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Old 23-09-2007, 02:36 PM
DerekDRP
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Help a stupid newb figure out his 400D?

Hi everyone.

I need help I think I got a piece of crap 400D well at least for night time shooting.

Here is my situation I have the 400D a t ring and a 2" t ring tube. and I have the smicht Cass 8 S-GT telescope. I would like to do some nebula's like the cateyes, Boyde's so on, but I have a problem with he 400D, Am I forgetting something?


OK here is the camera's setting.

Iso 800 - 1600 my fav to use during the dark.

Aperture "bulb"

exposer 5 second for short exposer - long exposer for startrials with out the scope.

Noise reduction on.

2 gig compact flash memory.


My problem I put the camera to the T ring and the t ring tot he tube and then directly in to the visual back. but when I try to do any kind of shots either from 5 seconds to 45 seconds all I get is black, yellow, white.


Can anyone tell me why?
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Old 23-09-2007, 02:53 PM
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Astroman (Andrew Wall)
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OKay first of all the 400D is not a piece of crap, most of the time it is the operator.. If you can use it for general use then most likely there is nothing wrong with the camera.

Second Aperture is not 'bulb' If its connected to a Telescope it will show up as '00'

Bulb is under the Manual 'M' Setting, which can be set by the Dial on the top of the camera. If your only shooting 5 seconds you wont get much on the sensor, you need longer exposures. You need to polar align your telescope, if its an Alt-Az scope then forget long exposures. Check that you can focus the camera also, some scopes do not have enough travel on the focuser. If your trying things out try on JPEG mode WITHOUT noise reduction on.

Also check you have the Lens cap OFF your scope.

Forgot to mention try doing some testing during the day, or on the moon, its bright enough now to play with the settings.

Forgot to mention also, dont point it anywhere near the sun or you will fry the camera, then it wont work at all.
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:00 PM
DerekDRP
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Originally Posted by Astroman View Post
OKay first of all the 400D is not a piece of crap, most of the time it is the operator.. If you can use it for general use then most likely there is nothing wrong with the camera.

Second Aperture is not 'bulb' If its connected to a Telescope it will show up as '00'

Bulb is under the Manual 'M' Setting, which can be set by the Dial on the top of the camera. If your only shooting 5 seconds you wont get much on the sensor, you need longer exposures. You need to polar align your telescope, if its an Alt-Az scope then forget long exposures. Check that you can focus the camera also, some scopes do not have enough travel on the focuser. If your trying things out try on JPEG mode WITHOUT noise reduction on.

Also check you have the Lens cap OFF your scope.

Forgot to mention try doing some testing during the day, or on the moon, its bright enough now to play with the settings.

Forgot to mention also, dont point it anywhere near the sun or you will fry the camera, then it wont work at all.
Ok thanks Andrew I will. and yes the lens cap is allways off unless in storage.

btw this is the scope I own .

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98.../scopedone.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98.../lastphoto.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98...e/handunit.jpg


and I've tried a lot.
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:07 PM
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Astroman (Andrew Wall)
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Does the scope come into focus with the camera attached? can you see the stars?
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:10 PM
DerekDRP
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Originally Posted by Astroman View Post
Does the scope come into focus with the camera attached? can you see the stars?
Yes if I use my cybershot and my canon powershot camera's but not in the blasted 400D.

Do I have have to do something in the custom settings? I also have the mirror lock enabled.
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:15 PM
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By the looks of the images, it seems to me that the Camera is not focusing with the diagonal in place. I am guessing that you do eyepiece projection photography with those other cameras? I think the focal plane of the DSLR is too far away from the focal point of the telescope, so no matter what you do with the diagonal in you will not reach focus.
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Astroman View Post
By the looks of the images, it seems to me that the Camera is not focusing with the diagonal in place. I am guessing that you do eyepiece projection photography with those other cameras? I think the focal plane of the DSLR is too far away from the focal point of the telescope, so no matter what you do with the diagonal in you will not reach focus.
Any suggestions?

I want to use the canan 400D for all my photography needs. I don't like using my point and clicks.

And your right for short exposers I mainly use the point & clicks....
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Old 23-09-2007, 03:45 PM
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Get rid of the diagonal and get a prime focus adapter. It will screw directly into your T ring adapter and go straight into the back of your scope. (This is assuming of course you have a 2"visual back on your telescope, otherwise you will need a T - 1.25" prime focus adapter but will get vignetting in your shots. I'd suggest getting a 2" visual back adapter) You should consider a focal reducer as well. It will make life a lot easier shortening your focal length.

