Nebulas

[Ingo]

I've been trying to get nebulas for awhile. I have no means of tracking as I only have a crappy meade telescope.

I have tried to get pictures of nebulas and stuff, only to not succeed. I THINK I got M100 or the Pinwheel nebula in this picture, but i'm not certian:

http://hotupload.info/pinwheel2.jpg

I'm wondering really how big these nebulas are to an observer on space, such as the sombrero galaxy, or pin wheel galaxy. Do they just look like stars when viewed by human eyes? Do they just look like a star, then they extend outwards?

What would be the minimum focal length i'd need to get something like the pin wheel nebula? 300mm wasn't quite enough for M42, but are other galaxies and nebulas bigger than M42 observed from earth?

Also, how should I set white balance of the sky? There's tons of light pollution here, so much that if I use my 24-70 at 24 with 15 seconds, the picture will come out pretty overexposed.

Here's my list of equipment:
Nikon D200
Nikon D50
Nikon 300mm F4D ED-IF AF-S
Nikon 50mm F1.8
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8EX DG Macro

[Phil]

good try there keep it up. The bigger the lens the more trouble you are going to have. Without guiding there is a limit to what you can do. The only way you are going to shot galaxy's is to start guiding and increase your expose=er time. Lens size i use a 4" scope at F/5.4 am are very happy at the moment with the photos i am taking. You don't need a big telescope to take photos of the night sky unless you are going very deep with very small galaxies. If you can not guide with a web cam i would get am offaxas guider and a illuminated reticle eyepiece and try to guide that way and start with the smallest lens you have. Maybe put your camera piggy backed on top of the telescope.
Phil

[Ingo]

How do I guide? Don't I need motors for that? I've looked at making some barn door mounts, but they look too complicated for me.

If I take 100 shots at 5 seconds, even if I don't see much of the nebula, if I run it through registax, will things start to be seen?

I have excellent pictures of the moon, but I want to step it up a bit and start getting more colorful things :lol:

[luka]

Hi Ingo,
this is exactly what I have been doing, light polluted skies, Nikon D80, 50mm f1.8 and 70-200 f4?-5.6.
I am really impressed that you did Pinwheel nebula. What else have you taken photos off and with what settings?

I did Moon, Orion nebula and LMC - LMC is huge, I cannot see it by eye but camera with 50mm at high iso and 5 sec will make it visible straight away so you can align it in the centre of your view to take many photos for stacking.

Regarding taking proper photos, see this thread:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=19189
Basically you need guiding and long exposures and lots of money to get you started, I was told that real imaging starts at $2k :whistle:

I am not an expert in guiding as I don't even have a real telescope (yet) but from what I read you need an equatorial mount for the scope, a guiding webcam or some other guider which you point to another star and you slowly rotate the telescope to keep the star centered while taking a long exposure. Alternatively a motorised system will do the job.

[Ingo]

Heh, I don't even know if that is Pinwheel. I'm not very knowledgeable in astronomy, but i'm learning.

Here's what my outside looks like:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8030/outside30seczy5.jpg

Hah...I might buy the min eq and single axis motor and just align it right and do like 3 minute exposures of stuff. It'll get me where I want to be for now...in time when i'm older and making more money, i'll upgrade.

[luka]

What other objects did you manage to make photos of only with a DSLR?

[Ingo]

M42 very faintly, I don't have that picture right now. I wish andromeda was high on the horizon.

I believe that Pinwheel galaxy picture was actually M96 in Leo.