the camera screen but to get a bright enough image you may have to temporarily up the ISO to near max and change the shutter speed to 30 seconds, zooming in on live view helps to.

Alan

Hi,

I use Backyard EOS to control my camera and it is specifically designed for the Canon cameras and when I up ther ISO and use live view with 5 X zoom I still see nothing just some camera noise on the screen.

When I focus on the moon IO do have some focus left both ways on the drawtube soi like you I should be able to see some stars to focus on but i'm. not

I took this image of the moon using my camera and scope last night using 5X zoom just to see that I could image with my set up, nothing has been done to this image and the pink is due to it being a modified camera.

 

[Doug64]

12 minutes ago, feilimb said:

I suspect it is that your exposure length is too short, and that the live view function on Canon DSLRs will only show you very bright stars (which may even be washed out if the moon is nearby).  Try using an exposure time of eg. 15 seconds at ISO 1600 to pick up some stars.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I'll give this a go next time I have clear skies, although I was looking to the east to try and locate some stars well away from the moon.  I'm sure you can use liveview on Canon cameras to locate stars but for some reason its not working for me at the moment.

Doug

 

[geordie85]

2 hours ago, Doug64 said:

I'm at a loss also,  last night I got some nice images and video footage of the moon using my DSLR, I could view the image on my computer using Backyard EOS.   I then turned the scope to look at some constellations / clusters but I could not see anything even though I increased the ISO From 100 through to 1600.  As I could not see anything I then tried to re-focus but it made no difference.

When I turned the scope back to the moon and turned down the ISO I was able to focus on the moon again and again I could see it on the computer.

 

Does anyone know what I may be doing wrong.

Doug

 

 

My best guess is that even though you increased the ISO, did you remember to also increase the exposure time? I'd imagine you took a 1/250 second exposure for the moon (or somewhere around there) but for stars you need a much longer exposure. 

Does this sound familiar or like it may solve your problem?

[frugal]

Live View will need a much higher ISO (like 6400, 12800 high) to be able to see anything. I think Backyard EOS sets the LiveView ISO separately to the capture liveview. Check to see what ISO LiveView is set to.

I tend to take a "test" image of 10 seconds at ISO6400 to see what is actually there.

[Alien 13]

I also think that the exposure time might have been left on the settings for Lunar, I use mine at something like 20 seconds but anything from 5-30 should be ok but not bulb. There might also be a menu setting for "live view exp simulation" or similar that might be worth playing with but I dont know how this works on a PC screen, as I said previously I only ever use the camera screen and I can not only see lots of faint stars but nebulosity.

Alan

[Doug64]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies,

I will check the exposure files contained within the log files for Backyard EOS to see what my setting where, I'm sure your on the right track with regards to my user error and forgetting to alter the exposure time even though I altered the ISO settings.  I'm just watching the instructional video for Backyard EOS again to see if I missed something else out but I now think it was the exposure setting.

Thanks again

Doug