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Good Morning everyone and thank you very much for your kindness.
I only just now woke up.
Even though a simple rig and approach it had me up until late with all those little problems that creep in like the camera not downloading for no apparent reason and finally finding the problem..as so often a faulty cable.
But this image was achieved using the little lens I was ready to trash only a week ago.
AND to be able to open my van door and place the tripod at the bottom of my ramp and avoid the mud that is now everywhere just made me feel somewhat it control.
The other lens that I had hoped to use ( the one I wrote about as incapable of manual focus but then coming around) responded to manual focus however the camera must have refocused as the actual image was terrible being so out of focus it was depressing...so rather than fight with that lens I used the 50 mm which I was able to focus without a problem. 50 mm was more than I was happy with for the static tripod approach but I gave it a couple of tests and felt it could work.
But getting a result using a static tripod I was not particularly confident but I was not going to open the observatory given the clouds were no doubt ready to return.
The high ISO came thru better than I expected but the stacked image was hideously blue which I fixed as best I could when in StarTools...
I hope that folk who are considering astro photography gain something from my experience given I did not use an equatorial mount to take advantage of tracking...I did not use the 500 rule to determine exposure but selected 5 seconds because it was as short as I felt acceptable so it was just a guess really. Ordinarily I would have experimented but in these times one has to make a decision and go for it as the clouds will reappear ...as they did moments after I stopped capturing light frames in the hope that I could do something with what I had captured after only 25 odd minutes.
I was going to add flats to try out my new flash light pad ( with built in dimmer ..I even had the pieces of white bed sheet on stand by) but I was tired and as it was I was falling asleep when processing.
So please excuse me being slack.
I used my new intervalometer but as the exposures were only 5 seconds I could have got away without it but I want to become familiar with it as I really hopes to do some widefield with long exposures past 30 seconds which with the intervalometer one can do.
So my message to those folk wishing for an equatorial mount don't wait as if you have just a DLSR with a family snap lens and a tripod you can start now or at least when you get a clear sky. So give it a go..you will learn skills that are necessary when you get to run an equatorial mount..just doing it in the dark is such a big thing to get used to, the concentration to get focus, determining ISO and exposure time, andctgen you get to stack and process all of this will really help when you get further into the game.
Thanks again gentlemen.
Alex
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