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Old 15-07-2018, 12:13 AM
Mandalore (Tom)
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Absolute Beginner’s Astrophotography

Hello IceInSpace
This is my first ever post.
This evening I had a go at astrophotography. I have a Celestron 5se GoTo telescope and a Cannon EOS 1100D.
I have aligned my telescope and started taking pictures of Cadwell star clusters such as Southern Pleiades, Wishing Well Cluster, Pearl Cluster, Jewelbox Cluster. I have a few good pictures. I would add them here, but photobucket doesn’t seem to be working for me.

The problem I have is that when the digital camera is attached to the telescope, I cannot see the stars until I take a photo. I can’t see through the viewfinder of the camera, it is too small. The screen of my camera is almost always completely blank, until I have taken an exposure.
Is there any way so that I can see what I am taking photos of before I take the actual photos?
It would be good to have a look at what I am taking photos of so that I can capture the whole star cluster.

Thanks
Tom
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Old 15-07-2018, 12:40 AM
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AndyG (Andy)
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Hi Tom,

Welcome I haven't been here long myself, but I hope the below helps somehow. Sounds like you're chasing the "Liveview" function:

http://support-th.canon-asia.com/con...0228500.html#1

Liveview is a great opportunity to check focus. You can do this by digitally zooming in with the liveview screen. Get a star in the LCD, zoom in digitally, then adjust the Scope's focus carefully until this star image is sharp. Exposure is another aspect you can pay attention to, at this stage. After that, you're good to go.

Post results in the Beginners astrophotography section!
Party on!
Andy.
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Old 15-07-2018, 03:16 PM
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iborg (Philip)
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Hi
If you have a suitable laptop, look up BYEOS. Very useful camera control software.
Philip
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Old 16-07-2018, 05:31 AM
Karlzburg (Karl)
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I'm in the same boat. I would find a bright star like Sirius and focus the scope to that. There should be a button just above your screen on the back with a black and white box, push that till live view appears and check focus. I use the digital zoom for a quick check. Hope that helps.
I have a canon 700d
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Old 16-07-2018, 08:31 AM
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ChrisV (Chris)
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There's also eos utilities - free. And get a bahtinov mask - I found that the easiest for focusing when using live view
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Old 24-07-2018, 08:02 PM
Mandalore (Tom)
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First Astrophotography pics

As you can see this is my first astrophography. The pictures are not centered on the celestial objects because i couldn't see through the view finder.

I have taken advice aboard and downloaded backyard eos. Next time I will take my laptop into the field with me.

Also Jupiter taken with a cheap webcam.
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  #7  
Old 24-07-2018, 08:41 PM
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iborg (Philip)
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Hi


Damn good effort, much better than my first Jupiter.


Philip
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Old 24-07-2018, 10:46 PM
RyanJones
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Hi Tom,

Welcome to IIS !

I am also quiet an Amature at this game but I've been fast climbing the learning tree breaking many branches on the way up.

I also have a Celeston goto. First question I'll ask is does yours have a wedge and are you polar aligning ? I had a nightmare of a time working this out and I'd be happy to share the solution with you.

Next up I hear you frustration with not being able to see anything through the finder. I'm using a 350d so live view isn't an option for me either. What I do is look at the object with a nice wide feild eyepiece. " goto " which ever object you'd like to photograph and centre it manually. Then go into your menu and select user objects and save user object. I even do a test run going to the user object to double check it is right. After that, go to a bright star and fit the camera. You should be able to see a blurred halo in the view finder. You should be able to see the star well enough to get most of the focus right from here. This is where the bhatinov mask comes in. Get one or make one ! They are a god send ! Once you have focus right, simply go to your user object and start your run of subs.

Don't get disheartened if things don't work the way you want to start with. Eventually things start to click and you'd be amazed.

Welcome to the game Tom. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labour
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Old 25-07-2018, 10:19 AM
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Certainly a fine effort you will soon be struck down with the Astro Fever, and there is no cure I'm sorry to say

Leon
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  #10  
Old 28-07-2018, 06:57 AM
Mandalore (Tom)
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blood moon

Hey Guys I still have the same problem!
I can use live view on my camera, but it is too dim. I can't really make out anything except for planets, moon and brightest stars.
I was taking photos of lunar eclipse this morning. Couldn’t see the blood moon through live view! I had to hope for the best with my finder scope.
Am I doing something wrong?

