Copernicus November 7 2008 with a Neximage & WO Megrez 72 APO

[Brinders]

Manged to get hold of a Celestron Neximage at a reasonable price so thought I'd try it on lunar with the little Megrez 72 APO on a Celestron SLT mount between clouds tonight. So far, I'm not as impressed with the results as I get from the CCD security cam I have previously used. Maybe because the Sony CCD is only 1/4" in the Neximage compared to the Sony 1/3" CCD in the security cam. Only advantage the Neximage appears to give me so far is greater control over the camera settings (I can only adjust the contrast and brightness on the security cam).

Still I was rather rushed trying to image between rapidly moving clouds. Next clear night I'll try it on the moon with the C9.25.

Anyway, here is the result. Copernicus early this evening through a WO Megrex 72 APO on a Celestron SLT mount, TAL 2 X barlow and Celestron Neximage with an Atik infrared blocking filter. About 500 frames at 1/30 sec stacked in Registax and scudding cloud!

(click to enlarge)

[LostNSpace]

Its still not a bad capture even if you are not impressed with the neximage........

Mark

[Brinders]

Thanks Mark, because of the threat of rain and incessant cloud, I wasn't able to play around with the exposure settings as much as I would like, so I'll reserve judgement until I get a better clearer sky. I might try the flash upgrade to RAW also, but I want to thoroughly try the camera out in it's native format first.

Brinders

[LostNSpace]

Yes your better getting the most out of the camera before upgrading it to RAW format......

Since Feb this year i havent used anything other than my DSLR to image, shooting in RAW format is great, i wont entertain Jpegs now........

Imaging the moon isnt really my forte, i do occasionally grab some images of different stages of the moon when its very prominent in the sky as it is at the moment........but can never capture any decent images of the moon with the DSLR compared with members who use the neximage or similar cameras.......I suppose with a bit more practice on imaging the moon things will improve over time......

Mark