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Old 25-11-2009, 09:27 PM
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Promising M42 with Canon PowerShot S5IS

Hi All, I've been wanting to try some wide field images of the milky way etc but never really bothered since my Canon PowerShot S5IS has an exposure limit of 15 seconds.

However, tonight I finally got around to play with CHDK which is a great utility to enhance the capabilities of your Canon camera (See http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK for details)

Then I mounted the cam on top of my scope for tracking. I managed to do a quick stack of 4 frames of M42 (didn't have time for more)
Each frame was a 1 minute exposure at ISO 200 in manual mode.

For such a simple setup, and with only 4 frames, I definitely think the result is quite promising I will have to try more of this some time soon.
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Old 25-11-2009, 09:53 PM
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CHDK is excellent isn't it.
I use it with my canon s3is.
Really nice work there, congrats on such detail.
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Old 26-11-2009, 01:16 AM
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Nice work! shows what a little cam can do when pushed!
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Old 26-11-2009, 05:46 AM
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Thanks, yes CHDK is awesome! I'll also try using the RAW's next time and of course with many more frames to stack. This was just a crude test done on the jpg's to see how it turned out.
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Old 26-11-2009, 07:06 AM
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http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...highlight=chdk
What a coincidence, it's nearly 2 years ago to the day that I was as excited as you about the changes I was able to make to my little camera.
Have fun!!
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Old 26-11-2009, 07:07 AM
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Have you expanded your ISO yet??
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Old 26-11-2009, 08:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
Have you expanded your ISO yet??

No, I'm not sure what that is about?

Also, since the camera chip seems reasonably sensitive I might like to try attaching it to the scope. I'm able to take off the front lens of the camera, JJJ do you know of an adaptor to fit it to a scope?
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Old 26-11-2009, 11:51 AM
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You won't be able to remove the front lens I'm afraid.
But that won't stop you from popping the camera on top of a scope and taking wide fields.
I tried attaching mine to a digiscope adaptor, which holds the camera up to the eyepiece, but it didn't work out.
If you expand the ISO of your camera, it makes it more sensitive. Capturing fainter objects, but it does introduce more noise to the image which means you need to take more photos to eliminate the noise.
I'll see if I can dig up some astro pics I took with my little canon using chdk.
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Old 26-11-2009, 05:29 PM
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True, it's not the lens that comes off, only the front adapter - got carried away
It's a pity that the lens it not of better quality. There is quite a bit of chromatic aberration noticeable around the stars when zoomed in, but yes wide field should be all right. It's a great daytime camera though, I took this shot the other day: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=53325

I tried some higher ISO settings, but it does introduce a lot of noise. I wonder how bad it would be above the native ISO1600
I will pay around with it some more and see how it goes!
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Old 26-11-2009, 05:38 PM
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You can buy adaptors for the camera, I bought a few for mine but hardly ever used them.
The s3is only goes up to iso800, and the hack bought it up to iso1600.
It's brilliant on macro and the video capture too.
That is why I'd never sell the camera.
I've butted the lens to the eyepiece and captured some very nice moonage as well as video of Saturn and Jupiter that I put through Registax for some pretty good images.
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