First attempt at M42

[baltica]

Hello astrophotography folks,
With Octane's recent posting of a fantastic shot of M42, I thought I might join in with my attempt taken on 12/Mar/06.
My wife and I recently purchased an Intes Micro M703 (7" Maksutov Cassegrain) optical tube. It now sits atop a Meade LXD75 mount. The telescope has a focal length of 1750mm and my eyepiece (yes, singular) is 12mm in focal length. It is of unknown type.
Last night the clouds parted long enough for me to snap off a few experimental shots. I managed to capture the Jewel Box, Rigel Kentaurus, and M42 before the clouds moved in again and spoiled my fun.
The attached photo of M42 was taken using my Canon S60 (happy snaps camera with some manual functions). I had taken the advice of my workmate and used my camera's tripod to position it in front of the eyepiece (rather than just holding it there as I had tried on an earlier attempt). I set the camera's exposure time to 10 seconds, and aperture to F5.6. I wasn't sure where to set the manual focus, so I set it to infinite. I also left the zoom as wide (ie. low power) as possible.
Looking through my eyepiece, I can see the shades of grey of the nebula. Amazingly (for me), using my camera with an exposure time of only 10 seconds, I am able to "see" some colour in the nebula. Also the shades of grey which fill the eyepiece don't appear to have been captured by the camera. It mustn't be sensitive enough to differentiate the shades of grey present.
So, that's it for my first "serious" (ie. tripod mounted camera) attempt to capture a piece of the night sky on digital film. What fun!
Thanks again to Octane for sharing his glorious shot of the nebula. Now I can finally figure out which part of the nebula I am viewing. Thanks!
Matt.

[Starcrazzy]

hi..not bad...can see the stars of the trapezium...how are you mounting your camera??what iso setting are you useing??what sort of camera is it??Do you have any stacking software??.....with the answers to these questions we will be able to help you on your way....its fun aint it;);)

[ving]

is that hand held?
i think someone has the bug now ;)

[Starcrazzy]

hi...me again...i hope you don't mind....i saved your pic and had a quick play with it in photoshop...its a bit grainy but you can get an idea of what information your camera is picking up, but you can't see....i increased the size of the image and increased the contrast and played with the coluour channels abit...see all the nebulosity that is there??pretty cool hey...thats your picture:D

[baltica]

Hey, thanks! It's a hoot this astro-snaps adventure!
With regard to camera mounting ... there is no physical join between the telescope and the camera. I just had to position my Canon PowerShot S60 on its own tripod such that it was aimed into the eyepiece of my telescope. The gap between them was pretty small ... almost touching. Pretty primative I know, but I don't have any mounting hardware to bolt the camera directly to the telescope.
I haven't tried any stacking software yet. I understand there is something called "regi-stacks" that sounds like it is the defacto standard. Maybe on a clear night I will be able to capture more than 1 or 2 shots ... so that I have something to stack!
I wasn't sure about the aperture/exposure time settings on the camera. Is it better to have a small aperture / large exposure time, or large aperture / small exposure (or other combination!). The manual focus setting was also a mystery.
Thank you for demonstrating the use of photoshop to bring out the hidden features of the nebula. Cool!! I will have a fiddle tonight with the original image.
Cheers and thanks for you feedback and tips.
Matt.

[baltica]

Hi Ving,
The camera is one of those compact types. I think its full name is "Canon PowerShot S60". I originally was trying to take pics of celestial objects by holding it up to the eyepiece of my telescope. Now I am getting more sophisticated (in the primative sense) and I have it mounted on its own tripod (which is static) and aiming it into the telescope's eyepiece.
yes, the bug is certainly biting!

[Starcrazzy]

hi,
i think you got the focus as close as you are going to useing that method..with regards to the appature...trial and error is the best way to get it right..but having said that i would be leaning towards a larger appeture setting to let as much light in in those 10 seconds..get the exposure time as long as you can before you start to get trailing(streaky looking stars)..have you tried photagraphing the planets??saturn or jupiter....much easier useing the method you are useing...keep it up
:)

[baltica]

I just noticed that you asked what my ASA setting was in an earlier post. sorry I overlooked that ... but I seem to recall it is set (automatically) to 200. Which is probably not really suitable for this low light work! I will try cranking it up to 800 (or more if possible) and see what the results are. thanks for asking the question! :)
And yes, next time the sky is cloud free I will give the planets a shot. Can't wait!

[Starcrazzy]

yep...crank it up..800 or even 1600 if it goes that far...but you won't need that high a setting for the planets...they will burn out...400 should be ok, or even 200..just experiment with the exposure time..be warned...if the bug bites, you'll be spending all your beer money on the new hobbie...its a deeply rewarding one though...but these days the price of a decent setup is not all that prohibative...but you do have a decent scope...but with that focal length it would make your exposure times very long, and your field of view a lot smaller....but you'll get around these problems...have you been doing much observing??

enjoy

[Striker]

Welcome Matt.

