Quote:
Originally Posted by EzyStyles
Hi Darryl, answering your pm. here goes.. you might have noticed i don't really do widefield astrophotography so i'll try my best to answer some of your questions. If you intend to use a normal 450D for DSO or milky way etc for widefield stuff through a camera lense, a relative good fast focal ratio lense might be required which might set you back $$$$. I believe the HEQ5 has an autoguiding port. To do long exposures, you will need to utilise this with a guide cam and also a guidescope more $$$$. Before rushing into the autoguiding stuff, get yourself used to taking short expo shots with the 450d if you go ahead to purchase this.
In regards to Hutech mods, they simply replace the original internal IR filter with one of their own either a clear glass or a UV/IR filter which doesn't block the H-Alpha wavelength thus a modified DSLR will capture roughly 8 - 10 times more photons than a stock standard one. The difference between a clear glass version and a UV/IR filter version is that the clear glass version you can take infrared photos with an additional infrared filter. To take normal pics, you will additionally need a front mount UV/IR filter.
I don't know much about the actual procedure into replacing the filter as i havent done one myself yet, but it will be similiar to this:
http://astro.ai-software.com/article.../mod_350D.html
If you live in light polluted suburb, it might be best to purchase a light pollution filter such as the IDAS LPS2 (From Hutech). The only adapter you will need is the camera adapter which either can be screwed into a dovetail, guidescope rings etc.
Ask away if you like.
Cheers. |
Thanks very much for responding Eric, the project with night sky imaging has been developing for a while now: given a boost by a chance connection with a planetarium fella over here, the article in the last S&T, and RB's "emu on the march" image posting.
I understand that a good, fast, wide angle lens (maybe more than one) is going to cost bucks!
Firstly, apropos guiding: I'm wondering how long these exposures would need to be - whilst I understand RB's emu was a quick trial, the 210 seconds he ran it for wouldn't seem to me a long exposure: I'm pretty good with my aligning/tracking on the HEQ5 and don't see, say 5 mins or more, as any problem without auto-guiding.
Would I be correct to presume that with such a wide field, and with relatively short exposures, guidance should be less critical? Manual guidance correction is something that, although really rusty with, I handled ok with emulsion film, way back when.
I may use either the HEQ5 Pro or my new Round Table EQ Platform, both of which I am confident of being able to track accurately with, once I make some mods etc.
Speaking of mods, I read through the article your link provided, and although I'm familiar with electronics and dismantling/reassembling things, the though of doing it to a brand new camera worries me, to say the least!!! Are there people here in Australia who do these mods, rather than having to send to the US?
Reading your reply, and the link article, it would seem that fitting internally the appropriate UV/IR filter would make the camera compatible for my intended usage and any subsequent DSI via my scope, but render it inoperable for day photography.
Putting a clear glass filter in internally, means that the addition of a UV/IR filter on the outside of the lens I use enables me to use it for my purposes; but would require a filter fitted via an adaptor for DSI using the scope - seeing I'd be removing that lens for afocal use - and if I wanted to use it for daytime shots I'd need to take the UV/IR filter I've put onto the outside of my lens off, and substitute it with an external job similar to the original that I've had removed from the internals?
I'm presuming the UV/IR filter that I could screw onto the outer of the camera lens may be different physically to the types that fit adaptors for DSI - or are they the same animals?
I have a Baader 2" semi apo UV/IR filter that is touted as excellent for DSO imaging with DSLR's but I have no idea whether it could be fitted to the outside of a wide camera lens bought for my prime purpose - it possibly could fit in a 2" adaptor for imaging through the scope but then I'd imagine the distance settings for everything in the equipment "train" could be unbalanced?
Finally, taking exposures and stacking are, I presume, still available for me to enhance my shots via the (wide) camera lens method - but is there a program etc that I can use to "scrub" any unwanted meteor/satellite trails out with?
Enough! - I've overloaded myself, let alone any expectations from you Eric: but I'd be mighty glad if you could respond to the above, in your own time, if you would be so kind.
Cheers, Darryl.
The sky around here is good, but I would be taking these shots out in the bush in very dark locations.