Hello to everyone! Im new to astronomy forums.

[Leonid]

First of all I want to say hello to SGL community! 

I am an amateur astronomer/astrophotographer from Estonia. My brother made me a present some 5 years ago - Bresser Quasar 80/900 refractor, and I got carried away...

For now, I have made some upgrades to my equipment and bought some utilities, and even made some pictures. I would like to share with you my best so far. Nothing special, but an achievement for me. This is a single shot 2.5 minute exposure of the Cassiopea+Andromeda region of the night sky. The sky was dark and clear, light pollution was clearly visible (only 10km from the city), some moisture was present (camera lense got misty after ~1.5 minute exposure), however I am quite happy with the result. 

Equipment: Canon EOS1100D 18-55mm (set to 18mm, 400ISO, 2.5 exposure, largest aperture, neutral WB, RAW), Bresser RA Motor, Bresser Quasar mount, Viltrox JY-710 remote shutter controller, and a hand-made polar alignment device. Another picture attached with my mount (sorry for the background). I cut from a piece of wood a hand-made holder for Bresser Quasar finder scope and attached it to the polar axis of the mount to make a more-or-less "accurate" polar alignment. (Viltrox shutter control is not on the picture).

On the picture of the sky the M31, M32, M33, M34, M110, Double Cluster, Heart and Soul neblae regions are clearly visible, which made me go "WOW" the moment I opened the RAW file in Lightroom. However, as can be seen, stars do drift a little bit due to either a) inaccurate polar alignment, or b ) inaccurate RA motor speed.

My plans for future updates are: 1) Install another finder scope near the camera itself to better point the camera and thus use more zoom (for now I just roughly point it towards the desired area in the sky). 2) Make an illuminated reticle for both finder scopes for better polar alignment (maybe fluorescent). 

I would gladly appreciate your comments and recommendations! For now I personally have the following questions:

1) How to keep the moisture out? (last time the lens got misty after 1.5 minutes of exposure. The whole day was sky-clear, no rain. However the field I was standing on during the session was covered with dew)

2) How to better edit the pictures in Lightroom? (for now I just tweak the settings so that it looks better to the eye, but I am quite sure that this will not give me true colors of the stars etc...)

3) How to better focus on the star at night? (for now I use a bright star as a guide to focus on, but this is not very comfortable because I have to re-position the camera every time since there may be no bright stars in the area of interest)

4) How to start shooting nebulae? (filters, utilities, exposure times etc)

5) Please advise any other astronomy/astrophotography forums that you find useful (especially interested in Europe region).

6) Any other comments appreciated!

 

I am thinking of buying a new mount with accurate RA motor etc, but for now I want to squeeze the maximum out of what I have - it is nevertheless fascinating!

 

Thank you!

[PeterCPC]

Hello Leonid and welcome.

Peter

[SteveNickolls]

Hi Leonid, Thanks for your post. You ought to go over to the, 'Welcome' section and say a hello to everyone. All the foks on SGL are friendly and very helpful too :-)

Well done with your photo, it's exciting to find what a camera can reveal of the night sky. The good news is that there is a lot to image up there.

I can't answer all your questions but i'm sure others will be able to help with some specific points. I have found a hand warmer fastened onto the lens barrel will act as a good means of keeping dew at bay. There are other solutions but low tech has its attractions. When using a wide lens most stars are often very difficult to see in 'Live View' but a very bright one such as Capella might just suffice to be usable. You could instead focus on a distant streetlight and see how that performs for you. As you have obviously caught the imaging 'bug' you will be ok buying additional equipment, sometimes people need not to outlay too much money if they are unsure if imaging is for them. You might want to look on the SGL/Getting Started with Imaging/'No EQ Challenge' thread to see how many of us began with simple Alt-Az equipment. If that appeals there is a good book from FLO-https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/astrophotography-on-the-go-book.html However if you want to jump in with EQ imaging I'm sure others here will advise you well.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Steve

[Leonid]

Hi Steve, Thank you for the reply!

I have a book by Allan Hall - Getting Started_Long Exposure Astrophotography, which was very interesting to read, but I think I am a bit far from applying the techniques described. 

Yes, I use Capella for focusing - I catch it in 'Live View', magnify the image and hand-focus until the star looks OK. However, I am not happy with this OK part of the process because it is rough and not all the time accurate (sometimes a better focus, sometimes worse). Is there some other way of ensuring that I have a best possible focus? 

I will say hello in the "Welcome" section!

Cheers!

 

[happy-kat]

Hi

1- i use a red dot finder fitted into the camera flash hot shoe for alignment.

2- make a dew shield even from a roll of black card will help keep dew off. My dew shield is made from a stiff sheet of acetate flocked and rolled held on with rubber bands.

3-ideally focus a star on the third intersection area it evens out focus then reposition camera, choose a star to focus on from the same round about area of sky.

I'll add a image to illustrate later.

4-stopping the lens down could help star shapes across the image.

5-budgetastro.net great videos to get going with using DSS use version 3.3.4 and lightroom will probably manage most of what the videos cover.

6- I connect my camera to my android device using dslr controller it is great for focusing.

 

Good luck on your next try.

 

 

[SteveNickolls]

5 hours ago, Leonid said:

However, I am not happy with this OK part of the process because it is rough and not all the time accurate (sometimes a better focus, sometimes worse). Is there some other way of ensuring that I have a best possible focus? 

Hi,

Focusing is that part of imaging preparation to take as much time over as you need to as everything you image will be affected by your judgement. I do feel imaging with a wide lens puts pressure on you deciding when a star is in focus to the greatest test but if you spend time going from slightly out of focus one way, then into sharp focus and out again you will better judge the best position for focus on the 'Live View' screen. If you went to the extent of using software such as BYEOS to control imaging some lenses will allow the programme to control focus over USB and you can use the 'Full Width Half Maximum' (FWHM) tool in the Frame and Focus Interface to that end and view everything on a laptop screen. As happy-kat mentions above an Android tablet or phone could be used to control a Canon camera using the DSLR Controller app with an OTG (On The Go) cable and view on a bigger screen. In the end it is really what suits you and you get to develop confidence in whatever process/technique you end up using.

Cheers,
Steve

[Leonid]

Steve and happy-kat, thanks for the info! Will try DSLR Controller next time!

 

 

[happy-kat]

First test using dslr remote release by the same developer it is free and checks connectivity to the camera from your mobile device, no all android devices can connect to your canon.

[Leonid]

ok got it thanks!

[happy-kat]

It works very well with the kit lens, practice during day light.