Imaging with the kit lens

[emyliano2000]

Hi guys.

Like the title says I'm planning to do some imaging of the night sky with the kit lens. The camera is astromodified and hopefully I will catch some of the milky way. Because I live in a red-orange area I will be using the IDAS LP clip in filter that I purchaced last month. In order to use it with the kit lens I had to cut the part that would've hit the filter.

The lens is 18-55mm EFS and from what I read on some topics here the best way to do it is at f3.5, set the lens focus to manual and focus to infinity. Maybe I'm being silly to ask this question but how do I focus to infinity? 

I'm thinking of using APT to capture the photos. Any thoughts on that?

I'm planning to attach the camera on top of the telescope onto a vixen dovetail bar that I'm not using at the moment and use one of the bolts that came with the tube rings. Is that a good idea? I also wanna try to align the camera with the OTA with the bolts at the ends of the bar. Here's a photo of it.

Regarding the camera settings, I was thinking of using the same settings that I use when I'm shooting at prime focus. Would that be ok or will I need to change anything?

For the exposure time I was thinking of 1min. My polar alignment will be spot on with the polemaster and the mount had been hypertuned so I think it can easily do 1 min unguided.

I wanna try with ISO 400 at first and if that's not enough go up to 800. Is that a good idea?

Thanks.

Emil

 

 

 

 

 

[happy-kat]

Hi

Personally I'd get a red dot finder that fits in the flash hot shoe (astroboot do one) and save weight and fit the camera to the tripod instead of the telescope using a dove bar or perhaps an L bracket. You can use live view to focus or if you have an android device look at DSLR Controller. Kit lens probably stop it down to f5.

[newbie alert]

For milky way the better images come from dark sites/skies ..so I'd forget the filter and drive..once the moon is up forget it.. you need a moon that's set..also plan the timing...dont know if you have an app to show you where it is but the area of interest is around deneb area at the moment..the central core is around spring time and the milky way overhead..at the moment it's standing upwards

[newbie alert]

Also for long exposures on nebulas/galaxies I shoot at iso 400-800..but for short 15 sec exposures of milky way on a tripod  I shoot at 800-1600....

[emyliano2000]

1 hour ago, newbie alert said:

 

For milky way the better images come from dark sites/skies ..so I'd forget the filter and drive..

 

I wish it would be that easy. The time I have is quite limited, work and 2 girls who are all over me when I'm at home. I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just wanna take a few shots in my back garden, stack them and see what comes out of it. 

[newbie alert]

Good luck

 

[dph1nm]

13 hours ago, emyliano2000 said:

The lens is 18-55mm EFS and from what I read on some topics here the best way to do it is at f3.5, set the lens focus to manual and focus to infinity. Maybe I'm being silly to ask this question but how do I focus to infinity? 

I use this lens on a 1000D - see http://community.dur.ac.uk/nigel.metcalfe/astro/canon1000d_kit.html

for some examples of what it can do.

I stick to f3.5 and ISO400 at 18mm. Never bother with a LP filter, even from heavily polluted skies. Works pretty well and you can lessen some of the distortions at the edge with the Canon tools (or with your favourite software - I use GIMP). I wouldn't go to higher ISO as the stars saturate too quickly.

Focussing is tricky! I always use manual focus. If there is a bright planet around (or some moon) I use the liveview screen - you can also just about do this with 1st mag stars. You do have to be pretty close to focus to see anything at all though. Failing that, I take test shots and tweak the focus a tiny amount till it is acceptable (and it really is tiny movements of the focussing ring that are needed!) by inspecting the zoomed image on the back of the camera.

NigelM

[emyliano2000]

1 hour ago, dph1nm said:

 

Focussing is tricky! I always use manual focus. If there is a bright planet around (or some moon) I use the liveview screen - you can also just about do this with 1st mag stars. You do have to be pretty close to focus to see anything at all though. Failing that, I take test shots and tweak the focus a tiny amount till it is acceptable (and it really is tiny movements of the focussing ring that are needed!) by inspecting the zoomed image on the back of the camera.

NigelM

Is there a bahtinov mask for a lens?

[Alien 13]

6 hours ago, dph1nm said:

I use this lens on a 1000D - see http://community.dur.ac.uk/nigel.metcalfe/astro/canon1000d_kit.html

for some examples of what it can do.

I stick to f3.5 and ISO400 at 18mm. Never bother with a LP filter, even from heavily polluted skies. Works pretty well and you can lessen some of the distortions at the edge with the Canon tools (or with your favourite software - I use GIMP). I wouldn't go to higher ISO as the stars saturate too quickly.

Focussing is tricky! I always use manual focus. If there is a bright planet around (or some moon) I use the liveview screen - you can also just about do this with 1st mag stars. You do have to be pretty close to focus to see anything at all though. Failing that, I take test shots and tweak the focus a tiny amount till it is acceptable (and it really is tiny movements of the focussing ring that are needed!) by inspecting the zoomed image on the back of the camera.

NigelM

I am a bit surprised that you can only see mag 1 stars on liveview, I can get to mag 7 or 8 at x10 zoom and have them to blink on/off with the slightest movement of the focus ring which gets perfect focus every time.

Alan

[GuLinux]

Actually I have the same problem with my liveview (EOS 700d): with the "standard" 18-55mm canon lens I can only see very bright stars, and only when zoomed at least 5x.

I also tried the same camera with a different lens (Samyang 85mm), and the situation is much better. I suspect it has something to do with the stars being too small, or the lens being too slow (f3.5 at best), in fact it's quite annoying!

[rockystar]

16 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I am a bit surprised that you can only see mag 1 stars on liveview, I can get to mag 7 or 8 at x10 zoom and have them to blink on/off with the slightest movement of the focus ring which gets perfect focus every time.

Alan

what do you use Alan? I'm luck if can see Mag1, but I think that's because the lens isn't fast enough, and possible the camera sensor not sensitive enough.

 

[Alien 13]

2 hours ago, rockystar said:

what do you use Alan? I'm luck if can see Mag1, but I think that's because the lens isn't fast enough, and possible the camera sensor not sensitive enough.

 

I used the kit lens wide open with a Canon 650D and the inbuilt flip out screen (not byeos or apt etc), the exposure set to 20 seconds and ISO 3200 (just for focusing) there is also a menu option to have live view simulate exposure (cant remember what the menu item is called or if it has to be on or off), at normal viewing you will only get the brighter stars but when you change to x10 all the faint stuff should be visible provided focus is spot on.

Alan

[rockystar]

my camera says I can't zoon in RAW, is that normal, and you change to a different format while setting up, and then change to RAW when you're ready?

[StargeezerTim]

Hi, you should be able to get 5 mins plus if you are tracking. Longer than that when you zoom out... I should perhaps try F 4 or slower and see if coma is a proble. If not, then try your faster apertures. Have fun...