Intro

[bugeater]

Thought I'd just introduce myself.

I'm pretty interested in astrophotography after I did a lot of deep sky observing about 15 years ago. But at that time digital was just prohibitively expensive. Now it seems a lot more in reach.

So I picked up a DSLR, plus I've made a barn door mount driven by an arduino controlled stepper motor. But my first experiments suggest deep sky stuff may be a bit beyond this simple setup. So I'm going to try to stay satisfied with wide field for now. I would like to upgrade to something a bit better, especially if I can dig up my old scope, but sneaking an EQ6 mount past the wife may be a little difficult :question:

Anyway, I look forward to learning more and hopefully will produce some nice pictures at some point.

Marty

[barx1963]

Hey Marty
Good to see another Victorian on here!! As a visual observer, I cannot help much with the imaging side of things, but if you want to learn more, one of the best ways is an Astro Camp or Star party, and as luck has it, the Snake Valley Camp is coming up in 3 weeks outside Ballarat.
Details are here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=130984 or you can PM me with for any info. We tend to have a majority of imagers, but there will also be a fair selection of big scopes on the visual side of things!!

Malcolm

[bugeater]

It's interesting that the majority are doing imaging these days. I'm not sure what it was like back in 2000, but my guess is most would have been doing visual observing just because imaging was so hard and/or expensive. Seems a lot more straight forward these days.

It would be good to head to a star party at some point. Just a shame they are usually a good 2 hours or so from home. I need to find somewhere dark on the eastern side of Melbourne. Preferably with good trout fishing nearby :)

[ZeroID]

Hi Marty, :welcome: along.
Yeah, a bit ambitious to go deep sky with a barn door. Nowhere near accurate enough and DS generally requires guiding to get any usable results.
An EQ6 is the ideal for most but an EQ5 can be bought a lot more cheaply and still carry a reasonable sized scope. For short duration exposures you can get away without guiding and just take a lot more frames. Don't give up hope yet. I hope you find your lost scope and that might give you the courage to look for a bargain somewhere.
In the meantime, ask questions on here, plenty willing to offer good advice.

Cheers

[ZeroID]

HI Marty (again).
On the lightweight scale there is an EQ3 listed inthe for sale section on IIS for $250. It would be agood starter to carry either a smaller refractor ( 80 -100 mm eg ) or as a camera mount for longer exposures.

It is listed as being with an ED80 but that has been sold seperately but it gives you some options.. Just an idea.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=132138

[bugeater]

My objective is to probably get an Eq6, but that will take some time. I've got an 8" reflector with an equatorial mount, but they are on the other side of the country. I might just get the scope sent over and save the money on shipping the mount. Then I've got an excuse to buy a new mount. :)

[kens]

Now you're talking! Wonder what its like at the top of Donna Buang?

[bugeater]

Not bad I'm guessing. Though the tower might get in the way depending on where you set up and I suspect it would get very chilly in Winter :D Even somewhere like Cambarville or the Upper Yarra Dam would probably be quite dark.