My pathetic attempt last night.

[Pinwheel]

I don't know how you guys get your beautiful large images. I attach my Nikon D80 directly to my 8" newt and shoot a single exposure @ 4 second and this is the best I can get. The planet is Jupiter, & M42 so what am I doing soooooo wrong. :P

[WingnutR32]

4 seconds would be a bit too long to image Jupiter. Does the Nikon D80 have a movie mode? Cannot remember my exact settings on the Canon 60D, but I think playing around in the region of 1/64th was a more appropriate exposure time (and then lots of them to freeze the seeing so to speak).

Are you using any kind of EQ mount? You may have bumped the scope during your exposure, setting the camera to delayed capture may work, a count down timer from 10s might be enough to stop any wobbles.

Outside of that, nice attempt, nothing pathetic about it.

[traveller]

Good attempt on first go Doug,
Most newts don't have sufficient backfocus, so you may need an extender to allow objects to focus properly.
Webcams and video cams like Imaging Source are good planetary camera which can take short videos and have the images stacked via programs such as Registacks to produce images.
Well done on your first go.
Bo

[Marios]

Youre M42 looks either out of focus or your scope badly needs colmination. Try ISO settings of 1600 or 3200 at that exposure give much more light.

Keep at it...;)

[Pinwheel]

Colmination is fine, it's just movement. I didn't use 10 second timer release & focusing thru the DSLR viewfinder was difficult.

[raymo]

Hi Doug, If you take a 15sec sub at 6400 ISO you will get about twice
as much of the nebula. In my 8" f/5 with those settings the nebula
occupies almost exactly one third of the field of view. Of course I don't know the f number of your scope. This is at prime focus,of course.
I also don't know if you can track; if not then at 15secs the stars will trail considerably. For Jupiter, if you can't track, if your camera has video,
try a short clip, and Registax will handle the misalignment due to the planet's movement. You may need to use a 2 or 3x barlow on Jupiter to make it a reasonable size.
To make focusing quick and easy if you don't have Live View, I
recommend that you get a Bahtinov mask [about $40], makes focusing
a breeze.
raymo

[BlackWidow]

Hi Doug..your stars look a little like eggs. I'm guessing you are not tracking or you are not polar aligned. You must have good polar alignment and good tracking to start with. Then you can extend your exposure times and capture more detail and light. Best if you could post a little more about your scope so we can help you..

By the way ice cold beer can cause all sorts of focus troubles. I have even know the stuff to trip you over so you bump your scope. I don't trust beer or holes... I have had holes appear in all sorts of things



Mardy

[Pinwheel]

You leave the beer out of this, It didn't do nothing to the photos...:lol: