Begginning astrophotography

[jarred.carroll]

I would really like to start taking photos of what I can see in my telescope, but I really don't know how to, I have a canon 1000d camera, is there some sort of mount that I can buy to connect them. Or is there another way of taking photos, please help :)

[raymo]

There are adaptors available for your 1000D, but first of all, exactly
what scope do you have. Some are suitable for astrophotography, and some are not.
raymo

[jarred.carroll]

Yeah its a Viking f8, 3.5 (maybe 4?) inch reflector on a dobsonian mount. with a 30mm eyepiece if that helps

[raymo]

O.K. not a scope that I'm familiar with, so to find out if it is suitable, set up on the moon without an eyepiece in the scope, remove your camera's
lens. Hold the camera up to the focuser, and whilst looking through the viewfinder and moving the camera nearer to the focuser, see if you can focus on the moon[ the focuser should be racked right in]. If you can focus with a gap of at least around 20-25mm between the camera and the focuser, you should be able to get a T-ring, T-adaptor setup to work. You will definitely need a Canon T-ring. How the T-ring will connect to
the scope depends on the focuser fittings your scope has.
Many Newtonians do not permit prime focus work without modding
the scope in one or more ways. If that turns out to be the case with yours
you can get a bracket that will hold your camera up to the eyepiece.
raymo

[jarred.carroll]

Thanks heaps for the help. Ill test it out tonight and see if it works.
thanks again for the help
jarred:)

[kens]

You can also try piggybacking the camera onto the scope. It's a great way to start out as its quite forgiving. Use the scope for guiding on long exposures.

[jarred.carroll]

Well, it turns out that my scope is not the best for photography, so im just sticking with taking milky way shots with the camera and its lens. Im using a 30 exposure and an aperture of 5. Is there anything I should change to that?

[raymo]

No simple answer to that question. What focal length lens are you using?
Set the aperture at least one stop from wide open, and preferably two.
That will reduce whatever aberrations your lens has. The nearer to the celestial poles that you target, the longer the exposures can be without
showing star trails. ISO 800 is as good a place as any to start. Try to
aim away from any town lights. Experiment to see how long your
exposures can be without star trailing. If you are starting with single
exposures, enable your camera's high ISO, and long exposure, noise
reduction features.
raymo

[jarred.carroll]

That looked so much better than what I had mine on, it helped heaps thanks