Canon 1000d live view

[acme]

I need some help and advice on this. I have just tried live view on my new Canon 1000d. I could not see anything apart from the brightest star at the time Arcturus. I could see faint stars through the cameras view finder but nothing on the laptop screen or LCD screed just noise if I zoomed in to a region of the laptop screen. Wound the focuser in from stop to stop. I tried every setting I could think of, changed the ISO, White Balance even changed the shooting mode. I have had live View working on the Camera with a Canon 50mm F1.8 lens no problem.

The kit I was using tonight..WO Megrez 72mm, Skywatcher Field Flattener.. Cannon 1000d with an Astronomic EOS CLS CCD Clip. The Camera is working as I took a few subs and they came out ok using the quick view option.

Any ideas, have I missed something??

Acme

[Mick UK]

Hello, im not quite sure what it is your expecting to see?

other than planets or bright stars i dont think you'll see much more of anything..dont forget, the only reason you capture images with the camera is because your taking long exposures and live veiw isnt long exposures;)

[acme]

Mick,

The point I was trying to make is I could only see one star in the whole sky in live view mode. I was trying to aid focus before embarking on long exposure subs. If I had been trying to capture Arcturus then all would have been well. I just expected to see lower mag stars in Live View mode.

Acme

[lukebl]

Live view mode will only show the brightest stars. I always just use live view to focus on a bright star with a Bahtinov mask, lock the focus, then slew to the object to be imaged. That way, you'll know that it is in focus even if you can't see the object through the viewfinder or live view.

To ensure that you know you're looking at the correct object, I set the guidescope on the guide star before focussing. When you go back to your object (after focussing on the bright star), as long as the guide star is in the same position as before, then you know you're pointing correctly at the object.

Don't know how everyone else does it, but it works for me. Once you get into the routine, it's very simple and only takes a few minutes.

[acme]

Luke, as you say " a bright Star " I could only see one. Is that the limit for live view 1 star!! That's the point I could only see 1 star..The very brightest at that time..Nothing else, no other stars at all.

Acme

[Glider]

My limited experience with live view is that I often see only the 'one' bright star. I do the same as Lukebl and focus using a mask on one of the 3 bright stars that my mount uses for its alignment at the start of the session.

I sometimes put the mask back on and check focus with a long exposure when I've slewed to my target for the night. Otherwise I don't see the dimmer stars.

[acme]

Cheers all,

Well I guess I was expecting a bit more from this function...I will just use the tried and tested methods as above then..

Acme

[simon84]

I've used live-view with no problems. Again only one or two stars ever show up.

Find a star and get it in the center of the view, then zoom in, recenter and then zoom into max. Focus the star up, lock off the focuser and then turn live view off.

Move the scope to where you want to be imaging and go for it.

I believe the zoom feature of the live view is about x10, the other way to do it is connect the camera to the laptop and using EOS Utils you can do the same thing by zooming on a star but its on a bigger screen.

[adamsp123]

My experience has been the same, only brightest stars are visible in live view, I use a bahtinov mask, go to a bright star, focus using the mask and live view at 10X mag, remove mask find target and away I go.

Pete

[acme]

I thought it might have been the same view as when I use my SPC900NC and PHD for guiding..I can see a shed load of stars to choose from.

Is it the lack of frame rate that the Canon uses or do you you think it's because we don't have any gain control in LiveView?? I was using my laptop and the Canon utills by the way.

Acme

[adamsp123]

You can make the liveview brighter helps a little, just use a bright star for focusing and short subs to align target. After all it is really a daytime camera. The night sky is very dark.

[davew]

Hi Acme,

I'm afraid you're expecting too much. But then, if you've not used live view before how would you know ?

Consider this re your camera lens and your scope.

F stops on cameras are set at f 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8 etc. Each stop will reduce the light by half on a given time span. Your 50mm lens gives f1.8 and the scope f6. That's a lot of light lost. Then consider the CLS cutting light.

Dave.

[acme]

Thanks Dave,

You are right I did not know what to expect...I just hate swapping from eyepeice for alignment to camera for subs, this can spoil my polar alignment. I just thought RDF to the target pick up star in and arround the target, focus acheived via liveview then quick RDF again and start long exposure subs. All so simple..So I thought.

Acme

[Mick UK]

acme, i have the Canon 350d that doesnt have live view, what i do is to use the view finder rather than the screen for placing it in the exact area, first off, i go to a bright star nearest to my target, use the Bhatinov mask to achieve perfect focus, then center my scope on the area i want to image. Using the view finder i can see maybees 3 or 4 fainter stars to help me get into a pretty good position, i then take a 6 seconed test shot which i view on my camera screen this then enables me to get an even better position using the 6 seconed image as a sort of star map for the 3 or 4 fainter stars i can see through the view finder.

It all takes time im afraid and i really dont know any other way around it just using a scope and camera for imaging.

I sense your feeling of disappointment with live view as it sounds like you expected to pretty much see everything you were to capture in the image.

Unfortunately, for us all, it doesnt work this way. I went through these same disappointments myself, you soon learn to live with them and the challenge they present becomes part of the enjoyment of this wonderful hobby.

[acme]

Mick,

I hear what you are saying, I had a 350d and did the exact same as you do now to achieve focus, the thing is I traded up for the LiveView option.

I did not expect to see all of what I wanted to capture in LiveView mode, I expected to see a star or two to focus on in the same region at least.

From what I have read here today the LiveView does not make that much difference.

The Camera is still ok don't get me wrong but would I recommend to all new commers that LiveView is must have..Nope!!

Acme

[lukebl]

I find Live View a must-have!

Previously, I had to keep taking a few images of a bright star with a Bahtinov mask until I got the focus just right. Sometimes I would focus too far, and I would have to try again. Then, too far the other way. Each time I would have to zoom in on the resultant image to see if it was in focus. Seemed to take ages.

Now, I just slew to a bright star, enlarge the Live View and quickly focus, then back to the object. Quick and easy.