Nebulae and Star Clusters

[Crash Nebula]

I was pushing around my binoculars on the tripod at about 11 - 12 pm last night, around the southern sky mostly (the moon was too bright) when i caught a glimpse of... a few star clusters, a galaxy (i think)
and 2 nebulas. They were so cool! I saw Eta Carinae Nebula, Small Magellanic Cloud (I think), Planetary Nebula 3918, and open star clusters 2516, 3532, and 3114.
Does anyone have any other good spots for bright nebulae and galaxies and starclusters, visible through binoculars? does anyone know the common names for those star clusters? Which are the best for some bino-photography? and, if i took some pics with my binos, would they be in colour, or wwould i have to get a special camera for it, rather than my 3.2 megapixel digital camera?
Cheers,
Charlie

[toetoe]

G`day Crash, wish i could help you with the names you are asking but i can`t. Wish i could help you with the photography, but i can`t. Hang in there as i am sure there would be someone with the answers for you, thats what we are all here for, fun and some help. :)
Sounds like you had good fun with the binoc viewing tho. Good on ya.

[[1ponders]]

Hi crash. Both the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic clouds would have been right down on the southern horizon last night, with the SMC east of due south and the LMC west of due south. Can you describe where you think you saw the galaxy?

Its unlikely that many galaxies would be easily seen through 10x30 binocs as even the brightest are very faint. The three exceptions are the SMC, LMC and the Andromeda Galaxy (which won't be visible till spring/summer in the northern sky). You would certainly be able to find many globular clusters though. Omega Cent, 47 Tuc, NGC6752 in Pavo, NGC6397 in Ara, and if you look really carefully NGC2808 in Volans.

Any pics you took would be in colour using a colour camera. The problem would be holding it still enough for long enough for the CCD to pick up enough light to show an image. What's the longest exposure you can do with your camera and what is its fastest ISO setting (400, 800 1600 ?) That's if it can be changed. You might be able to get some wide field shots but unfortunately even unzoomed, taking shots around the pole you may be restricted to only about 20 sec before star trailing occurs.

A rough formula (if you are using a fixed tripod and not tracking) for stars close to the Celestial Equator down to + or - 50 degrees from the equator is 700/FL (Focal Length of imaging system). This give you the exposure time before star trails start to become obvious. So at the Equator if you are using a 50mm lense or equivalent then you only have around 14 sec. From + or - 50 degrees to the pole then its 1000/FL, so you will get a slightly longer time of 20 sec.

20 Sec @ISO1600 may just be long enough to catch Omega centauri. It should also be long enough for some of the stars of the LMC and SMC to start to come through, but probably not many. The attached wide field image is one of Omega Centauri taken with just a camera and lens (though it was tracking). The details are ISO800, FL 90mm Exp 35 sec. If your camera can do ISO1600 then you can lower your exposure time by half to 17 or 18 sec. But from the above formula to get it without star trails at 90mm your exposure can only be 11 sec (its declination is about -47 degrees). So to increase your exposure time you will need to use a shorter FL. If your FL is only 50 MM then you exposure length could possibly go up to 20 sec, though that will be close to long enought to start to trail.

To do it through your binoculars then you need to work out the Effective FL of your Binocs and camera setup first (this is a form of afocal photography by the way). EFL = FL of camera lens X Magnification of Telescope (binocs). So if your binocs magnify 10 X and you use an unzoomed camera (FL 25?) then your EFL is 250 mm. If you look at this in context of the formulas above you will only get an exposure time of around 4 sec. Not long enough. So maybe you can try to image without going through the binocs for Deepsky Objects and use the binoc technique for the moon, jupiter and Saturn where the exposure times will be in fractions of a sec.

Sorry I've written an aweful lot here but I hope you get the gist of it. You don't need to get a special camera as long as you can get exposures of 20 sec or longer. Oh and preferably get a mount that enables you to track. With ALT/Az tracking you could get up to a minute or more before trailing becomes too obvious (though you might have to crop some of the outer part of the image away), but with an equatorial mounting properly aligned you can track all night if you want.

Hope this helps :P

[[1ponders]]

Crash have a look at this post http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1799 by Seeker you will be able to just make out Omega Centauri below the fronds of the left hand palm tree. To find it go from Hadar (top star of the pointers @ lower left) through epsilon centauri (bright star almost directly above and to the left of Hadar). Almost the same distance and direction above epsilon centauri you should see the smudge of Om. Cent. Its also almost in line between gamma and zeta cent. Check out the above link to see it more clearly. (Image cropped from Seeker372011 - crux on or near full moon .....)

[Crash Nebula]

My dad said that our digital cant to time exposures - as soon as it gets enough light thats it. I'll have to look into buying a cheap one, or borrowing one of someone (i think one of my cousins is a photographer)
Cheers,
Charlie

[[1ponders]]

Check out ebay or cash converters. Or try someone like Ted's camera house and see if they have any trade-ins? Or try the Trading post.

Unless your doing star trails, with out tracking you will be restricted to less than 20 sec anyway so any digital camera that has an exposure up to 30 sec would do. And adjustable ISO settings.

Star trails are great fun, but IMHO I feel that film works better than digital. Especially for those really long shots of 15 min or more. There is no electronic noise to deal with, with film.

[Crash Nebula]

I saw Omega Centauri tonight! I also saw Orion Nebula and a few star clusters. I'm starting to LOVE astronomy!!!
:D
Cheers,
Charlie

[astro_south]

Wait till you check out Omega Centauri in my 12.5" dob under some dark skies!! Then you will be hooked :)

[astroron]

try to learn about observing and the night sky before you think about taking pictures. Go to a South East Queensland astronomical society meeting which are held at the Chermside Library, I think on the third Tuesday of the month(check with the library for confirmation) you will get hands on help and learn a lot quicker and they will be able to help you with getting a scope that suites you, you also can borrow a scope till you can save up for one of your own. Ron

[CosMos]

Hey Crash Nebula. Try building a "Scotch" or Barn Door" mount for your camera. It can be manual or motorised and came across this site with links to what you need.
http://www.saao.ac.za/~wpk/atm.html