Viewing issue when setup with a DSLR

[AdmiralPrune]

HI, this is my first post, though i have been lurking around the forum for bit.

Firstly, apologies if this has ben asked before, i'm sure it has but i can't find a solution in the forum.

I bought a Bresser messier 8 Inch on a Dobsonian mount earlier in the year.  Initially i could not achieve focus with it then noticed it had another tube in the box, i believe its called a draw tube.  Once i fitted it i could achieve focus.

 A month or so i bought an eq6 mount which i'm controlling with stellarium, A week ago i bought a Canon 60d DSLR and a T mount. Initially i could not achieve focus.  Checking around the forum indicated that the issue was caused by the camera not being close enough so i removed the draw tube and i can now focus the camera.   The problem i am now having is that when i start the telescope I need to star align the telescope, i can't get a live feed through the camera to show any stars (not sure if i should be able to) so i need to fit one of the eyepieces to centre on the selected star.  I can't now achieve focus as the eyepiece is too close.  I could attach the draw tube to align and then remove it to fit the camera, but i don't really want to do that in the dark.  

I'm thinking that an eyepiece extender might fix this issue though i'm not sure, i've unscrewed the lens out of 2x Barlow and tried to use that to extend the distance to eyepiece but that hasn't worked.

Any advice woul dbe gratefully and thanks in advance 

Dean

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by AdmiralPrune

[picclock]

High Dean

I'm far from an expert on this,  but it might be possible to insert an off axis guider before the camera and use an eyepiece with that. 

Best Regards

picclock

[carastro]

Seeing anything "live view" with a DSLR is always difficult.  Are you attached to a laptop as that makes it easier to see and you don;t have to bend in awkward positions?  You can increase the ISO to make the star more visible, DSLRs tend to only show the major stars on live view and only if you have them in the field of view and in reasonable focus. 

Do you have a finderscope?   If you do, then try to align the finderscope with the camera during the daytime on a distant object, then at night, find the star in the finderscope, and then look with the DSLR and with the right focus it should come into view.  

HTH

Carole 

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by carastro

[happy-kat]

If you don't have a laptop but do have an Android device then the app DSLR Controller (if it supports your particular Canon) makes things easier. Test with the free by same developer remote release app

[AdmiralPrune]

Hi and thanks for the advice everyone.  I don't currently have an off axis guider Picclock, that may be a little way off in the future.  I do have a laptop controlling my scope.  I bought a suitably long cable to connect my camera to the laptop yesterday, naturally the clouds have come out again.  So it will be interesting to try that and see if the image is clearer on the screen.  Thanks for that advice Carole.  Actually i do have a finderscope, unfortuantely the furthest object i can see during the day is around 200m, i'm completely surrunded by houses. I suspected i may not see much through the live view on the camera but wasn't sure. So now i know.

Happy-Kat, i may try the android idea, it may be easier as my focuser is manual and i could hold my phone next to the focuser as i'm aattempting to focus.

Thanks again

Dean

[alacant]

On 20/09/2020 at 23:26, AdmiralPrune said:

Any advice

Hi

Simply focus by looping 1s exposures instead of live view. 

Cheers

[edarter]

I think you should be able to get live view, but you may need to disconnect the camera from USB control to do so.

I used to faff around swapping eye pieces etc as you describe  but then found a routine where I can just get live view with the camera, zoom in on a star to 10x magnification and then use a bhatinov mask to focus. The whole process takes a couple of minutes at most. 

[Shimrod]

9 hours ago, AdmiralPrune said:

Hi and thanks for the advice everyone.  I don't currently have an off axis guider Picclock, that may be a little way off in the future.  I do have a laptop controlling my scope.  I bought a suitably long cable to connect my camera to the laptop yesterday, naturally the clouds have come out again.  So it will be interesting to try that and see if the image is clearer on the screen.  Thanks for that advice Carole.  Actually i do have a finderscope, unfortuantely the furthest object i can see during the day is around 200m, i'm completely surrunded by houses. I suspected i may not see much through the live view on the camera but wasn't sure. So now i know.

Happy-Kat, i may try the android idea, it may be easier as my focuser is manual and i could hold my phone next to the focuser as i'm aattempting to focus.

Thanks again

Dean

If you haven't already done so, download the canon utilties from the canon website and install the EOS utility. This will let you control your camera from your laptop and also simulate live view. You also need to look for an option called exposure simulation so the liveview image represents what you might see after you have taken the shot. It includes intervalometer functions that include letting you set timed exposures longer than 30 seconds. You might want to check options in the software and make sure that you only download thumbnails to your laptop - I found transfer of full images flooded by USB bandwidth and caused other devices on the hub to stop functioning.

[dark knight]

I always used backyard eos for my canon camera control 

https://www.otelescope.com/files/category/3-backyardeos/

[Aramcheck]

As you're using a laptop to control the EQ6 mount, I'd suggest using APT (Astro Photography Tool) to control the camera. I've found that much easier than using the Camera live view screen, and if you start using APT's platesolving features, you can use it to locate & centre objects without the need to do any star-alignment.

I pick a bright star like Vega, which will be visible in APT's live view & a Bahtinov mask for focusing (along with APT's Bahtinov Aid tool). I platesolve the image, sync the mount in APT & then head to whatever target I want to photograph.

https://www.astrophotography.app/index.php

Cheers
Ivor

[Jamgood]

50 minutes ago, Aramcheck said:

As you're using a laptop to control the EQ6 mount, I'd suggest using APT (Astro Photography Tool) to control the camera. I've found that much easier than using the Camera live view screen, and if you start using APT's platesolving features, you can use it to locate & centre objects without the need to do any star-alignment.

I pick a bright star like Vega, which will be visible in APT's live view & a Bahtinov mask for focusing (along with APT's Bahtinov Aid tool). I platesolve the image, sync the mount in APT & then head to whatever target I want to photograph.

https://www.astrophotography.app/index.php

Cheers
Ivor

This ^^^^^^