Advice re equipment for Astrophotography

[Chi Sao]

Hello Everyone,

I'd be grateful for any advice re equipment or a link or reference on starting out in Astrophotgraphy.

I was recently given a Celestron Nexstar 4SE. I have been reading around the forum and searching Google. I have discovered various items such as Barlow lenses. But I am not clear on what equipment can or should be used to optimise my photographs of the moon or Jupiter. Do I need to perform post production ?

I realise DSOs are out of the question until I win lotto :lol:. I have a Canon 40D, a T ring and an adapter that fits the 4SE. I tried taking some shots of the moon the other night and the image was quite average compared to what I coud see through the eye piece. The Canon was attached to the back of the scope. I have seen a book or rather a CD advertised on iceinspace http://www.astropix.com/GADC/INTRO.HTM?gclid=CMC_jq34j6QCFQZBbgo dV2ZnIg wonder what people think.

Cheers

Jason:thanx:

[mswhin63]

Moon and Jupiter, planetary imaging is best done with CCD. Great selection available from simple webcams to FLI DMK and more. For planetary need high speed frame rate so as to get at least a few hundred out of a few thousand frames that wont be spoilt by atmospheric conditions.

[Chi Sao]

Thanks Malcolm,

My understanding was that my Canon 40D has its own CCD. Is there a reason why the Canon 40D CCD is not suitable ?
edit spelling

[Alchemy]

G'day Jason

The 40d is fine for taking images.... It actually has a CMOS sensor rather than a ccd however for now that is a moot point.
The awesome planetary images you see taken are usually taken with what amounts to a specialized webcam/ video camera, the images are then arranged in a program such as registax ( free) which arranges them and calculates by averages the most accurate image.
Atmospheric turbulence commonly reffered to as "seeing" affects the image, if you look through the eyepiece you will see the moon like it is looking into a pan of almost boiling water, rippling etc. This will vary from night to night and even moment to moment depending on temperature changes, wind, upper atmospheric jet streams, topography of the area you are in etc.
With a t ring you can take images of the moon, even doing a jpg you can take 50 or more and also run them through registax to improve your end result.
Planetary photography such as taken by "bird" is at the top end and has very specialized gear to do. Have a quick search for threads started by him and have a look at his Jupiter images.
The focal length of planetary imaging is often done at 6000 mm or longer, but that does not mean you cant have a go and get some great detail with any scope, with a small scope there is probably a limit to how far you can extend that with barlows etc. Jupiter will probably only be a small dot in a small scope , but hey give it a go anyway.
Ask away with questions someone will try to fill in the blanks,

Cheers

[Chi Sao]

Thanks Clive,

Appreciate the advice, I'll try and download registax. I did see Bird's Jupiter shots last week on IIS and on the web either ABC website or Ninemsn I think. I saw Jupiter last week and three moons but it was not in a lot of detail.

Cheers

Jason

[p1taylor]

Jason

Always get best equipment you can afford.

peter

[mswhin63]

Sorry for the lack of detail, as mentioned below a webcam and specialise CCD can take from 10fps to 60fps whereas the DSLR can take a max of 4 fps on RAW (best setting). The other concern I have is mirror flip, some say it is of no concern but could produce very slight vibration, also the mirror has a limited life, so I dont want to prematurely change the mirror.

I have though purchased APT (Astro Photography Tool) and has only for a very brief period recorded image from the DSLR live view. I will be trying it again when I get a break in the weather and commitments.

[Chi Sao]

Thanks Malcolm,

Will look into CCD sensors, when I get some spare time. Along with post production software and settings on my Canon I probably should be familiar with (but am only slightly). Mmm lots to do lol.

Cheers

Jason

[midnight]

Jason,

Sounds like you have enough to have a good go at the moon like me.

Check out this thread which helped me kick along a bit.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=64819

I too was getting frustrated with "poor" quality pics out of my 40D but have since learnt that there are limits to my gear and a few helpful tips from other IIS members have extended my gear quite a bit :)

I spent nearly a month on the moon to get my head around the limits of my system and also how to quickly stuff up things.:mad2:

Best bet is stick your 40D prime focus onto your scope, use liveview to focus. Then stick your 40D on high speed continuous and click away - get about 30-40 (should take about 10-15 seconds) and run them through Registax and use multi point alignment.

Good luck and would like to see how you go :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Darrin...

[Chi Sao]

Thanks Darrin,

I've been reading a few of your posts including how to focus because like you said it looked fine through the eye piece and then the 40D would not capture in focus.

It's a little embarassing but I had to read the manual again to find out how to turn live view on !!

Thanks for the advice I'll have a go later this week (have to work a couple days). I was taking exposures that were rather slow 10 seconds !

Cheers

Jason

[mswhin63]

For you information using Live View along with APT software or possibly any other that may do it, I created some interesting shot. This means I could use the Canon to do the imaging that a webcam can do with a little more.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=637237#post637237

[Chi Sao]

Malcolm nice shots. Just hoping I can get a clear night soon

[Chi Sao]

Just wondering if any one can tell me which version of photoshop is recommended (rather confusing on the adobe site) wife has elements photoshop. Finally any recommended books or guides. Thanks Darrin for the link. I liked your shots and Chris Omaroo's brown middle one was very appealing

Cheers

Jason