Does anyone have the camera settings for EOS 40D

[Frobble]

Hi,
I am new to astrophotography but have an EOS 40D camera and a Meade LX 90 8inch telescope with a canon adapter.
I am having trouble using Live view to focus the image on the laptop using remote viewing utility. Last night I had an excellent view of Saturn using a 26mm eye piece but when I attached the camera and switched on live view I had a black screen on the laptop and couldn't get any image on the screen. When I replaced the eyepiece the scope was still bang on Saturn.

My settings on the camera were, as advised by Canon,
shutter speed was on Bulb
ISO 400
F was 5.6

Desperate to get started taking photos to be ready for the conjunction in April May.

All suggestions welcome.

Steve

[tlgerdes]

Focus is one possibility, your camera and eyepiece will not focus at the same point. You will need to find the focus point yourself. F ratio is not important as you are connecting direct to the telescope. All you other setting are correct.

Rack your focus right through its range and see if you can see any bright smudges in your liveview screen.

[Octane]

+1.

It is extremely rare for your eyepiece and camera sensor to be parfocal.

H

[tlgerdes]

Oh and the reason I said to look for dark smudges at each end of the focus range, is that often telescopes dont have enough in-focus or out-focus range to accomodate both eyepieces and cameras, you may find that you just cant find a focus point without an extender or to reduce the image train length.

You may find the the only way to see the smudge is to take a 5 sec picture at each end of the focal range and look for bright halos.

[midnight]

When taking photos of planetary objects such as Saturn, Jupiter etc and you are using liveview, ensure you set your live view exposure simulation. This is found in C.Fn IV-7 "Live View exposure simulation" (page 163 of the 40D Manual).

This is what I use to get Jupiter to appear "brighter" on the LCD otherwise it is so dim, I can hardly see it.

Also, the above is only applicable if you have your focus and eyepiece/image train aligned correctly as indicated by our fellow members in this thread.

Good luck!!

Darrin...

[Frobble]

Thanks for the swift feedback it is greatly appreciated.

I tried again tonight, conditions were not good but I thought it would be good to practice technique or identify any hard equipment bugs in my set up. I had some great views through the eyepiece set I have.

I did get the image of Saturn to appear on the third fit and refit of the camera, although not a good one due to poor focusing, and the slight hazey clouds. I attach the file which isn't pretty to you guys but its a first for me...........
There may also be information you can see that I can't like hot pixels etc. again apols for the focus. I assume when the CCD overheats the live view detects it and lets you know, is this true?

Also, when I moved to a clearer piece of sky around the Orion Nebula I was back to black screen again. Its as if I have an intermittent connection to the PC, there are no fuzzy light spots over the whole focus travel except on the one time I caught Saturn.

cheers Steve

[tlgerdes]

Well you certainly found Saturn. So it proves one thing, you can focus the camera to the telescope.

On the Orion thing, you will not see the nebula in live view. it is too faint. You should though be able to make out the stars in the trapezium, once you have those, then you can do a 5 sec exposure and you should be able to see some nebulosity.

[Frobble]

Hi Guys, thanks for all the responses.
I think I have found my problem - Laptop USB port power management.

The USB port seems to be turning stuff off and yet the EOS Utility S/W doesn't register the event but yet can still detect the main camera powering off.

I had the same problem during the day when I tried remote viewing earlier on.................
I have now switched off the capability to manage power on the specific USB port in the control panel on the laptop.
I can now see what the camera is seeing in remote view every time I switch on , albeit during the day and on different camera settings !!!!!!

If only it was clouding over again ...................still I will find something to point in the dark and try again.

Steve