Astrophotography

[Ewan]

Hi everyone,

Just joined this great forum & luving it so far.

I've recently got my old telescope out from the attic as i have more time to be able to use it now & wanted any tips.

It is an old(ish) Tasco 114mm reflector 303012 with focal length of 900mm, i have the original 0.965 Huygens eyepieces of 4mm / 20mm (no use really), this last week i purchased 17mm & an Ultra Wide 15mm Super Plossl eyepieces with a 2 x Barlow lens all 1.25.

After collimating the telescope i thought i would try to get some photo's & video of the moon using the afocal method, i have a Fuji S5500 Digital Camera (no moon filter yet).

My hands are not as steady as they used to be & i will invest in a tripod soon, i downloaded Registax 2.1 (5.1 is quite complicated), after selecting 60 frames from 202 i aligned / stacked them & have the final image below :-

This was using the 15mm UW eyepiece.

Could anyone explain the best way to get really good photos using the kit i have (i know my telescope is not new & not a massive mirror) a suitable T adapter for my camera ? (i have googled this) best colour of filter ? etc

Camera settings would be a great help from anybody.

I intend to use my kit a lot more now, i also have PS2 eye toy cam (cmos chip though :-( ) which fits my old barlow tube & i am looking at getting a 10" reflector now as this i now realise is the hobby i misplaced in my youth.

Apologies for the long(ish) 1st post & thnx for any help.

Clear skies to you all (could i have some as well plzzzzzzzzz)

[themos]

Well done on your first afocal! Since you have a DSLR you will get much better results if you get two adaptors: one to convert your camera's lens mount to T-thread and a 1.25" barrel to T-thread adaptor. You then operate the camera as if the telescope (minus eyepiece) was its lens. Settings: shoot in RAW, focus by using your focuser tube, Aperture-priority mode should automatically select an exposure speed for you, use a low ISO setting for the moon (but experiment with higher values).