Triple Cool - First Light, First Telescope, First Astrophotograhic Shot

[Jethro777]

Very happy, excited to have assembled the scope properly, attached it correctly, and shot it correctly! :D

Also too excited to wait for nightfall, so here is a shot of the moon.

Shot with Photographic Tripod Only
Borg 76ED
Canon 450D
Photoshop post processing only

Can't wait for tonight. Come Darkness! Come Hither! :clap:

[Larryp]

Great start, Jethro!:thumbsup:

[FlashDrive]

On'Yah Jethro ...Excellent .. your on a ' roll ' mate :thumbsup:

Flash ..!! :D

[ourkind]

:thumbsup: Top shot!

[loki78]

Jethro, well done mate.

You will soon be taking shots far better than that, but you'll always remember that one fondly as the point where you started.

Enjoy it!

[Jethro777]

Thanks for the kind comments!

I learned a great deal last night. Some things I learned while I was outside, taking the shots. Some things, I learned later, processing the images. Here we go :

It's dark. :Note to self: Take that red flashlight you made that week you were bored before all the scope bits arrived and took all your attention. Yeah, remember that thing? :question: Check.

I learned that Mosquito's like to dwell outside and suck blood. Preferably multiple times. :Note to self: BUY REPELLENT next time! It will me save me going through half a tube of 'Medi Aide' with that soothing mix of Chlorhexidine gluconate, Lignocaine hydrochloride and Bufexamac after the fact...

I learned that Bright Canon 450 LCD screen's kill night vision. It turns off, of course, but only when it thinks your eye is by the view finder. So, that means it turns on and off. And off when you havn't touched it for a while of course, some sort of.. sleep mode? Just great. My glasses also get in the way a little.

I learned that trying to look through the view finder (as live view doesn't seem to show me any stars!) looking at a star, is just incredibly neck wrenching. There must be a better way, I would love to have a decent eyepiece to look through that will show me what the camera is aiming at and going to take pictures of! I have a "William Optics 45 degree erect image prism Diagonal", but don't know how to attach that when the camera is on it. If you know what I need to do/buy so as not to wrench my neck out, please share! :help:

I learned that weighting my tripod with a beer barrel for steadiness is a good idea. I used my (sadly defunct) Kodak digital camera and a half attached neck cord to jam under the handle and attach the neck cord to the tripod to provide some support / weight. Worked great! I'm sure Kodak never thought of that use of the camera.

I learned that mounting my scope with a single Parallax Ring was tough. It took about 8 seconds for the vibrations to stop, so I used the 10 second timer with a remote cord. I sincerely wished I had my EQ6 at that point, but alas, half of it (the legs) were still at the Underwood Mail center, and the other half was still in Western Australia where it got split from the first box (As I was about to find out the next day...).

I then, sorely stung, neck wretchedly dragged myself to my PC to look at the pictures that I had taken.

My first shot (entitled "just a line"), caused me to reassess what I in fact had been doing for the past hour. Was this, indeed, something that resembled what I had so carefully photographed? Was it, in fact, because I had forgotten to take off the lens cap? Was my Photoshop functional? After much thinking, it dawned on me that this was the result of an overly generous use of the "bulb" function of my 450D, where the lovely star MOVED across the whole field by the time I had finished. 15 seconds? I thought that was quite reasonable. Or was it 30 seconds? Which reminds me, TAKE NOTES NEXT TIME!

My second shot, was much more pleasing. I called this "Moving Slots" and it looked pretty. It also bore little resemblance to the shot I imagined I took. Which makes me want to know, what ISO settings was I supposed to use in the dark, with the stars? I had so many questions...

My third shot, was called "Moon shot", looked more like some sort of unholy ghoulish summoning, rather than the sharp, contrast rich object I had seen through the tiny eyeslot that was the 450D viewfinder. How interesting. Clearly, I was overly enthusiastic about that "Bulb Setting". I learned to reassess whether in fact, that I COULD take a 15 second exposure on a cheap tripod, was in fact WISE. I also questioned whether 100 ISO right for the moon, given a certain length of exposure?

