Astrophotography anyone?

[Jay-qu]

I cant believe I missed this thread all these months..

Here are my attempts at imaging Afocal through my 8" saxon dob. I am also getting a Tring for a sony DSLR to see how that goes.

[freeztar]

JayQ, that third pic is very significant to me. I remember seeing it from an awesome 8" and then moving to the 24". Jupiter is real! The books I read about it as a kid were real. There was the "big red storm" the books talked about. Everytime I see a detailed shot of Jupiter, I think about that. The whole reason I'm even looking...

Of course, the only reason I was able to see it was due to advanced optics and an understanding of the different lenses' focal points, combined with a good directional sense (using astronomical coordinates...or sometimes saying something like "aim for the right side of orion's belt".

Umm...I think it's about time to sit on the porch and watch Perseid. I had plans with a good friend to go and watch the peak of the shower tomorrow morning, but it looks like rain. So, I go to look, and hopefully snag one in the lens.

[Zythryn]

Originally Posted by Turtle

i found this java script utility for the Jovian moons and i think i caught Ganymede & Europa.
SkyandTelescope.com - Planets - Jupiter's Moons Javascript Utility

here's the raw video. manual focus to infinity, standard mode, auto exposure.
>> YouTube - 20090624043214

Awesome Turtle, thanks for sharing
I am still working on getting some shots of the sun.
I can't use a t-ring setup as the star diagonal is required with my setup to safely view the sun.
I am trying to work with one of these:
NexImage (item #93712) / Celestron.com - Telescope | Computerized Telescopes | Microscopes | Binoculars | SkyScout
Really slick idea, as it simply replaces the eyepiece in the telescope. However, I think I need a shorter focal length telescope as the imager gives an equivalent image size as a 5mm eyepiece.

[Zythryn]

Jay, awesome shots!
Could you describe how your afocal setup is... um... setup?

[Zythryn]

Aha! Well, sort of
I got the system working with the imager. I need a bit more work on the focusing.

My understanding is that B&W images give better contrast, however I want to see how images in color turn out, and improve my focusing.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Zythryn

Aha! Well, sort of
I got the system working with the imager. I need a bit more work on the focusing.

My understanding is that B&W images give better contrast, however I want to see how images in color turn out, and improve my focusing.

where's a good sunspot when ya need one!!?? that's not too bad a first shot der. i can make out the granulation.

i recorded 1 meteor 2 nights ago but i couldn't get it to show on the computer. i'm a guest on the machine & the owner thinks the monitor is going bad. ?? all's i know is i'm loosing major quality from camera to computer with the SuperNightShot mode. i recorded all night last night anyway but not even a dim meteor to be found on review this morn. we have the first rain in a month moving in now so i may not have any more chances at the perseids. rats!

that is all.

[Zythryn]

No doubt!! The sun this year has been very quiet. But it gives me time to get better at the imaging aspect.

Part of the issue for capturing meteors may be that the moon is pretty bright as well, so it is drowning out some of the meteors.

[Jay-qu]

Zythryn, I simply point my camera phone or digi camera into my eyepiece and shoot - it takes some careful aligning but you get the hang of it. The jupiter shot is actually a stack of images recorded in avi format (stacked with the program registax, its an excellent program and free too).

What sort of filter are you using to view the sun?

[Zythryn]

Jay, sorry I missed your post!
I am using a Lunt solar scope. It uses a hydrogen-alpha filter system.
I need to get better with the imaging software. I have Registax, but for whatever reason, seem to be having a tough time getting it to 'stack' the images correctly
Amazing how few truly good viewing days we have had lately, and how few sunspots we have had.
COME ON SUNSPOTS!! You can do it, we know you can!!

[Jay-qu]

I find it hard to stack unless the object is large and has some very distinct and consistent detail. Otherwise you have to do it by hand, which is ok if you have just taken a few shots, but if you have 10sec of avi at 30fps its

I got a tring and adapter and had a go shooting jupiter prime focus - man its tough! Since I have no tracking capability I need very fast exposures so it looks rather dim. This would be ok for stacking but my DSLR does not take video Add to that the difficulty of focusing.. do you have any tips for this shooting method? what camera do you use?