The suggestion of setting up and trialing during the day is an excellent one. And don't be surprised if you have to screw your focuser in or out half a dozen to a dozen turns. You might even find it useful to wind your focuser all the way in and then all the way out, this will spread the grease on the shaft inside and help reduce image shift during focusing. Once you are all the way in or out you can start your focusing run on a tree or a building in the distance, something that is really obvious and has good contrast of tones. Once you have focused your camera take it off, put in your diagonal and eyepiece, then count your focus turns til it comes to focus (I'm betting you need to turn your focus knob clockwise to achieve this). Remember the directions and number of turns for future reference. When you then setup at night select as bright a star you can see and then using your remembered number of turns and direction bring it to focus.

BTW How's your polar alignment? It needs to be very good, not just good. You will need to learn to drift align if you don't already know how to. Your mount looks fairly light to be trying to image through an 8" celestron. Maybe consider an ED80 to image through for Deep sky stuff and keep the Celestron with a webcam for planetary imaging.
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Old 23-09-2007, 05:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by [1ponders] View Post
Get rid of the diagonal and get a prime focus adapter. It will screw directly into your T ring adapter and go straight into the back of your scope. (This is assuming of course you have a 2"visual back on your telescope, otherwise you will need a T - 1.25" prime focus adapter but will get vignetting in your shots. I'd suggest getting a 2" visual back adapter) You should consider a focal reducer as well. It will make life a lot easier shortening your focal length.

The suggestion of setting up and trialing during the day is an excellent one. And don't be surprised if you have to screw your focuser in or out half a dozen to a dozen turns. You might even find it useful to wind your focuser all the way in and then all the way out, this will spread the grease on the shaft inside and help reduce image shift during focusing. Once you are all the way in or out you can start your focusing run on a tree or a building in the distance, something that is really obvious and has good contrast of tones. Once you have focused your camera take it off, put in your diagonal and eyepiece, then count your focus turns til it comes to focus (I'm betting you need to turn your focus knob clockwise to achieve this). Remember the directions and number of turns for future reference. When you then setup at night select as bright a star you can see and then using your remembered number of turns and direction bring it to focus.

BTW How's your polar alignment? It needs to be very good, not just good. You will need to learn to drift align if you don't already know how to. Your mount looks fairly light to be trying to image through an 8" celestron. Maybe consider an ED80 to image through for Deep sky stuff and keep the Celestron with a webcam for planetary imaging.
I think it's good I don't know how to check but check this out.


When I was viewing the stars both the finder scope and the main scope was viewing one of the bright ivory colored stars.

and I don't think I need a new scope I love the cass very much.

And why the 2" visual back?
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Old 23-09-2007, 05:21 PM
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If you use a 1.25" visual back the chip may not be illuminated completely and you will get dark corners - vignetting.
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Old 23-09-2007, 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted by [1ponders] View Post
If you use a 1.25" visual back the chip may not be illuminated completely and you will get dark corners - vignetting.
Ok, I didn't know that thank you. and that prime focuser link you showed me looks to be like the one I own.

So what would I need to buy to be able to finally take some stunning photo's and to get away from my promblem I have right now with my 400D?

I do get dark corners but I also just get blank colored images as well.


Only once I got a ok photo. and thats when I put my camer up to the eyepeice and took a snapshot.
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Old 23-09-2007, 06:03 PM
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If its like what you have, remove the diagonal and try it without it.
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Old 24-09-2007, 05:15 AM
DerekDRP
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If its like what you have, remove the diagonal and try it without it.

Looks like I've got the eyepeice project to work at least.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98...myfirsttry.jpg


I know I should have put the ap at 1/4000.
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Old 24-09-2007, 05:26 AM
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ap? the Exposure or shutter speed would be 1/4000, sounds a bit too fast still., by the image it's 1/350 or something close to that, eyes arn't too good.
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Old 24-09-2007, 05:39 AM
DerekDRP
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ap? the Exposure or shutter speed would be 1/4000, sounds a bit too fast still., by the image it's 1/350 or something close to that, eyes arn't too good.
Your right it's 350 not a good shutter speed. it was my first attemp and I've finally got it working.
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