What do you do with these DSLR thingys?

[MartinB]

Last night was the first time I had chance to use my new Canon 1000D for astroimaging. I was totally clueless:eek: so I am looking for your top tips to hoik me up the learning curve. Skip to the end if you get bored with the pre amble.

I have a couple of CCD cameras for telescopic deep sky imaging. The Canon will double up as a day time camera and for astro. I wont be modding it but plan to do wide field star trails, constellation and milky way type shots. I'm using it with a Tokina 16-50mm F2.8 lens, an Astronomic CLS clip filter, a little remote gizmo that lets me set the exposure details and do an automated run, a Super Polaris mount with a ball head, a Kendrik firefly dew heater and a neat little snug jacket for the camera. I don't want to use a laptop!

I saw Auriga setting over my obsy and thought that would do for starters. Got the camera manual out and founnd how to set up for bulb exposures. For no particular reason I went for ISO 400 and decided that 3 minute exposures might be about right. I then made the discovery that the stars are too dim to focus on through the view find. Auriga was setting fast, I'd heard about live view but didn't know how to set that up so just wazzed the focus round to infinity and what I could see looked ok at that. Eventually managed to put the info into the remote gizmo. Polar aligned. Got lined up and pressed the start button. Forgot to cover up the view finder. It all seemed to work first go which is a unique happening for me when it comes to astroimaging. Very exciting although my expectations were low!

I'm very encouraged by the result. The stars are out of focus and the processing is a bit agricultural but the noise level seemed ok and the CLS filter did a good job with the LP.

So here are my questions.

1) is live view the best way to focus? Any other focusing tips. Plonking the lens on infinity might not be the best way of going about things:rolleyes:

2) is it worth using mirror lock?

3) I debayered in Maxim. I used the setting for the 1000D but it came out red. The best setting came with the X offset by 1. This all seemed a bit strange. So any advice on debayering these images would be much appreciated.

4) Any other helpful tips?

BTW last night was just stunning. The murk cleared about midnight, the seeing settled down, the transparency was superb and, with little moisture in the air the LP was very low for my location. My feet were sooo cold.

[davew]

Hi Martin,

Mainly on the focus issue, I made a small mask to help me. Unfortunately I've deleted the results (Damn ) but they were quite good once I'd settled on an exposure setting. I pointed my 50mm f1.8 at Pollux and with trial and error came up with ISO 800 at 2.8 for 10 seconds. Some form of focus holder is required. Some use masking tape and some Bluetak. I don't know if live view will detect the energy bars or not. I didn't test.

Mirror lock has to be a good thing. Or maybe exposure delay.

Hope that helps.

Dave.

[George]

Nice image Martin

Have you tried focusing on Mars or the Moon before hand? These are nice large objects that WILL show up in liveview. You can use the zoom facility in Liveview to tweak the final focus. Also you usually get better results with ISO 800 with the CLS fitted.

[Psychobilly]

Don't keep the camera warm keep it cool... colder the better ... Whilst battery life might benefit from being "snug" noise levels will be lower if it cooler...

Another option focusing is focus up on a distant object in daylight then switch the AF off... lock focus with a bit of tape but I prefer blu-tack... tape the zoom... focus and zoom creep can be a PITA...

You might need to Stop the lens down a few stops to improve star shapes

Peter..

[skye at night]

Not sure about live view on 100d, but is 2 phase on 20da, so you can rough focus and increase mag. on screen and then 'tune in'...

I often use a bright planet. mars now, jupiter over autumn months to get precise focus, then turn off auto on lens, switch camera to M and make sure iso etc are all as needed.

I use mirror lock out of habit, or more precisely.. haven't unset it.... works for me, but some say not needed... timer delay can help also to avoid shakes etc.. depending on what you are doing...

Steve

[Mick.G.]

I got my 1000d last November, still chewing through the manual.

Lovely camera thugh.

Mick.G.

[alrobinson121]

Hi Martin,

I use use live view for focusing and capture all my images using EOS Utility usually at ISO 800. I learnt from Gary's website here:

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 450D IR Filter Removal Modification - Canon EOS Utility & Live View for Camera Control for Astro-Imaging -by Gary Honis

HTH,

Thanks,

Al

[MartinB]

Thanks a lot for all the help and advice, much appreciated by this noob. Peter, the little camera coat isn't to keep the camera warm but to keep the dew off it will be a lot warmer than without it. Is dew on the camera a problem or is enough heat generated for it not to be a problem.

I like the tape and blue tak idea but I guess you need to know in advance what focal length you want to be at. Will come with experience.

I'll give the mirror lock a go. Can you do that when using a remote running an automated sequence?

Al, I'm wanting to avoid using a laptop. The DSLR is meant to be a bit of an antidote to over complicated CCD stuff that I normally do.

[Psychobilly]

Mines been down to -15 and doesn't wear a coat... and has had dew all over it on numerous occasions...

If you get a 2nd battery then it will run all night as the battery charges more quickly than it runs down in the camera.. I used to find about an hour to charge and around 2 hours of continous use and thats with 30s gaps between multi minute exposures...

Mirror lock will usually work with the cheaper remotes using the self timer trick...

I like the nifty fifty as its faster than a zoom even after being stopped down a few stops to sort out star quality...

With some zooms precise focus changes with zoom level...

Peter...

[George]

Mines been down to -15 and doesn't wear a coat... and has had dew all over it on numerous occasions...

Peter...

Yeah mines permanently connected to the scope and lives outdoors in the obsy, lowest temp this year was -16C and the Canon was white with frost......it lapped it up no problems

[BlueAstra]

After a battery failure at low temp after about an hour, got one of these off ebay from the US direct, from BestBatt:

BestBatt.com - Canon ACK-E5 AC Power Supply Adapter

Mains power for the 1000D at half the price of UK version. They were very prompt and answered email questions. Works fine.

[MartinB]

Thanks for the tips everyone

If you get a 2nd battery then it will run all night as the battery charges more quickly than it runs down in the camera.. I used to find about an hour to charge and around 2 hours of continous use and thats with 30s gaps between multi minute exposures...

Mirror lock will usually work with the cheaper remotes using the self timer trick...

I've got myself a second battery. Will dispense with the camera coat. What is the self timer trick Peter. Please excuse my ignorance but I'm a total novice with DSLRs

[jgs001]

Martin, to use mirror lockup with a remote timer shutter release, set the self timer to 2 seconds, and add 2 seconds to the shot length on the timer. What happens is, the shutter trigger, activates the self timer and triggers mirror lockup. A second shutter press isn't needed, as the shutter opens at the end of the self timer. As for focus, infinity on all my lenses is actually not with the lens wound all the way over (I read somewhere it was to allow for thermal expansion) I focus using liveview. Set the camera to ISO1600 and bulb, pick a bright star, zoom in all the way and tweak. Then reduce settings to normal. If your lens has IS make sure you turn it off, as longer exposures on a fixed mounting will cause the IS to activate and that produces some very strange effects (it sounds a bit like a tearing sound during the exposure).

[Psychobilly]

I knew John would be along...

Peter...

[MartinB]

Brill!! Thanks John and Peter.