At last .... I got out with my refractor....some images from Monday night (17th Jan )

[Cazagee]

Hi all

I had a great lunar observing/photography session on Monday night, the skies here in Edinburgh stayed clear for long enough to set up my SW120ED refractor. The weather has kept it tucked up in it's box for far to long and I was excited at prospect of spending some time pottering around the moon.

Thought I'd share some images. All taken with Canon 550D on movie mode, EP projection with hyperion zoom, stacked in registax and tweeked in the software which came with the camera (zoom browser)

After the article in Decembers Sky at night magazine I was going for the Straight Range. This WF shot puts it in context with it's surroundings, it's 90km long but still looks tiny! My closer shots weren't so good.

Next the craters Pythagoras & Babbage caught my eye

Then on to Grimaldi

and finally Schickard with Schiller just about making it into the shot

Carol

[oldfruit]

Nice results Carol.

[eriwig]

Really nice pics

Would love to be able to take pics like these to share what I see with friends and family but still getting used to just finding and seeing things myself!

[luis]

GREAT IMAGES ! what was the telescope?

[MaCross]

Great stuff! So you just take a movie clip with the SLR instead a webcam?

[Cazagee]

Hi all,

Luis this is the scope I used on an HEQ5 Mount. Sky-Watcher Evostar 120ED DS-PRO telescope.

MaCross, yep that's what I do. Here's a we bit more info for you.

Using adapters I attach the hyperion zoom EP (older one) to the camera then put into the diagonal, got to be careful as there are only a couple of screws holding everything in place. I double check everything is tight. Image is focused using the live view screen at 5x mag. Movies were taken in the highest quality setting then stacked in registax. Simples! Not.... it's taken me a wee while to perfect my technique.

eriwig, yep astronomy and photography go well together. Enjoy your observing and when you're ready to give AP a try you will find you can get some good images by holding a point and shoot camera to the EP......be careful though it my get you hooked on AP!

Thanks oldfruit.

All the best

Carol

[smerral]

Excellent, we were both taking similar shots at the same time! It was clear in Caithness too!

[MaCross]

Cheers Carol! I shall try that method one day on the smaller sister Evo 100ED. Thanks!

[brantuk]

Great moon pics Carol - did you achieve the 5x digitally or with a 5x barlow? And what field stop did you use with the zoom?

[Cazagee]

Hi Brantuk,

I checked the data, I used the crop camera's 640 x480 crop mode on the auto settings. (I did set exposure to -1) The zoom would be between 24mm-22mm, I think. I was just pottering with my gear so I wasn't taking notes. Will take a notebook out with me next time.

MaCross, I look forward to seeing your images.

Smerral, funny you should say that, I often wonder how many people are pointing their scopes to the moon at the same time as I am.

Carol

[Rob1961]

Very nice set of images - Grimaldi came out really well

Rob