Here’s a photo of the eclipse
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Old 28-07-2018, 07:36 AM
Imme (Jon)
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May sound silly.... But does your screen haveabrightness control?
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Old 28-07-2018, 08:08 AM
RyanJones
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mandalore View Post
Hey Guys I still have the same problem!
I can use live view on my camera, but it is too dim. I can't really make out anything except for planets, moon and brightest stars.
I was taking photos of lunar eclipse this morning. Couldn’t see the blood moon through live view! I had to hope for the best with my finder scope.
Am I doing something wrong?

Here’s a photo of the eclipse
No Tom, you're not doing anything wrong. What you are experiencing is normal at least in my experience. You may find if you take the shot then look at the pic in the screen and zoom in you may pic up more detail but that's as good as it gets. When you start taking deep space photos, you have to find ways around not being able to " see " what you're taking photos of. Refer to my previous post........

Make sure you're focusing properly, faint objects will disappear when you are even mildly out of focus.

Don't give up or get disheartened, it's not easy but it's worth it !

Last edited by RyanJones; 28-07-2018 at 08:12 AM. Reason: Forgot to add
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Old 28-07-2018, 08:38 AM
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Hi

To help with focus, crank up the ISO. This will make finding a star easier.



Depending on the camera, you may also be able to 'zoom in' on the live view screen.


I am pretty sure the 1100D can do this, but, can't check it just now. Let me know if you can't work it out, and will check on my 1100D.


Philip
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Old 28-07-2018, 12:51 PM
Mandalore (Tom)
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Thanks

Thanks very much for the advice.
I didn’t know you could make user objects with the celestron telescope. Good to know.
bhatinov mask is on its way.
Also I think that if I tinker around with exposure compensation on my camera, that could beef it up a bit.
Looking forward to my next star session
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Old 30-07-2018, 10:34 AM
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sil (Steve)
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Two ideas to help you out come to mind. One is get a magnifying finderscope and mount on the celestron and adjust it to the camera live view NOT an eyepiece in the celestron. If you're taking the camera off the scope and putting back you need to adjust each session you use the combo. A good bright finderscope just gives you a visual view and one that is slightly magnified means you can easier see fainter/smaller targets. If it has cross hairs then ideal. So first off you locate something bright in the sky and get it in the center of your cameras Live view, then adjust finderscope to center the same item there. Now when you slew to something you want to photograph you can center it in the finderscope and be confident it should then be centered in the camera. Be as patient and accurate as you can, any tiny shortcut you take ruins it completely.

Similarly there are diagonals that can let you use a camera AND and eyepiece. So again you need to find a way to match the eyepiece view with the camera view. If parts arent tightened and aligned perfectly each session you need to recheck each time where a target is in the eyepiece when its centered in the camera.

Similarly you can get red dot finders that have a hotshoe mount so you can attach to the camera. And again you need to get your target centered in Live view and then adjust the red dot to align them together.


Basically spend a night or two trial and error testing to sort it out or at least refine a method for yourself that gives you better confidence. If your setup is basically permanent you dont have to redo the process too much. Over time and even during a session your gear will expand and contract and stresses change when tracking a target so tightnest of parts and overall alignment can change so its worth doing a recheck after a few hours in a single session to see what drift occurs especially which direction. Then next time you can pre-empt the drift by starting with target slightly off center so the drift carries is through center.

Otherwise, do as I do and just take a test shot with higher iso so I can see where my expected target is within the frame and adjust where I'm pointing if needed.Then go on to take your shots. I usually do my test shots for targeting first, as many as needed, then i take one more with a torch pointed in front to obviously blow out the shot, then I take my actually shot set. This makes it easy for me to see in preview icons where I switch settings or target. When I go to processing later I usually go through my jpgs to find the one with the best centering of my target which should be where optical distortions are at their least, then use the raw for that frame as my registration target. Sometimes I stack a few frames and then crop those broadly around my target and use that as a registration target.
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Old 06-08-2018, 06:35 PM
Karlzburg (Karl)
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Is it worth getting a bhatinov mask for a 5 inch mak?
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Old 06-08-2018, 07:06 PM
RyanJones
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Karlzburg View Post
Is it worth getting a bhatinov mask for a 5 inch mak?
In my humble opinion, it's an incredibly cheap way to garuntee good focus. Given that massive amounts of detail are lost when focus is even slightly out , I'd say everything you can do to help is worth it.

Short answer : yes
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Old 07-08-2018, 04:14 AM
Karlzburg (Karl)
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Thanks Ryan
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Old 11-08-2018, 11:25 AM
Mandalore (Tom)
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Latest Efforts

My latest efforts! A bunch of asterisms
Next step: how to polar align celestron nexstar 5se
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Old 11-08-2018, 06:15 PM
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Bahtinov mask link...http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles...inov-mask.html

Brilliant way of getting focus, as already mentioned above.
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