First photo attempts

[vr4]

Hi all,
Just sharing my first real photography attempts and hoping to get some advice on the few problems i faced. I'm using a GSO 12" dob with neximage 5 in light polluted skies and starting on moon/planetary. Later on i'm aiming for a proper setup with tracking etc.

First up is a moon photo from a few weeks ago using my galaxy smartphone.

And my first attempt at saturn, done tonight on full moon, once again not ideal.


I could not get saturn to focus properly in Icap. My focuser was as far in as it could go and that still wasn't quite far enough. Not sure how to fix this. After lots of adjusting on gain and exposure it still looked like a bright oval blob, no rings at all. Throwing on my 13% moon filter actually gave some definition between saturn and it's rings but still wasn't focused and no real detail showing.

I gave in and started recording and the above was about the best i could do being a complete novice at image processing.

Does anyone know good RGB number settings for Icap for a neximage as it records way too green even though it didn't look green on the live view. I'll be having another go next weekend before the moon rises so if anyone has any tips that might help i'll be sure to try them out.

Thanks

[cometcatcher]

Excellent pics with minimal equipment James.

[perthjohn]

Nice photos James, could you recommend any good photographer as you?

[raymo]

Nice pics, but it sounds like you have the problem possessed by
certain brands of Dobs, of insufficient back focus. If your DSLR camera
is attached directly to the focuser with a T-ring, and will not rack in far enough to focus, that is your problem. Many Dobs are not designed with
imaging in mind. First, aim the scope at the moon, hold the camera up to the focuser[fully racked in, of course] without the T-ring fitted, so you can get nearer to the focuser.
If you can then reach focus, then this is definitely your problem.
To get round the problem, if you are very near to achieving focus with
the T-ring fitted, a lower profile focuser would do the job. Decent
focusers are not cheap though. Alternatively, you can move the primary mirror up the tube the required amount to achieve focus. You can ,
depending on the model of scope, play around with the primary mirror
adjusting screws to move the mirror up the tube a little.
raymo

[Marko of Oz]

I've recently bought the same camera and after some googling I found some settings for correcting the color. Try R108, G88 and B126. They seem to work pretty well for me.

cheers

Mark