Vermin
20-07-2014, 12:31 AM
It has been a while since I have posted here as I have been unable to do much in the way of astronomy due to work commitments overseas.
Lately I've been back at the ep and tonight I had my first go at some astrophotography.
Looking through the wonderful images in this forum I'm a bit embarrassed to post them but hope to get some advice on how to improve.
Here's the album: http://imgur.com/a/V78Dw
Note that the 2nd image is mislabelled. It's not the Trifid nebula. It's the Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372).
Scope: 16" f5.2 Dobsonian with ServoCat and ArgoNavis.
Camera: Canon 5D Mk II with a 2x Barlow lens. Exposure details in the album.
Seeing was awful, 2/5 ( http://i.imgur.com/TqMxy10.gif ). Saturn was particularly bad as I was imaging over my house's roof.
Suburban back yard light pollution levels in Blackmans Bay, Tasmania.
I tried doing some EP projection but could not get the camera to focus on either a 35mm Panoptic or 17mm Nagler in a ScopeTronix MaxView DSLR II. So all imaging was done at prime focus with a 2x Barlow required to reach focus.
Obviously I can do better but I feel it wasn't bad for a first effort.
Next thing I think I need to get going is BackyardEOS to do some stacking but any advice is appreciated.
Lately I've been back at the ep and tonight I had my first go at some astrophotography.
Looking through the wonderful images in this forum I'm a bit embarrassed to post them but hope to get some advice on how to improve.
Here's the album: http://imgur.com/a/V78Dw
Note that the 2nd image is mislabelled. It's not the Trifid nebula. It's the Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372).
Scope: 16" f5.2 Dobsonian with ServoCat and ArgoNavis.
Camera: Canon 5D Mk II with a 2x Barlow lens. Exposure details in the album.
Seeing was awful, 2/5 ( http://i.imgur.com/TqMxy10.gif ). Saturn was particularly bad as I was imaging over my house's roof.
Suburban back yard light pollution levels in Blackmans Bay, Tasmania.
I tried doing some EP projection but could not get the camera to focus on either a 35mm Panoptic or 17mm Nagler in a ScopeTronix MaxView DSLR II. So all imaging was done at prime focus with a 2x Barlow required to reach focus.
Obviously I can do better but I feel it wasn't bad for a first effort.
Next thing I think I need to get going is BackyardEOS to do some stacking but any advice is appreciated.