Mildly frustrated

[Space Oddity6]

Hey all,

So I recently acquired one of those gizmos that you attach your camera (just a Ricoh CX2) to then shove on the end of your eyepiece to supposedly be able to take some images.

I had a go last night and, after a lot of tedious fiddling and alterations got some stacked images of the moon which were alright for a first try although of course for some reason stacked images couldn't be transferred to my laptop.

Anyway I went out again tonight to attempt Jupiter before the full moon moved too far South, but failed miserably. I lined up the planet with my 10mm EP and found it no trouble, attached the camera thingy to it and got nothing. Tried a 25mm EP, found it again no problem but would the camera pick it up?? No chance.

After about an hour twiddling little knobs and desperately trying to align the camera to the EP, juggling EP's, torches and screws all whilst getting colder and colder I gave up and went inside, kicking a fencepost in frustration.

Anyone else got one of these things got any tips/advice? Do you fix the camera to the EP before your session or during? I needed a rant and my foot still hurts.

[Catanonia]

Is your mount guided ?

By the time you have lined up and fitted the camera, the planet would have moved out of the FOV of the eyepiece.

This is one of the major problems I found with these methods unless you are independently guiding via a guide scope or your mount is set to guide.

[Space Oddity6]

Guided as in motorised? No it's not. I thought this when I was using a 10mm EP so switched to the 25mm which took a long time for Jupiter to cross out of the FOV.

I'll keep trying but the cold at the moment makes it so difficult.

[SniffTheGlove]

I'll keep trying but the cold at the moment makes it so difficult.

Yes I agree about the cold and how frustration kicks in much quicker than if it was warm.

I don't know but did you try opening up the aperture to F4 and increasing the exposure to 2 seconds etc. Take a timed 10 sec countdown exposure so the wobble has dampened down before the shutter opens and she what you capture.

[neilm]

By “one of those gizomos” do you mean a universal camera adaptor, something like the Baader microstage? If yes, then I can understand you frustration. I use the Baader and it can be very difficult to get the camera lens aligned to the EP. I tend to set it up in daylight, focus on say a chimney stack on a house and then leave it attached to the EP as it is. It maybe worth trying a larger target, the moon, until you get the hang of it. And changes EP’s whist you out, it’s certainly easier to go from 10 to 25 rather than 25 to 10 in the dark with cold fingers and still get the camera aligned.

Cheers

Neil