Playing with my telescope

I know you guys don't do astro photos ( well, I haven't seen any on here ), but I thought I'd share some of the first photos I've taken with my *istDL attached to my telescope.
I'm not overly happy with focus, but by eck it's hard to focus without the split screen.

C&C welcome as always.

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/MontesApenninus.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/moon-1.jpg[/IMG]

There are others.
[IMG]http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g109/greyhoundman/M-combo-100k.jpg[/IMG]
8" scope, istDS

That's sharp!!
How did you focus??

Mine is 100mm, f/10 Refractor.

That third pic is the best of the bunch. That poor old rock has been bombarded & you've captured the craters wonderfully.
I've ordered a cheap chinese split prism focusing screen off ebay, when it arrives I'll let you know if it's any good.

Love the third one, nice to see some True 'tele' shots.

I just use the matte part of my split image screen. I've got to where I can tell when it's in focus.
BTW, I don't use an eyepiece. The camera is direct coupled to the focuser.

I've even used a 2X converter on the 8". Gives me 2400mm, F12.

FatherTed,

Those are good beginning photos. It takes practice to learn the quirks of both the camera and scope.

The third one is stunning, Top shot fella

you are not alone, there are others here into Astro photos!

I just haven't done any for a while. You just wait until you get bitten by the deep sky bug, then you'll really be for it!

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/andromeda-s.jpg[/IMG]

K10D with Tamron 300mm F2.8 and a driven mounting.

OMG......
How can I compete with that!!!!

What were you using and how did you do it? Multiple stacked images?

Which galaxy is it?

That is the Andromeda Galaxy, which makes a nice target for fairly simple deep sky imaging since it is (just) naked eye visible.

Equipment was my K10D with Tamron SP 300mm F2.8 lens wide open. It was mounted on the driven equitorial mount from my newtonian telescope to allow me to do long(ish) exposures without star trails. If I recall correctly, it is a composite of about 20 2 minute exposures stacked with a program called Registax. It's cropped a bit but not much, Andromeda is actually quite large.

A long refractor like yours is best suited to the moon and planets since you don't really have a large enough light gathering area for deep sky. Saying that though, I have got some nice views of the ring nebula through my 4.5" Newtonian and that's something like F9.5 so brighter objects are worth looking for.

I actually bought my telescope especially to get the driven mount it came with!

I want to give the great nebula in Orion a go, but haven't had a chance yet.

I'm sure I read today that the moon is at its 'largest' this year, tomorrow night. Maybe the best chance to get a decent moon shot?

I tried that with my Super ME, without any success.

Full moon, ironically, does not make a good image. The divide is where to get a good image, using the shadows. A bit like early morning, or evening light down here is better than at noon.

Digital comes into its own in Astro work though, since we don't suffer from reciprocity failure and can punch the ISO up to 800 or so. Film still wins for really long exposures, but on the order of a few minutes at ISO 800 digital is far better. Plus stacking is a hell of a lot easier with digital so you can afford to go to high ISO and use stacking to kill the noise.

It's amazing what you can get with fairly basic kit.

So...watch this space






I know....I'll get my coat.
TAXI!!