Heads Up for Star Gazzers

For father Ted and all you Astro....Astrolo...Astra...all you Star Gazzers!!!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100128/tsc-mars-and-moon-in-heavenly-show-4b158bc....

Just watch the blinkin clouds get in the bloomin way.

Nic

Already got the scope setup in the back garden and for one no clouds in the sky

Cheers - just got to remember to go out and have a look
Andy

Cloud and light snow in Stockholm tonight

Hope the rest of you have better luck.

Cheers,

/Ian

Doh!
Only just seen this! And I think it was clear here last night

I gave in on Mars, it just looked like a blown pixel on a computer monitor, so I turned my attention too the moon, then stupidly formatted my sd card the next day. So this is my attempt from last night.

Very good! What lens and settings did you use to get that shot? I tried with my sigma 70-300 but the results were horrible.

Steve

Thanks Steve

I used a DA50-300 at F5.6, ISO 200 at 1/1250 with my camera on a tripod. The actual image is a crop of the original and has been sharpened slightly. I ran several experiments starting at 1/100 and gradually stepped up the speed. I found the faster the speed the image became sharper and craters more defined.

Regards Graham

You should know that the image may still be recoverable, even if you have used the card since. There's software out there that can pull a lot of data off even a heavily corrupted card!

Itried some shots of this but the metering would only give me a max shutter speed of 1/90 sec at f5.6 using a Sigma 55-200. The image prduced was blown out with no detail. How did you get such a fast Shutter speed? and such a crisp image?

You set the aperture, ISO and shutter speed manually in (M) mode.

Your camera (or any camera come to that) can't meter a scene like this because so much of it is sky (which is dark) and you just want to meter the moon (which is about as bright as a typical sunny day). Hence you have to ignore what the camera says and input your own settings instead.

BOY OH BOY,was it cold here in Bristol.

I must admit,I didn`t have much luck with my camera but I did get the telesmescope out although even with the moon aperture inserted,Mars was a bit "iffie"...which reminds me,I really need to get my backside into gear,follow FT`s advice and purchase the tube and mount to attach my K20D to my Tasco.

Hey,Turboblurb,nice shot...some bloke (Dick The Pic) from here in Bristol did tell me what the optimium settings were for "Moon Shots",I take it your settings are recommended(?).

Nic

ps...I wonder how many shots of the eclipse were taken last week in India,oooops,forgot,apparently you`re not meant to go out during an eclipse lest your arm falls off or something just as drastic...ha ha ha
(no political/racial "ism" intended)

My setting are just what I found by playing around and it gets results, so I'm happy.

heft1 is correct, I dropped the camera into manual set the iso & aperture then focused one the moon dead centre of the lens and just kept ramping up the speed. Images at the slower speed were all blown out, and I figured that the aperture would be spot on as the moon was a small area in the lens.

re lost data, I could have recovered the images, but apathy set in and it gave me another excuse to go out and play.

Graham

I got a few over the last couple of nights - damn cold equipment and fingers - using Benbo Trekker and Praotor screw f8 500mm with Aico 2x auto converter on the *istD with a Pentax adapter.Then I tried with the 100mm SMC Macro-Tak f4 and the converter.
Difficult to stop breeze wobble at that length but worth the effort in a couple of shots.
How do I upload them onto this page guys ??

If anyone else is interested and has the suitable equipment to try some deep sky shots, and if it's clear, Orion is supposed to be a good target on or around the 13th of Feb. The moon will be pretty new, and set when Orion is up so skys should be as dark as they get.

Now we just need it to be clear.......and to be allowed out to play the night before Valentines day.....