Noooob! Advice please! :)

[DeviantUK]

Hi all, hope you are all well!

After many years of wanting a telescope I finally took the plunge and 'impulse bought' a Skywatcher 1145PM, I did a few hours solid of research before buying, hope ive bought a reasonable starter scope!

Anyways I would like a few pointers and advice to get me going, I will fully admit im a complete noob so please bear with me!

I set my scope up best I could, waited for darkness to fall and went out into the back garden, had a look round (with my eyes) and was disapointed as there was no moon about! though I did see a really bright star to the south which I know now to be Jupiter(?) please correct me if im wrong.

Set my scope up to have a look, I think I started with the 25mm without the x2 Barlow lens, and yeah it was magnified! but still looked like a star. Then I used the 10mm with the Barlow and it became a lot bigger! but it looked very 'bright and blurry' by blurry I don't mean out of focus but glarey? if you get me?

I then tried putting my camera phone on the lens and took a few snaps (which should be below) again same effect.

Now the questions...

Am I likely to see anymore detail just looking through the scope? and can anyone suggest the optimum setup with the lenses I have?

For me to take pictures of the wonders in the sky what do I need? from reading many posts people are using digi camera's and webcams but taking videos? this confuses me totally! do you not just take one picture?

Thank you in advance,

...from a very confused beginner!

DeviantUK

[DeviantUK]

...oops forgot the pic!

[iamjulian]

Hello

I am also new. First couple of times I looked at Jupiter I saw similar to what you saw, but when I looked at it the other night it was much better, less bright and clearly showing the bands of colour. The bad news is I have no idea why the difference. Different atmospheric conditions perhaps? I am sure someone will be able to enlighten you (us!).

As for the video question. The quick answer is that people shoot with video then use computer software to split the video into lots of individual frames, and use the best/in focus frames to make a single image. Running a video for a minute or so is easier than clicking a shutter button thousands of times.

[Abernus]

I am also a complete noob and I too saw a bright star in the South last night. I rushed and set my telescope up, I too thought it was Jupiter and was very excited.....

But the best I could get was the same as you. I even tried it with my green moon filter on and still te same result.

As for taking pictures I have no idea. I was just going to try with my DSLR and my happy snap camera and see what results I get

I was using a 4" Meade telescope and I have been told I should be able to see some detail. So I hope it was just the conditions last night.

[Parallax]

I started off with a 4.5" reflector and I could make out the bands of Jupiter. Jupiter is quite low in the sky this year and we are viewing it through a lot of Earth's atmosphere so you wont be getting the best views. You will find that the longer you look at the object (any object) then the more detail you will be able to see. Don't bother with the 10mm in conjunction with the barlow - it's just too much for that scope, unless the seeing conditions are very good.

As for taking images...

You've already found out that it's not as easy as it looks! The hardest part is getting the focus right. Just because it looks right for the eye, it doesn't mean it's right for the camera. Next up is exposure. Your camera is trying to adjust the exposure to be very bright because most of what it can 'see' is black. You need to be in control of the exposure.

Keep at it and good luck.

HTH

Steve

[themos]

If you used a x2 Barlow with a 10mm eyepiece on a 500mm focal length mirror, you were using magnification of 500/(10/2) = 500/5 = 100. That is a good power for the planets and there's not much sense in trying to get more magnification out of that scope (unless it's a night of very steady "seeing" and we get a handful of those a year). The short focal length of your scope makes it more suited to bigger objects in the sky, such as the moon and star clusters.

As far as photography is concerned, your first option in putting a compact camera or phone-camera to the eyepiece and holding it steady. That's known to work for the moon. For the other bright objects, you'd need a way to hold the camera steady and manage the focusing yourself. The second option is to get a webcam, remove its lens and the telescope eyepiece and attach it (with a special adapter) to the focuser tube. You'll need a computer for this, obviously. You then focus carefully and shoot a short video (few minutes). You then use software that finds the clearest frames in your video, combines them to enhance the detail and produces a single image. A third option is to go for long exposures. You'll need a sturdy, tracking equatorial mount for that and a DSLR camera. There's more options after that...

[Craig H]

Hi DeviantUK, I'm a relative newcomer to astronomy ( with a scope anyways ) myself....It was exactly the same for me at first, but over the last six months or so i've been able to pick out more and more detail in the planets..(only seen Saturn and Jupiter so far but they are fantastic)...that is to say the more you practice at it the better you'll get, so don't be too disapointed...

