Eta carina first light with my new telescope

[pkinchington]

I have been using my telephoto camera lenses for astrophotography. However they did have some aberration issues. So I bit the bullet and bought an apo refractor. It was meant to be a triplet design but I was sent an apo doublet. I arranged for a reduction in price and was keen to see what this 80mm f7 refractor could do (I also bought a matched 1x flattener). The combination almost covers my unmodified full (35mm) frame sensor camera with some vignetting at the very corners. The telescope lived up to my expectations and I have attached an image from only 6mins of 5s subs from my backyard in Melbourne with no filter - but I can see the potential of my new rig.
Cheers Kanga

[RyanJones]

Nice work Peter,

Good to see you’ve made the most of being sent a doublet instead of what you were expecting. If you’re anything like the rest of us you’ll keep biting bullets and the bullets will just keep getting bigger. A great effort for 5s subs and only 6mins exposure. There’s a lot of Ha in there for an unmodified camera. Well done !

Ryan

[pkinchington]

Thanks Ryan,
Can't really afford to keep biting bigger bullets! However I might build a long wide aperture Newtonian.
Cheers Kanga

PS I liked your shot of Eta Carina.

[PKay]

Good one Kanga.

Make sure you keep a log of each night out, target, settings, exposure etc.

And the same with processing.

The learning curve never ends!

[Sunfish]

Great image with good colour and detail. The only lense I have have had great images from is a an old ED a prime with a focus lock and mount. Problem is that they are heavy and it is difficult to add reducers etc.

[RyanJones]

No doubt this hobby can become expensive but only if you let it. The real challenge comes in getting the beat of what you’ve got and getting an understanding of what you are doing. Good luck with it all :)

[pkinchington]

Good Advice - however I am not very disciplined as far as keeping logs. I can see the benefits though in knowing about the data/subs you have collected and building new images from additional data/subs.
Cheers Kanga

[pkinchington]

Is this lens the 800mm f/8 nikkor that you show? Does it give nice stars and no artifacts near the edge of the field?

Cheers Kanga

[pkinchington]

Thanks Ryan, I know with my new telescope and perseverance I should get some really good images.
Cheers Kanga (Peter)

[RugbyRene]

I agree with Ryan. The temptation with this hobby is to try to buy your way out of a problem or to a better picture. The thinking is that the $5000 telescope or mount must give better pictures because it costs so much. I've seen amazing pictures taken with a very basic set-up. While better equipment will yield better pictures make sure any upgrade is going to give you a big enough jump in quality to warrant the purchase price.

Oh and a very nice image. Did you use calibration frames (darks, bias, flats). These will help with the image quality.

Rene

[pkinchington]

Hi Rene,
I used darks and flats - I don't think I need bias.
Cheers Kanga