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first afocal with skywatcher camera adaptor


axolotl

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I treated myself to an adaptor from FLO Adaptors - Skywatcher Universal Camera Adapter

to attach my digital compact to my scope (Skyliner 200 Dob) and took a few pictures of the moon last night. I'm not sure the pictures are better than those taken without the adaptor, but it certainly makes it easy to take a large number of images in a short time. Here's the best of those first efforts

post-14204-133877381624_thumb.jpg

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That's a great afocal shot with a digital compact - certainly better than my first humble attempt!

Hope you don't mind(?), but I had a little tweek to 'up' the definition around the terminator....

Damian

post-16760-133877381661_thumb.jpg

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Glad that was OK!

Nothing too difficult really. A new layer in Photoshop with adjustments to:

levels, curves, brightness/contrast . A tad of the despeckle and unsharp mask filters - hey presto!

If you can adjust the settings on the camera, I would advise shooting at a lower ISO number (100-200 should be fine*), shoot RAW also to reduce .jpeg artifacts and retain the most info coming off the senser (or the highest quality .jpeg setting), and it's always best to slightly under expose if possible (-1/3 - 2/3 ev - experiment). I know that my little Canon Powershot can manage that, so perhaps yours can to?

To aid stability release the shutter via the timer function (if you don't have a cable release).

I don't know about a compact, but certainly with a DSLR it's can be advisable to cover the viewfinder to stop any stray light entering through the back of the camera......IT ALL HELPS!

* now that you aren't hand-holding the camera to the eyepiece you should be able to get away with a slower shutter speed - even on an undriven mount - it's going to be a compromise between speed (to stop any movement from the moon, wind and vibrations) and quality (or lack of from increasing the ISO speed).

Hope that helps?!

Regards and good luck....

Damian

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Thanks Damian, some good advice there. I was using ISO 800 so will try a bit lower next time. I have photoshop elements but I have to admit that the layers function is a bit of a mystery to me, but I will have a play with it.

thanks again

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You're welcome!

Any problems with old Photoshop - drop me a line and I'll do my best to help...

PS The 'other half' took a look over my shoulder whilst I was replying - she loves the Avatar (and his little smiley face)!!!!:)

Regards

Damian

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