Celestron astromaster 114eq dslr problems

[cthulhugazes]

So I’ve just got myself a telescope for the first time and really want to try my hand at astrophotography. I have the t-adapter and t-ring for my Nikon D40 dslr but my camera shows up saying ‘no lens attached’. 

I’ve tried googling it and frankly I have no clue what I’m doing, even trawled YouTube to no avail. From what I can see I need another tune thing?

can anyone explain to me in lay terms please? 

[cletrac1922]

Jody

Check out a forum a while ago on here for help with Nikon cameras

John

 

 

 

[kendg]

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1589167

This might help.

[RolandKol]

10 hours ago, cthulhugazes said:

So I’ve just got myself a telescope for the first time and really want to try my hand at astrophotography. I have the t-adapter and t-ring for my Nikon D40 dslr but my camera shows up saying ‘no lens attached’. 

I’ve tried googling it and frankly I have no clue what I’m doing, even trawled YouTube to no avail. From what I can see I need another tune thing?

can anyone explain to me in lay terms please? 

The First and the Main option you must to switch ON, is the Manual Mode (marked as "M" on the Mode Dial, the warning should disapear, if not, try to enable additionaly Manual Focusing in Custom Settings Menu (option "MF").
The second, - Image Quality set to Raw format;

The Third, - Start from ISO 800 for DSO and exposures not longer than 15sec as your mount is not a GOTO and longer exposures will produce EggShape stars or even worse.

If you have long enough USB cable to connect Nikon, use APT (free with some restrictions - https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx),   

On camera or on APT - make a test Image, lets say 15sec and look at the histogram, - it does Not have to touch the right side of the screen ,if it will, you will see white picture - overexposed. Histogram also does not have to touch the Left side.

So adjust ISO and the exposure accordingly, try Keeping Histogram Peek in the Middle of the screen.

(Later you will notice how using the same ISO and the same Exposure, sometimes histogram behaves differently due to the light polution, Moonshine and etc, so you must test and find your settings).

Practise on the Moon first, which is very bright so you can try ISO400 and exposure around 1/100 sec ( you can try even in the evening, - it does not have to be dark for the Moon pictures).
Once moon is Gone, try finding bright DSO, -  Orion is the best praciticing target, but it will show up properly in October only.

Also, find and disable the Noise reduction Option if it was enabled.

 

[Ricochet]

10 hours ago, cthulhugazes said:

So I’ve just got myself a telescope for the first time and really want to try my hand at astrophotography. I have the t-adapter and t-ring for my Nikon D40 dslr but my camera shows up saying ‘no lens attached’. 

I’ve tried googling it and frankly I have no clue what I’m doing, even trawled YouTube to no avail. From what I can see I need another tune thing?

can anyone explain to me in lay terms please? 

You need to turn the knob on top of the camera to "m" for manual. You then have to set iso and exposure time manually. You will then need to focus using the telescope focuser. However, it is unlikely that the telescope you have will be able to focus natively with a dslr. You will probably need to add a barlow between telescope and camera which will make the f/8.8 focal ratio of your scope even longer. This will limit you to lunar/planetary and you'll need to work out how to set the camera to video mode. 

The other option would be to simply hold your phone camera to the telescope eyepiece. 

If you're serious about (dso) astrophotography and not just wanting to try to get a picture with the equipment you already have then the book "Making every photon count" should be your first purchase. 

[cthulhugazes]

I sort of managed it with my phone, think I might need a new dslr though as it doesn’t have a video option. I will keep persevering though!

though i’m Impressed with my phones efforts!