All said however, despite the bites, the neck and the results, I've never had more fun in my life. And so much more to learn, which is great fun of course! :D

And of course, there is always my NEXT adventure...

[cometcatcher]

Good shots bad shots, it's all part of learning. You will learn as much, if not more from the bad shots. At least you get to see the results straight away with digital. When we used film we had no idea what worked and what didn't for sometimes days afterward!

[FlashDrive]

Jethro .....11 out of 10 Mate for perseverance ..!! ;)
Sounds like a 'sequel ' is in the making ..!! ...have another go :D

Watch this Space eh ..!!

Flash ..!1 :thumbsup:

[EricB]

Great first shot! Watch out, the Moon is addictive!

Cheers,

Eric

[jjjnettie]

You do realise that's a cloud dance you are performing. LOLOL
Congrats on first light. :)

[Jethro777]

Is it supposed to part the clouds, or bring them on?

I've been quite fortunate so far - NO CLOUDS! :D

[Larryp]

Jethro, you can buy a right angle viewfinder attachment for your camera, but the best solution is Backyard Eos software-makes it all so much easier-you see everything on your computer screen.

[Jethro777]

Well, this was my second night out, so a brief status update on the issues that were so bothersome last time, and some new ones...

1. Mosquito's. Applied a fair amount of repellent today, as a result, a single bite and a computer room that reeks of the stuff, lol! Much happier night.
2. I set up much earlier, and had everything prepared well ahead of time.
3. I decided to try the "live view", so bought a small table from Bunnings for about $25 to hold a laptop. Works a treat! When I tried to rig it up however, EOS utilities gave me a "cannot recognise camera" error. Thus died the idea of using live update tonight. The rest of the laptop worked great, including KnightVision, which is terrific for giving you a nice night-vision friendly screen.
4. Had far better success tonight, because I knew the settings I was going to use, 100 ISO and a 1/100 setting.
5. Chose a single target, the moon. Trouble was the thing moved behind the trees constantly, and I had to keep shifting my tripod from one position to another. Determined next time to set up where I can easily see the whole field of movement.
6. Determining if you have focused correctly by looking through the 450D viewfinder upsidedown was horrible. I took about 15 shots, moving the focuser just a tiny bit each time so at least one 'hits' critical focus. Later picked the best image (below).

I later updated both the program and firmware (Camera to 1.01, I think it is?) and amazingly worked. Unfortunately, this was too late to be used tonight, so Liveview via laptop will wait for the next time!

At night the moon is even more incredible. Love it, and my BEST picture so far.

Next step, Live View, moving towards eventually using my NEQ6 mount for the first time, followed by Autoguiding... Stay tuned!

[Larryp]

Much better, Jethro. You must be happy about this one.:thumbsup:

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: yep its gotcha ..
good photo Jethro its hard to get good detail during daytime and this shows the Borg is a nice piece of glass , well done , and I especially like the grazing occultation of a star? , to the right ( south ) of the moons limb , just off the surface 1/8th of a degree or so .
Cool and well done ,,,its gonna get ya this AP ..;) .
Brian.

[EricB]

Nice one Jethro. Well done!

Eric

[Jethro777]

First time I ever shot a full moon, and first time I ever shot Jupiter. :)

Some factors though, might have affected the quality...

- Tripod used, no mount, single shot, RAW, Post processed, 1/250 800 ISO
- Early evening shot, not very high yet (taken about 7:30pm)
- Full moon meant Jupiter shot was probably not ideal, was unable to resolve moons except visually (through the viewfinder)

How did I do? Is that what to expect from my equipment at the moment? Any tips on shooting Jupiter or other planets with my equipment?

I am hoping to get a nice, colour camera for planetary imaging one day, right now, the set up I have is more for wide field astrophotography, and tonight was just an irresistible chance to get some shots of the brightest luminaries in the night sky.

[TechnoViking]

Fantastic shots Jethro! You should be really proud of your achievement!:thumbsup:

I completely agree with Eric, the moon is very addictive!

[Larryp]

Good start, Jethro!:thumbsup: