First Image.

[Jeff RV]

My first image of moon,Tweaked a bit with Adobe, Well a bit of it anyway! Used Meade DSI with LX90.Think i may be in the market for a focal reducer?

[Jamie]

Nice one Jeff.

That is a good first moon image (better than miy first one) well done.

A tip for ya (spend a little more time with the focusing)

[geppetto]

Great start Jeff 8)

Bit more practice with focus...

Look forward to your next batch

[Jeff RV]

Cheers,Thats the best focus i could acheave,I spent ages trying, In terrestrial things don't get much better even at 60'.Any ideas?

[Jamie]

Every time you focus it will appear a little different because of the seeing conditions.

Be patient and persevere it will come for you.

[Jeff RV]

The DSI has a IR filter installed,Should i leave this in? only not tried it without it

[Jamie]

You have to try out all possible configurations.

Then just use the one that suits the best.

[GazOC]

Cheers,Thats the best focus i could acheave,I spent ages trying, In terrestrial things don't get much better even at 60'.Any ideas?

Put a clothes peg on the focusing knob and then fine focus by just touching the edge.

Great start BTW, keep 'em coming.

[Jeff RV]

OK cheers all,I'll give it another wirl tomorrow its gone cloudy now.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Could be bad seeing, as in the focus goes all wierd and will NOT stay put. In that case, you just have to wait for another day. It's caused by atmospheric turbulence or having your 'scope warm in a cold outside. Either way, you did get an image and that's what counts. Your first image will be special to you, but maybe not to the rest of us. Treasure your first image until you do better and then keep it until you can laugh at it, then still keep it. This hobby is demanding of time, effort and cash, so the results are, to me at least, worth hanging on to. You will get much better images in the very near future, you just have to try lots of stuff until it works.

Tips:-

If the image is all wobbly, it's not going to be good, but have a go anyway.

Allow time for the 'scope to cool before you focus and do any imaging.

Play with the settings, the specifics depend upon your setup and local seeing conditions.

Post as many images as you can with details of the settings. It helps you, and us, to fine tune where you need to be.

Have fun, enjoy it, and post the results.

Don't get fed up that your images aren't up amongst the Hubble crowd, very few can get there and there's loads of room downstairs for the rest of us.

If you have a problem, ASK!

Enjoy yourself,

Captain Chaos

[Caz]

If you can see past the fact that the image isn't in focus, you did capture some nice depth to those craters...

Caz

[Jeff RV]

Good morning all, Thanks for your nice instructive comments and please keep them coming, as the more info you give the better i may become. The moon was quite low on the horizon may'be i need to wait until its up a bit for less air turbulance? Can anyone tell me what magnification it was? Focal length is 3048 ccd was straight in the back of the micro focuser. How do i work that out? As unlike an EP there's no focal length given. TAKE IT WON'T MAKE IMAGE OF THE MONTH THEN HA HA! Jeff..

[Jamie]

Jeff it also looks like you have quite a few dust bunnies to deal with too.

I recomend that you clean the chip before you take any more images.

[Jeff RV]

Yes, the dust is in the ota,I noticed it after i screwed the balance rails on! Its mainly fragments of alloy on the correction plate and on the secondary mirror....I've been advised to "let it fall off of its own accord its only static holding it there",But i made the mistake and parked the scope vertical secondary down, Don't fancy messing about in the ota.....Jeff.

[audiobull]

:moon:

i think you done well i wish i could take pictures.i think i will have to invest in a half decent camera after new year.keep taking and practicing.what scope and camera setup do you have?

[GazOC]

The easiest/ cheapest way in is to get a Phillps Toucam, they go for around £40 and give cracking results.

[CH]

In my extremely inexperienced opinion (complete nu be), you have concentrated more on magnification than quality ( the reason I say this is that I've spent a lot of time recently looking at the moon using high magnification) these images are not as good as lower magnification.

[Ambermile]

Yes, the dust is in the ota,I noticed it after i screwed the balance rails on! Its mainly fragments of alloy on the correction plate and on the secondary mirror....I've been advised to "let it fall off of its own accord its only static holding it there",But i made the mistake and parked the scope vertical secondary down, Don't fancy messing about in the ota.....Jeff.

No, the dust bunnies are either on the ccd or the IR filter. Stuff in the OTA will make no difference as it will be too far away to be in focus.

Nice pic though. Incidentally, mag would be roughly that from a 6mm EP.

Arthur

[Jeff RV]

Hi all,Thanks Ben welome aboard. I have a Meade 12" LX90 and a meade ccd...Yes i think your right CH, the mag was to high for conditions, The ccd imager is i've read! equivalent to a 9mm ep but if Arthur's right and with a focal length of 3048mm at f10 it gave me (338.6x) or (508x) the ccd was straight in the back of scope,Thats the lowest possible mag, Hence the need for a focal reducer!...Ive cleaned all but in the ota.if i rotate the imager the marks don't rotate with it! This is why i suspect the secondary mirror can't see though!, but i shone a torch in front of the correcting plate and was horrified at the amount of Rubbish in there, and yet i keep it covered at all times apart from use, and use extreme care even when changing ep's etc? there's quite a bit on the primary to...What a downer!.... Where's my 60mm refractor...Think im going to have to operate with a tremble....Cheers & clear skies to all....Jeff.