Moon from 08-01-2010

[Midpoint]

Taking full advantage of the first clear night in months last night, I managed to get out for a few hours observing. Just before Christmas, I treated myself to a T Ring for my camera so it seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a quick test before it disappeared behind the neighbour's house.

I only took a couple of shots as I mainly just wanted to see how easy it as to connect to the scope and how the mount would cope. However, the two biggest things I noticed were that getting the balance between ISO and shutter speed right needs a bit of experimenting and focusing it much harder than I expected! When I zoomed in on the live view, it looked like the surface of the moon was boiling which was probably due to it being quite low in the sky with a big town between me and it.

So, when shooting the moon, are there any opinions on what the best settings for ISO an shutter speed are?

The camera was a Canon 550D attached to a Nexstar 6SE.

Thanks very much!

[astropete]

cannot help you on shutter speeds, as my camera is preset, but nice shot of the moon. at this phase the moon looks like the horns on a bull.

[Midpoint]

Heh, I'd never thought of that, but now that you mention it, I can see the similarity.

[Midpoint]

Another clear night last night and now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing, I attempted another shot of the Moon.

This one was 1/60s exposure and ISO 400 so you don't seem to need to put too much effort in to image the moon which is great for me!

I don't want to post a full res picture as it starts to show up how difficult I found focusing. For this picture, I attempted to zoom in on a crater while setting the focus, but the edge of the moon is still quite soft so I didn't quite get it. Next time I'll know to check both a crater and the edge.

One thing I did notice is that the bottom edge of the Moon seems sharper than the top right edge. Could this be an indication that I need to collimate my scope?

[astropete]

that to me is a good pic, you do exactly what i do to focus, ie on a crater or near the terminator, i set my camera to centre point focus, and maybe thats how you may feel the limb of the moon is "soft"

[matchew]

hi mid point,quality pictures mate. im gonna make a note of what your iso settings and exposure are.

..i cant get that sort of clarity but will try that,kean to know what iso stands for and why we adjust it,bear with me im learning. =-)

[Midpoint]

Thanks matchew. Having spent a few days looking at the picture now, I think it's probably a bit under exposed as it's quite blue/dark gray. More experimenting needed I think.

I don't know what the letters ISO stand for (unless it really is International Standards Organisation), but it's effectively how fast the "film" reacts to light. The higher the number the more light is captured in a shorter space of time. In other words, brighter pictures. However, as we're not dealing with film but digital chips, a higher number also means more noise in the image. Lower values will produce less noise, but you need a longer exposer in order to capture the same amount of light.

[prbaxter]

quality photos. did you mean 2011, not 2010? :-)

[Midpoint]

Eek! Yes I did, I can never get used to the year changes

[scouse123]

I had a go tonight with my first scope (6se) and a little hand held. Awating T piece & ring for my Canon 7D.

Also saw Jupiter for 1st time too. What is best combo of lens for seeing it on a 6se.

Cheers

Simon

[Midpoint]

When you connect your camera using a T piece, the telescope is actually used instead of a normal lens. So in the case of the 6SE, it becomes an 1500mm F/10 prime focus lens.