As said above a lot depends on seeing as to wether you can see details...The higher up in the sky the planet is the better the view gets, and you'll find that if you look at it for long enough the view will suddenly come into focus and you'll be able to discern more detail.......then it'll go murky again!........I've spent hours looking at the planets and eventually you DO get rewarded..

Keep at it.

regards craig.

[DeviantUK]

Wow thank you all for the quick responses and helpful advice it is very much appreciated.

Ive dug out an old webcam and rigged/bodged a mount I just need to wait for a clear sky to test it...and there aint gonna be one here tonight!

I did get a DC motor with my scope which seems to be cheap and cheerful but does look like it will work pretty well, I do need to configure it though.

Ive downloaded the K3CCDTool could anyone give me a few ideas on what settings 'should' work best?

Also could do with some pointers on camera setup, my Nokia camera phone (5mp) takes brilliant photo's though Im guessing I need to set different options for these photo's, here are the options I have to play with...

Scene: Auto/Close-up/Portrait/Landscape/Sports/Night/Night-Portrait

Flash: obviously off!

White Balance: Auto/Sunny/Cloudy/Incandescent/Flourescent

Exposure Comp: 2.0+ to -2.0 (.5 increments)

ISO: Auto/Low/Medium/High

Contrast: 10.0+ to -10.0 (.5 increments)

Sharpness: Hard/Normal/Soft

Thanks again!

Ill keep everyone updated on my progress!

[DAVPPK]

Webcams are good for planets, so they should be O.K.!!

[John]

Remember to take the lens off the webcam - your scope acts as the lens.

John

PS: Sorry, I can see now that you have already been advised of this !.

[Capricorn]

The image posted looks the same as I saw Saturday. Then I turned the little knob and focussed the image.

Even if you focussed the image with one eyepiece you will probably have to refocus if you change the eyepiece. Until you start spending £50-60 on eyepieces thay are usually not parfocal. Then they have to be the same eyepiece set.

With about 100x magnification you should have seen a small disc, couple of brownish bands and 4 small dots (2 either side).

The main point is "a small disc". TINY.

See the smilies on the side, Jupiter would appear about the size of one of them with a mag of 100x. I used 70x and that is a pretty good approximation.

[Bizibilder]

Hi DeviantUK

I've attached a photo here for you to see what can happen with a bit of luck! It was taken by hand holding my 7Mp "point and shoot" camera to the eyepiece of my new telescope (a SW 200P) just to see what happened. I took four shots, one of which was a blur and the other three were clear enough to see that the object was the Moon . I just allowed the camera to decide on exposure time etc. I didn't write it down but I suspect the magnification used was 80x. There has been NO processing of the image EXCEPT to crop it to make it fewer pixels to upload here.

(I know its an awful image:( !! but it does show you what very basic equipment can do - if you have a proper camera mount then you could expect MUCH better!)

I hope this helps!!

[tarqs101]

Hi,

I only have a 4inch 'scope. I set it up with a very cheap tesco webcam and got this as a result...

Jupiter-200809 editied.bmp

Keep going!!

Gavin

[DeviantUK]

Thank you all for your responses I have a lot to go on now! just need to wait for the skies to clear :|

In regards to the webcam I have am I right in thinking I take the ONLY lens off and have the sensor bare?

Oh and what settings should I be using in K3CCDTools? generally...

Thanks again!

[tarqs101]

That's right. The lens on mine just unscrewed. Dead easy!

I can't really give you settings as each webcam is different and what worked for some people didn't work for me. I used videoimpression in the end to capture then stacked the framed in K2CCDTools.

I did find a good tutorial online here. It gives you an idea of rough settings and setting your webcam up.

Gavin

[The Warthog]

Dont get too excited about photography. You can maximize your view of Jupiter with a 6mm ep and a little patience. Or you can use your 10mm ep and a 2x Barlow to get good results. You need to spend time athe the eyepiece to see the features of Jupiter as the atmosphere allows you to see them, sometimes only a fraction of a second at a time. You can't achieve Hubble, or even Palomar images with a 4.5" scope, but you can see detail on Jupiter with your own eyes, and watch the dance of the moons from night to night.