Where in Brisbane do you live.

There are a few of us here on this forum.

[baltica]

Just checked out my S60 specs online and the ASA peaks at 400.
Yes, I have been worried about my beer money being diverted. Fortunately my wife also loves this new hobby, so maybe we can spare the beer money and spend the grocery money on it instead! Bread and jam here we come!
I certainly need to do lots more time reading/researching the various methods for capturing celestial images. It sounds like a more professional approach is to mount the camera where the telescope eyepiece normally sits. For the moment I am happy just trying to do the best I can with my current gear.
Thanks for all your tips!

[baltica]

Howdy Striker.
Actually, I live out in Ipswich ... a bit less light polution out here!

[h0ughy]

I stayed a year there one night on the way to Qld Astrofest:P . Nice start, hook up with some other photon catchers up there and you'll be set!

[Octane]

[snipped]


Matt,

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.

I'm also glad that I've spurred you on into this most rewarding of hobbies.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time outside in the cold. People must think we're crazy. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[tornado33]

Hi all
Nice shot of the trapezium there.
M42 was my first ever attempt at deep sky imaging, at the time I used old fashioned ISO 1000 slide film and about 30 secs exposure, I also used the same method of positioning camera looking through eyepiece rather then attaching camera direct to scope for "prime focus" imaging, as at the time I didnt have the gear to do it.
Scott

[Dennis]

Hey Matt

:welcome: Welcome to Ice In Space - glad you joined the community. I see you've had heaps of feedback and help from the locals already . Great first image of the Trapezium stars with the Canon, the 'scope looks a ripper.

Hmm, 13-03-2006 at 2:17pm - is that office hours???? :whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[baltica]

Hi Scott,
Thanks for your support of my first attempt. :)
The "prime focus" method you mentioned sounds interesting ... and it must be quite tricky to get the focus setup correctly. No doubt there are resources out there that describe how to do it. Also, as you mentioned, it will require some sort of hardware to mount the camera where the eyepiece normally sits. Hmmm, very interesting.
If these clouds will ever clear, I will have another attempt and take on board all the advice everyone has offered.
Thanks again!
Matt.

[baltica]

Thanks for you welcome Dennis!
Andrew (sitting across from me at work) was showing me up with his astrophotography efforts, so that provided the motivation to get out there and "Just do it!". :)
I had another brief lash (just visually) last night for a brief period when the clouds decided to part. Crazy me looked at the moon and almost burned my eyes out. Ouch! I think I have too much light collecting power now.
Also took a peek at Saturn. Probably should have used my 2x barlow to get a closer look, but it was really clear. Yana was very impressed, as was I.
One thing that I learnt last night. I started out with a pathetic polar alignment ... and that haunted me all night long. Ooof! Next time I will take more care.
Yesterday, during my late lunch break (thank you very much!), I also ordered a new eyepiece (to add to our existing eyepiece). After much research and use of online tools, I decided a 36mm would be a good addition.
Looking forward to hooking up some Dennis and showing you my new baby.
Cheerio!
Matt.

[baltica]

Just a note regarding my first attempt.
When I clicked the "take the photo" button on my camera, I probably induced a few seconds of vibrations ... which might explain some of the blurriness in the photo.
My camera has the feature of delaying the photo taking for a few seconds after you press the button. This is what I should have used to allow the vibrations to die down. Ooof!
Thanks to Andrew (Middy) for pointing this out.

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

I can loan you a Meade LPI CMOS camera for imaging the Moon and Planets. It simply plugs into your focuser, replacing the eyepiece. This will make imaging more straightforward as the LPI will track with the mount – no more fiddly tripods and constant nudging! The LPI connects to a computer via the USB port and it is a very nice and easy to use camera. You should be able to get some good images of Saturn, Jupiter and Lunar craters...once we get some clear skies, that is.

This is termed “Prime Focus” by the way, where the ccd chip is placed in the focuser at the prime focus of the main mirror. Good polar alignment helps to minimize the drift of the image across the ccd chip field of view.

We'll arrange a session as soon as the weather is suitable. Say hi to Andrew.

Cheers

Dennis

[baltica]

Hello again Dennis!
First up, Andrew says "Hi!"
Next, thank you very much for your kind offer of loaning me your Meade LPI camera. It certainly would be really groovy to trial! Unfortunately, unless USB can operate over a distance of 20 meters, my PC is static ... and my laptop expired a year ago (RIP). Ooof! But that's ok... Yana and I are very happy just doing visual observing (for the moment) with the occassional lash at budget astrophotography. :)
Thanks again!
Matt.