First attempt DSLR Astro Shots

[Startrek (Martin)]

After 2 weeks finally aligned my mount close enough to take a few photos with my old DSLR on Saturday night in Sydney

Sydney skies were clear with reasonable seeing ( with exception of my next door neighbour's kids party with 5 x 150Watt metal halide floods spilling into my backyard ) Moon was also up at 30deg E/NE

Regardless of the annoying light spill I decided to have a go anyway

Scope - Bintel / GSO 150mm F6 reflector FL900mm

Mount - HEQ5 Pro

Drift aligned ( roughly )

Camera - Canon 600D with remote shutter release

Prime focus with 2" adapter

Camera settings - As per Jerry Lodriguss DSLR book ( tweeked ISO and shutter speeds )

Most of you will laugh at these first attempts but I was stoked just to get some images

I will keep reading, learning and trying

I know my astrophotograpy equipment is only entry level at best , but it got me started !!

[JA]

Good on you Martin. Keep it up

Best
JA

[xelasnave]

Martin you are a natural.
These captures are excellent and you should be very proud.
Make sure you print up two of the Moon photo and hang one up at home and one at work.

AND dont underestimate the 6 inch ... its easy to think bigger etc but you will be surprised what it will do for you.
And dont worry about stray light as to do so takes away from the enjoyment.
I will trade a dark sky with cloud for a street lit city backyard with a cloud free sky any day.

See if you can have a go at the suggested object for March.

You have got rather decent focus and that is important.

Practice polar alignment but if you dont nail it reduce exposure times to suit.

I set my dslr on 30 seconds and let it snap away and although not perfect I find it very satisfying.

And so far I find short exposures are all I can do under Sydney skies.

Great effort please post more as you go.
Alex

[xelasnave]

And Martin down load registax so you can take multiple Moon shots and stack them...also Deep Sky Stacker so you can have a go at deep sky objects. Both are free.
Also gimp for processing..its free and will get you started.

All the best.
Alex

[raymo]

Martin, Do not think for one moment that anybody here will laugh at your efforts. As Axel said, you've nailed the focus, and your moon shots are
sharper than most newbies' efforts. The only constructive criticism I have
is that both moon shots are over exposed.
raymo

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Martin,

These are nice shots.

I truly wish that I could get my star images and nicely rounded as yours are.

The moon looks nice too. There is a lot of detail in each image to be really happy with.

Get to a dark site when you can, and your head will explode with the addition of so many dark sky objects!

[Startrek (Martin)]

Thank you all for the kinds words of encouragement and advice

I bumped into Don at Bintel this afternoon to buy a 2 x Barlow for closer Lunar shots with the DSLR and he suggested down the track I should invest in a ZWO astronomy camera to capture really good planetary, lunar and DSO photos

My Canon DSLR at prime focus is only useful for Lunar and Star clusters etc..

I took a few shots of Jupiter and Saturn last week and they ended up being tiny dots in the image. The sensor on the Canon DSLR cannot image planets successfully

Anyway thanks again

Clear Skies

[raymo]

A webcam is better suited for planetary than your DSLR, and they are as cheap as chips, or you could do some eyepiece projection with your DSLR.
You can get an EP projection adaptor on ebay for next to nothing, if you
don't mind the slow boat from China.
raymo

P.S. have attached a DSLR EP projection image I snapped a while ago. It is a single frame, so no stacking.

[yoda776 (Matt)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Martin, Do not think for one moment that anybody here will laugh at your efforts. As Axel said, you've nailed the focus, and your moon shots are
sharper than most newbies' efforts. The only constructive criticism I have
is that both moon shots are over exposed.
raymo

I very much agree, no laughing here. Just good to admire what everyone submits up here. I have started taking photos of the moon and think your focus is better than what I have produced. I have been trying to nail focus with Liveview on the canon 6D with magnification and did a reasonable job. I will keep practicing as I am sure you will.

appreciate you sharing

[LostInSp_ce]

Very nice images Martin and there's no laughing here. The equipment we have are only tools and how we use them is our own choice. So long as you're happy with your results that's all that really matters.