Lunar Imaging with Canon 350d and Skywatcher 150pl

[PhoenixRising]

Hi,

I got a scope a few weeks ago and have only been out twice!

This evening I took some pics of the moon through crappy conditions. Two things struck me:

1 - I can take pics with the supplied barlow lense (Skywatcher Deluxe x2) screwed into my camera, but if I insert the camera into the telescope with the barlow lense unscrewed, I cant focus the camera well enough to take a shot. So I can get close ups but not a full shot of the moon. I can place the camera up to a fitted eyepiece but it always looks naff. Any ideas?

2 - If I want to take pics of stars does anyone have any advice, I have to set the iso to 800 just to get the moon!

Any help appreciated

PS it is pretty misty here hence the fuzzy pics. Plus these are my first attempts in Rubbish conditions! Gotta get the excuses in quick

Pic taken with camera held upto 18x eyepiece.

Pic taken with Barlow x2 lense screwed onto Canon dslr 350d.

Sorry for the pics and attachments both attached to this post, Im still learning the ropes.

[daz]

And learning quickly! The 2nd image is very nice indeed!!

So, without the barlow lens, the camera does not come to focus. This is a known issue with newtonians. There is insufficient inward focus to allow the chip to reach the focal point. The solutions are 1) Use a barlow 2) Move the mirror further up the tube or 3) Change the focuser for a low profile one.

Most people will opt for the barlow or focuser change....

To stack the images together, look for Registax - its free and pretty straightforward to use. But, feel free to ask questions

Now, stars. Its not the ISO that's important (well, it is) but the exposure duration. You'll need to expose for, say, 20 seconds to get a decent set of stars. If your mount is manual then you'll see some trailing of the stars - and indeed if you mount is motorised and not accurately polar aligned, you'll get the same result!!

[daz]

I should also say focus is everything. Take time to get this right, especially on the moon - no amount of processing and stacking will correct bad focus!!

Registax will handle the RAW images from the camera as well.

Let us know how you get on

[dark knight]

Strange, I don't have any problem bringing my Nikon D80 to focus when doing prime focus imaging, I have the SW200p.